Saturday 13 May 2023

Let's Brew - 1884 Mew Langton Porter

One of the big surprises of Mew Langton’s records was the amount of Porter they brewed. Outside of London and Ireland, Porter wasn’t that popular any more. Not sure why that was. Maybe the Isle of Wight was just a bit behind the times.

Mew’s Porter looks very similar to London-brewed versions, both in terms of gravity and recipe. For a start, there’s 10% brown malt. Most brewers outside London had dropped brown malt long before the 1880s, preferring a simple pale and black malt combination.

In addition to the malts, there’s a sugar described as “Natal”. I’ve assumed that’s some sort of raw cane sugar. Which seems reasonable enough.

The only real difference with a London Porter is the hopping, which is noticeably more restrained. Half of the hops were from Kent, the rest split between America and Bavaria. All from the 1883 crop. 

1884 Mew Langton Porter
pale malt 7.75 lb 68.13%
brown malt 1.125 lb 9.89%
black malt 0.75 lb 6.59%
brown sugar 1.75 lb 15.38%
Cluster 90 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.50 oz
Hallertau 30 mins 0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1055
FG 1013
ABV 5.56
Apparent attenuation 76.36%
IBU 41
SRM 30
Mash at 147º F
Sparge at 175º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 64º F
Yeast Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley ale

5 comments:

PeeBee said...

Mew also brewed "Export Porter" and "Gibraltar Porter" at that time (if we're lucky you'll post a "Let's Brew" for them too), the latter may have had military connections and with Portsmouth next door perhaps that explains why they hung on to "old style" porters? (The military like new more effective ways of killing people but are otherwise stuck in their ways and perhaps didn't want their "Porter" to change?).

Natal was a region in S. Africa famous at that time for sugar cane. Gathered by cheap, not well treated, migrant labour from India. So definitely reasonable to suggest a type of cane sugar. But what form? "Brown"?

Anonymous said...

What was a nourishing stout Ron?

Ron Pattinson said...


Anonymous,

quite often, Nourishing Stout was bottled Porter.

Ron Pattinson said...

PeeBee,

I might publish the other Porter recipes. Though the Export and Gibraltar Porters are pretty much identical.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so just plain porter. This example is close to a modern example in IBU so won’t take the mouth off you.