London Porter adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899

You can probably tell that I'm cracking on with my book after next. More than 10,000 words over the last few days. Admittedly a lot nicked from a couple of remarkably useful old blog posts. I'd forgotten writing them and only stumbled on them by chance. Saved me hours of work.

I've been working on the London Porter section. Fairly obviously, if you've been paying attention to some recent posts. I banged together some of the tables while in the USA recently. I'm really living on the edge when I travel. Fiddling around with spreadsheets. Wild, man.

With one exception, “Black Sacc.”, none of the sugars are given a name. Chances are the unnamed sugars weren’t really pale, as that would lighten the colour too much. And people expected their Porters dark. But it’s anyone’s guess really as to what they were. Possibly some sort of invert sugar.

To call the quantity of sugar used a bit variable would be a huge understatement. From nothing in the Whitbread examples to more than a third in a one of Truman beers. While fifteen years later it was down to less than 10%. All over the place, really.

Adjuncts only pop up in one, the 1899 Truman. In the form of the brewers’ favourite: flaked maize.

London Porter adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	flaked maize	Black Sacc.	other sugar	total sugar
1887	Fullers	Porter			19.81%	19.81%
1893	Fullers	Porter		20.25%		20.25%
1897	Fullers	Porter			25.09%	25.09%
1880	Truman	Runner			36.93%	36.93%
1890	Truman	Runner			15.72%	15.72%
1895	Truman	Runner			7.76%	7.76%
1899	Truman	Runner	8.75%		12.50%	12.50%
1880	Whitbread	P
1885	Whitbread	P
1890	Whitbread	P
1895	Whitbread	P
	Average		8.75%			19.72%
Sources:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/082, B/THB/C/092, B/THB/C/096 and B/THB/C/102.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/075, LMA/4453/D/09/080, LMA/4453/D/09/084 and LMA/4453/D/09/090.