Murphy’s records are so much fun. Because they’re split across brewing books and fermentation books. With the former not even including the OG. Matching up entries from the two books is a royal pain in the arse.
The vast majority of the beer Murphy brewed was Porter. And it looks very much like a London Porter, in terms of gravity. Though not in terms of grist. As, unlike London brewers, Murphy didn’t use any brown malt. Instead, going for simple pale and black malt. Along with some sugar.
Talking of the sugar, I’ve no idea of the type. I’m also not totally sure of the quantity. I’ve assumed that it’s given in hundredweights. Bu, given malt is listed in barrels rather than quarters, I’m not totally sure.
I’m equally vague about the hops. All I know for certain is that here were two types. Only the growers name is given. My guess is that they were all English.
| 1878 Murphy Porter | ||
| pale malt | 7.75 lb | 72.63% |
| black malt | 0.67 lb | 6.28% |
| No. 3 invert sugar | 2.25 lb | 21.09% |
| Fuggles 100 mins | 2.00 oz | |
| Fuggles 60 mins | 2.00 oz | |
| Fuggles 30 mins | 2.00 oz | |
| Fuggles dry hops | 0.75 oz | |
| OG | 1052.5 | |
| FG | 1010.5 | |
| ABV | 5.56 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 80.00% | |
| IBU | 63 | |
| SRM | 28.5 | |
| Mash at | 152º F | |
| Sparge at | 176º F | |
| Boil time | 100 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 59º F | |
| Yeast | WLP004 Irish Stout | |
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5 comments:
Nice work, Ron! This is around the time my paternal ancestors emigrated from Ireland to England. Would Murphy's have been available locally, regionally, or nationally at this point in time? Do you have any data on the number and size of brewers in Ireland at the end of the C19? Apologies if you've written on that already.
Not sure how widely available Murphy's beer was. hey were a decent size: in 1882 they brewed 121,000 barrels. I don't think I've seen stats on he output of Irish brewers.
Were Murphy's ageing porter in a similar way to Guinness?
Thanks Ron. I'm intrigued about how the Irish market developed - presumably there were lots of small brewers before the market consolidated and Messrs Guinness, Murphys and Beamish became dominant; ditto the evolution of the market wrt beer types. Wondering if it was similar to the UK market, and if not, why. There's a PhD thesis in there I'd imagine comparing the evolution of the Irish and other British Isles markets in the C19 and C20. Hoping to see more of these Irish recipes.
Their heyday might have been the 1910’s and 1920’s for political reasons.
Oscar
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