Let's Brew Wednesday - 1888 Tetley Porter

Look through the other recipes and it will soon become apparent that Porter wasn’t brewed much outside London by the 1880s. And Ireland, of course.

Tetley’s is the only provincial English example I have. And all the more interesting for it. Part of the reason for the style’s apparent disappearance from large parts of the country is that the name was only used for draught beer.

By this point, a bottled beer was almost never called Porter. Even if it was the bottled version of a brewer’s Porter, it would be called Cooper, Nourishing Stout, Single Stout or other such nonsense. It’s just like Mild. Which was also almost bever used for a bottled beer in the 20th century. Instead, being called Brown Ale or Family Ale.

Getting back to Tetley Porter, it looks remarkably similar to a London Porter. Compare it with 1886 Barclay Perkins Hhd Porter. Very similar, other than the hopping. Which, naturally, was heavier in the Barclay Perkins beer, as that was a Keeper.

There are the same four malts: pale, brown, amber and black. The presence of amber mostly indicated a posher beer in London, where most examples of Porter only had the other three.

The hopping was simple by Tetley standards. Worcester and Austrian hops, both from the 1886 harvest. I wonder what the Austrian ones were. I’ve put Saaz, but those were usually described as “Bohemian”. As is the case in other Tetley’s records. Styrian, maybe?

1888 Tetley Porter
pale malt	9.75 lb	76.47%
brown malt	1.00 lb	7.84%
black malt	1.00 lb	7.84%
amber malt	1.00 lb	7.84%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.50 oz
Saaz 120 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1053
FG	1016
ABV	4.89
Apparent attenuation	69.81%
IBU	37
SRM	32
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	65º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Timothy Taylor