London Porter malts 1880 - 1899

No surprise that everyone was sticking with the Holy Trinity of London Porter malts: pale, brown and black. Despite all the upheavals in UK brewing in the 19th century, London brewers remained faithful to their three favourite malts. It’s one of the big constants. Not just in the 19th century, but right through until after WW II.

The proportions of the three malts do vary quite a bit between the brewers and over time. Even the base malt, where the lowest is well under 50% and the highest over 80%. Though in the case of the latter, that’s partly on account of Whitbread eschewing both adjuncts and sugar.

Brown malt ranges from 8% to over 20%. Enough of a difference to have a big impact on the character of the finished beer. With black malt the variation is even greater. A factor of five divides the low of 2% and high of 10%. In general, there seems to have been a reduction in the percentage of brown malt and an increase in that of black malt as the final decades of the 19th century ticked by.

Overall, the percentage of malt in the grist was high, averaging over 85%. Whitbread brewing all-malt influenced that figure.

London Porter malts 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	total malt
1887	Fullers	Porter	52.44%	20.98%	6.77%	80.19%
1893	Fullers	Porter	55.60%	18.07%	6.08%	79.75%
1897	Fullers	Porter	54.36%	18.56%	1.99%	74.91%
1880	Truman	Runner	43.88%	13.71%	5.48%	63.07%
1890	Truman	Runner	63.65%	12.97%	7.66%	84.28%
1895	Truman	Runner	68.14%	14.96%	9.14%	92.24%
1899	Truman	Runner	55.00%	13.75%	10.00%	78.75%
1880	Whitbread	P	80.83%	11.67%	7.50%	100.00%
1885	Whitbread	P	70.77%	19.23%	10.00%	100.00%
1890	Whitbread	P	83.53%	8.24%	8.24%	100.00%
1895	Whitbread	P	81.72%	8.60%	9.68%	100.00%
	Average		64.54%	14.61%	7.50%	86.65%
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.