Replica of 1800s porter using modern ingredients

[Rookie]

Brewed this yesterday and put it into the cellar to no-chill; pitching the yeast later today.

[PeeBee]

Remember there was no black malt before 1817. And even by 1850-60 they were only using about 3% or less. Black Malt was entirely for colour, people developed a taste for it much later ... probably by the end of the 1800s. You will see recipes for mid-1800s with 5-6% Black Malt, but not from Ron Pattinson! He told me it was down to way they measured grain back then; volume measures, not weight. Ron converts his measures, others do not.

There was no roast barley until late in the 1800s, 'cos it wasn't malted and was therefore illegal until that legal obstacle was altered (UK). Brown Malt was completely different until they started using the same rotating kilns as Black Malt to make a more uniform darker product later in the 1800s, but direct heat from burning wood continued into the 1920s ... possibly longer? Brown Malt could still be diastatic in the earlier 1800s.

You know of my attempts to emulate Brown Malt from the 1800s. They're about this forum somewhere.

What I've always fancied doing was some research into American pre-Prohibition Porter (and then making it!). They were still brewing it pre-1920 when it had all but died out in London. And they don't appear to have got very "sophisticated" about their Brown Malt making. By the end of Prohibition they'd forgotten how to make Porter and instead went on to make "keg" pretend lagers that were even worse than the garbage the UK went on to construct (I avoid the word "brew" because that would be lying).

The Americans brew plenty of Porters now, but the historical attempts seem to be of London Porters, not their own? They also have a habit of making them ridiculously fizzy, which they could never have been! But note the Americans do attempt to make authentic Brown Malt for their London Porters, but use very primative techniques to do so (compared to 19th C. UK that is). Is this a throwback to the techniques the Americans were using prior to 1920?

[PeeBee]

I'm going to use your thread as an excuse to hi-jack it!

I'm forever grumbling about people using "modern" brown malt as a substitute for "historical" brown malt (i.e. roughly before 1880, though the transition was more "fuzzy" than that). I did feel I was a sole evangelist, but the other day I came across:

Porters and Brown Malt, Continued - Beervanablog.com

So, I'm not alone! And that article is over 12 years old. I'm beginning to feel like a Plagiarist now!

But worse (err ... "better"?) was to come. I was digging about a bit looking for clues to "pre-Prohibition Porter" and came across:

A Most Wholesome Liquor: A Study of Beer and Brewing in 18th-Century England and Her Colonies - Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series

It's even earlier! Pre-dates - just - this century. There're bits wrong with it (repeats the Ralph Harwood and "Three Threads" porter nonsense - well it is 1/4 a century old) but otherwise it's a blinder of an article. It's also quite long. Made me realise there's nowt wrong with 19th C. "Roast Malt" if you're not wearing UK legal blinkers ... and the Americans would certainly be using it if what the article says about American maltings is correct. Americans weren't for following British ideals at that time either! And all the "Sociology" in the run up to Prohibition ... H-E-A-V-Y, but well worth getting one's 'ead around!

It's made me give up on brewing pre-Prohibition Porters though ... maybe you'd have told me that if I asked.

There appears to be more useful stuff in that "library" too.



While I'm busy trashing you thread (but referencing American sources so maybe not all bad?) ... How's your Porter coming on?

[Rookie]

I'm going to use your thread as an excuse to hi-jack it!

I'm forever grumbling about people using "modern" brown malt as a substitute for "historical" brown malt (i.e. roughly before 1880, though the transition was more "fuzzy" than that). I did feel I was a sole evangelist, but the other day I came across:

Porters and Brown Malt, Continued - Beervanablog.com

So, I'm not alone! And that article is over 12 years old. I'm beginning to feel like a Plagiarist now!

But worse (err ... "better"?) was to come. I was digging about a bit looking for clues to "pre-Prohibition Porter" and came across:

A Most Wholesome Liquor: A Study of Beer and Brewing in 18th-Century England and Her Colonies - Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series

It's even earlier! Pre-dates - just - this century. There're bits wrong with it (repeats the Ralph Harwood and "Three Threads" porter nonsense - well it is 1/4 a century old) but otherwise it's a blinder of an article. It's also quite long. Made me realise there's nowt wrong with 19th C. "Roast Malt" if you're not wearing UK legal blinkers ... and the Americans would certainly be using it if what the article says about American maltings is correct. Americans weren't for following British ideals at that time either! And all the "Sociology" in the run up to Prohibition ... H-E-A-V-Y, but well worth getting one's 'ead around!

It's made me give up on brewing pre-Prohibition Porters though ... maybe you'd have told me that if I asked.

There appears to be more useful stuff in that "library" too.



While I'm busy trashing you thread (but referencing American sources so maybe not all bad?) ... How's your Porter coming on?

Good. I plan to bottle in the next couple of days.

[Rookie]

I saw this in Terry Porter's porter and stout book.

[Rookie]

I saw this in Terry Porter's porter and stout book.

I can't seem to get a photo of the quote from his book to upload.

[Rookie]

I saw this in Terry Porter's porter and stout book.

I can't seem to get a photo of the quote from his book to upload.

It basically says that brown malt has never stopped being produced and most likely the maltsters tried to keep getting a similar flavor to old brown malt with new technology.

[nallum]

I followed his recipe to make my own and was happy with the results.

[PeeBee]

I followed his recipe to make my own and was happy with the results.

Yeah! I've got that book! 2014 by Terry Foster (Rookie: you've "Porter" indelibly printed on the mind). Which followed his 1992 book on the same subject (but just Porter) that one of the "Classic Beer Styles Series" … older, but the history was fairly accurate. Don't know where he'd been meantime, but his second book was away with the fairies!

Have you been in touch with French and Jupp <sic>, I'm sure they'll be interested to learn they still make the "historical" stuff. Anyway, if they do, why not use it (the "historical" stuff, not the "modern").

But if you followed his (Terry Foster) recipe, I'm sure you would be happy with the results (I'm only bitching at his grasp of history, and any suggestion "historical" brown malt is anything like "modern" brown malt).



About the 1920s saw the end of historical Brown Malt production, although I have seen one or two references suggesting 1950s.