Output of the largest London Porter brewers 1817 - 1840

Brewing in London was being performed on an ever-increasing scale. Already in 1817 there were six breweries producing over 100,000 barrels a year. By 1840, my favourite, Barclay Perkins, was bashing out over 400,000 barrels annually.

Before 1830, this was all Black Beer. It’s only in the 1830s that Porter brewers also turned their hands to Ales. Even then, they were only producing tiny quantities of them.  The figures in the table, then, are almost all Porter and Stout.

The largest breweries, for example Barclay Perkins, were so impressive that they became tourist attractions, with visitors fascinated by their enormous size.

"A VISIT TO BARCLAY, PERKINS, AND CO.
On the southern banks of the Thames, between Southwark and London bridges, lies the hugest brewery in the world—the chief of those establishments which have made this great city the headquarters of malt liquor as well as civilisation. Ask any of the "fellowship porters" the way to BARCLAY, PERKINS, AND Co.'s, and there, from any one of these unaffected lovers of "heavy wet," you will get a direct direction. "There, Sir, right down afore ye!" and truly it would be difficult to miss a sight of the brewery, the buildings of which cover eleven acres of ground. But how to find out the entrance is the puzzle; you must thread your way through narrow lanes, thronged with drays, while a rumbling sound reminds one of barrels and hogsheads, and the olfactory organs testify that a brewery is not only near, but round about - for communication between the buildings is maintained by suspension bridges over the lanes. At last we arrive at the gateway; don't you see the ANCHOR, Sir, the symbol of Barclay, Perkins, and Co.? All brewers have their sign - their symbol - their emblem; and the anchor of Barclay, Perkins, and Co., is stamped, twisted, and interwoven on or in everything appertaining to the brewery - the very lamp-posts are propped up by the anchor."
"The London Saturday Journal" 1839, page 268.  

Output of the largest London Porter brewers 1817 - 1840 (barrels)
brewer	1817	1819	1825	1828	1830	1833	1835	1837	1840
Barclay Perkins	281,484	320,090	357,446	305,937	262,306	315,784	382,063	354,360	400,838
Whitbread	151,888	181,344	203,842	180,843	144,104	187,070	186,206	180,512	191,980
Truman	168,757	210,967	223,766	205,655	167,542	226,924	280,075	303,590	338,773
John Calvert	98,301	99,286	105,206	90,992	61,236
Reid	157,131	183,673	190,253	170,432	127,220	150,865	181,187	162,840	195,169
Combe -Delafield	110,776	133,008	146,743	114,795	104,722
Hoare	60,307	63,377	63,883	68,381	57,073
H. Meux	124,823	111,138	108,768	90,239	60,087
Sources:
“The British Brewing Industry 1830-1980”. T R Gourvish & R G Wilson, 1994, pages 610-612.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/010, LMA/4453/D/09/012, LMA/4453/D/09/016, LMA/4453/D/09/021 and LMA/4453/D/09/023.