Friday 4 August 2017

Reid Porter and Stout in 1845

While I'm finally getting around to looking at Reid stuff, I may as well do their Porter and Stout, too.

Now I think about it, just like the Ales, these fall into two groups: Runners and Keepers. With Crs designating the latter. Obviously, the big difference between the two groups is the hopping, which is approximately 50% higher in the Keepers.

Other points of note are the crazily long boil times for the Stouts. That must have made for an extremely long brewing day. I don't think I've ever seen a boil of longer than 4 hours anywhere else. I'm not sure what point there is in boiling a beer with a gravity in the 1070's for six hours. Seems like a waste of coal.

The pitching temperature of 65º F for the Porter is quite high, but not that unusual for London Porter. They usually let it ferment quite warm, with peaks of over 80º F not unheard of. I guess they were keen on fermenting it quickly.

The Keepers would all have been aged in vats. Six months for the Porter and six to twelve months for the Stouts. The Runners, on the other hand, would have been sold no more than a few weeks after racking.

Next time we'll look at their grists.

Reid Porter and Stout in 1845
Beer Style OG lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl boil time (hours) boil time (hours) boil time (hours) Pitch temp max. fermen-tation temp
Com Sea Porter 1060.9 12.80 3.08 1.5 1.5 4.5 65º 76.75º
Crs Porter 1060.9 15.67 3.76 1.5 1.5 4.5 65º 77º
Rg Porter 1060.4 8.46 1.93 1.5 1.5 4.5 65º 76.5º
S Stout 1073.4 12.05 3.76 3 6 58.5º 74.5º
S Crs Stout 1074.8 15.00 4.94 3 6 58º 77º
SS Stout 1087.3 11.62 4.55 3 6 57.5º
SS Crs Stout 1087.3 14.92 6.15 3 6 58º
SSS Stout 1097.0 12.61 5.94 3 6 56º 78.5º
Source:
Reid brewing record held at Westminster City Archives, document number 789/271.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I don't think I've ever seen a boil of longer than 4 hours anywhere else."

Your recipe for 1838 Barclay Perkins X Ale (Let's Brew, Sat 20 May 2017) had a five hour boil, and a week later you write, "You may have noticed that some of Barclay’s Ales of this period had very long boils, as much as 5 hours in some cases. It would be nice to compare and contrast Ale boil times with those for Porter and Stout. Unfortunately, even though they’re in the same brewing book, there are no details of boil times for the Porters. "

Crazy long boil times, these early 19th Century beers.