I haven't looked at the manuscript for a while, being busy with other books. It's in a funny state. Some bits are pretty much done. In particular, the introductory sections about the industry, ingredients, equipment and processes. Then there are the beer styles. Ranging from finished to not started.
I couldn't help tinkering a bit as I looked through. Especially bits which I could tell were taken from "Beer, Ale and Malt Liquor"manuscript, which I wrote more than a decade ago. It reads really weird to me. Not how I would write now at all.
Anyway, on with the book excerpt.
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 | |
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5 comments:
It was around this time porter really took off in Scandinavia. Sweden had seven dedicated porter breweries in the 1880's (which is not too bad for a population one tenth of that of the UK), and many more brewed porter along with other types of beer. Sales of Carnegie porter peaked in 1916, although by that time there were not much competition, in part because they had paid some of the major competitors to stop brewing porter.
How could a country as puritanical with the cratur as Sweden have interesting beer.
Oscar
Although most Swedish drinkers were only interested in vodka, there was apparently quite some interest in both British and German beer styles. The anti-alcohol lobby didn't really have their way until the early 1900's. Beer above 4,4% abv was prohibited in 1922.
That is a shame.
Oscar
I wonder if the Porter brewing at this time on the IoW, might have had something to do with the Islands proximity, to the Naval & other Services bases in the Portsmouth & Gosport areas - a very short ferry crossing over the Solent. I also think there was an extraordinarily high proportion of pubs in Portsmouth (given it was a relatively small - island - city) up until perhaps even the mid 20th century - for similar reasons. Sev
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