Whitbread Porter 1805 - 1891

It's TT. No, not Barclay Perkins Porter.But close. TT - table time.

A few of you seem to like these things, so here's almost a century of Whitbread Porter grists:

Whitbread Porter 1805 - 1892
Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	no. 3 sugar	total
1805	1052.6				10.41	3.12	1	2.5	5		70º	79.73%	20.27%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1811	1054.0	1018.6	4.69	65.64%	9.51	2.85	1	2.5	4.5		65.5º	73.36%	26.64%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1819	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.03	2.64	1	2	3	4	63.75º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%	0.00%	100.00%
1821	1057.9	1017.5	5.35	69.86%	9.01	2.34	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	65º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%	0.00%	100.00%
1821	1058.7	1021.3	4.95	63.68%	9.74	2.55	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	65º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%	0.00%	100.00%
1822	1059.3	1016.3	5.68	72.43%	10.61	2.84	1.17	1.5	3	4	63º	95.97%	2.93%	1.10%	0.00%	100.00%
1824	1060.1	1016.3	5.79	72.81%	13.17	3.47	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	95.60%	3.26%	1.14%	0.00%	100.00%
1825	1059.0	1016.1	5.68	72.77%	12.80	3.28	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	94.01%	4.33%	1.67%	0.00%	100.00%
1832	1058.2	1019.1	5.17	67.14%	12.72	3.31	1.25	2	4		64º	87.76%	10.88%	1.36%	0.00%	100.00%
1833	1058.7	1016.1	5.64	72.64%	12.48	3.17	1	1.5	3	4	63.5º	86.05%	12.36%	1.59%	0.00%	100.00%
1834	1059.6	1016.9	5.64	71.63%	12.48	3.52	1	2	3		64º	88.35%	9.67%	1.98%	0.00%	100.00%
1841	1063.4	1018.8	5.90	70.31%	12.24	3.53	1.5	1.5	3	4	64º	81.82%	15.64%	2.54%	0.00%	100.00%
1842	1061.2	1019.4	5.53	68.33%	10.52	2.66	1.5	1.5	3	4	63.25º	81.82%	15.64%	2.54%	0.00%	100.00%
1842	1062.3	1018.6	5.79	70.22%	11.29	2.85	1.5	1.5	3	4	63.5º	81.82%	15.64%	2.54%	0.00%	100.00%
1842	1062.6	1018.3	5.86	70.80%	10.62	2.72	1.5	1.5	3	4	63.75º	81.82%	15.64%	2.54%	0.00%	100.00%
1844	1063.7	1019.4	5.86	69.57%	11.30	2.88	1.5	1.5	3	4	64º	81.66%	15.61%	2.73%	0.00%	100.00%
1851	1065.1	1020.8	5.86	68.09%	11.11	3.55	1.5	1.5	2		64º	77.12%	19.72%	3.16%	0.00%	100.00%
1852	1056.0	1019.4	4.84	65.35%	10.41	2.88	1.5	1.5	2		64º	77.12%	19.72%	3.16%	0.00%	100.00%
1861	1053.5	1015.8	4.98	70.47%	10.37	2.63	1.5	1.5	2		64º	76.69%	19.75%	3.56%	0.00%	100.00%
1862	1054.6	1015.5	5.17	71.57%	10.03	2.25	1.5	2	2		64º	78.64%	17.44%	3.92%	0.00%	100.00%
1871	1058.2	1017.7	5.35	69.52%	13.28	3.07	1.5	2	2		64º	84.84%	9.48%	5.69%	0.00%	100.00%
1873	1059.3	1022.7	4.84	61.68%	11.64	2.65	1.5	2			64º	94.63%	0.00%	5.37%	0.00%	100.00%
1876	1056.2	1011.4	5.94	79.80%	8.49	1.98	1.5	2			61º	80.12%	14.55%	5.33%	0.00%	100.00%
1877	1055.1	1014.4	5.39	73.87%	4.81	1.30	1.5	2.17			61º	78.97%	15.29%	5.73%	0.00%	100.00%
1880	1055.1				5.49	1.34	1.5	2			61º	86.25%	8.40%	5.35%	0.00%	100.00%
1881	1054.6	1010.8	5.79	80.20%	8.77	2.08	1.5	2			60º	80.64%	13.22%	6.14%	0.00%	100.00%
1892	1057.9	1015.0	5.67	74.09%	7.58	1.63	2	2			60º	80.35%	6.73%	6.73%	6.18%	100.00%
Source: Whitbread brewing records

As you can see, Whitbread were pretty conservative in terms of ingredients. Only three types of malt were used and at the end of the century a bit of invert sugar.

I was intrigued by how the brown malt percentage fell dranmatically sfter the introduction of black malt. Then rose again until about the middle of the century. The trend with black malt is much simpler - an uninterrupted rise as the century progressed.

That's it for now. I have to get back to my shift down the number mine. Lets hope there are no explosions.

Kilderkin

That's the name of my quarter-arsed commercial arm. Commercial arm? It's barely a fingertip.

Algemeen Handelsbald, 07-08-1861.

Yes! They were selling Mild in Holland in the 1860's.

How sad is for that stupid little fact to have flooded me with so much joy?



The true obsessive will have noticed the conversion factor between British barrel sizes and those crazy Dutch ones. 

The decline in Keeping Porter

Back to the decline, sorry, disappearance of aged Porter. I've got my finger out and culled some relevant numbers from Whitbread's logs.

I must say that I was surprised at the rapidity with which vatted Porter went out of fashion. Take a look:

Whitbread Porter output 1845 - 1867
	Keeping	Running	total
1845	112,846	37,743	150,589
1852	39,729	97,860	137,589
1867	2,265	135,782	138,047
Source:
Whitbread brewing records.

In 1871 Whitbread brewed no Keeping Porter at all.

I have photos of many more years of Whitbread's logs from this period. But irritatingly, I neglected to snap some of the pages I need to make these calculations for most years. Guess I'll have to wait until November when I'll be in London for the British Guild of Beer Writers annual dinner. I always make sure I have time for an archive visit or two.

Style one of four

Hey. You might have missed my announcement of my first Mega Book, "Porter!". Don't worry. I'm going to keep reminding you.

It's a 620-page, detailed examination of Porter and Stout, with lots of tables and numbers. Quite a few words. And the odd crap joke.

If you're a homebrewer with an interest in brewing historic beers, this is the book for you. (As long as you like Porter and Stout. If you hate the stuff, I wouldn't bother.)

Buy "Porter!" now.

Whitbread's summer brews in 1844

The image below is taken from one of Whitbread's brewing records. It's a summary of their brews for the months of July and August 1844:

Yes, they did brew in the summer in Britain before the discovery of artificial refrigeration in 1870.

How could they do it? By the use of a device called an attemperator. A series of pipes criss-crossing the interrior of the fermenting vessels. Cold water was pumped through the pipes to control the temperature of the wort. Attemperators were first used sometime around 1780. They were very efficient and continued in use well into the 20th century. There might be breweries that still use them.

 This log is fromWhitbread's dull period. Where very single brew had 152 quarters of pale malt, 40 of brown malt and 7 of black malt. No matter what beer they were brewing. Add those numbers together and what do you get? 199. The number in column three. That's why there an M at the top of the column.

The three columns topped with an H are fun. That's the hops. In hundredweights, quarters and pounds. What's a quarter? Two stones.