Wednesday 24 July 2013

British troops in India and Porter

More from "Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire Into the Sanitary State of the Army in India". This time looking at a specific type of beer, Porter.

You may recall me banging on at every available opportunity about Porter being imported into India in greater quantities than IPA. Here's confirmation than drinking Porter was a regular part of the life of an ordinary soldier in India.

Soldiers were issued with a daily ration of Porter in some units:

Lieut.-Colonel Gall—, The usual beverages are spirits, porter, and arrack. . . .  The usual issue is one quart of porter and one dram; the latter may be exchanged. Porter is cheapened to encourage its use in lieu of spirits.
"Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire Into the Sanitary State of the Army in India", 1863, page 225.
A quart was reasonably generous, given the strength of it (between 5.5% and 6% ABV):


India Porter and Stout
Year Brewer Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl boil time (hours) boil time (hours) boil time (hours) Pitch temp max. fermen-tation temp
1855 Barclay Perkins EI Porter 1061.5 1016.0 6.02 73.98% 21.01 4.47 66º 81º
1856 Barclay Perkins EI Porter 1061.8 1016.0 6.06 74.10% 21.03 4.57 66º 81º
1856 Barclay Perkins EI Porter 1060.9 1016.0 5.95 73.74% 17.05 4.68 65º 80º
1853 Whitbread Expt. India Beer Porter 1062.3 1018.3 5.83 70.67% 20.23 5.58 1.5 1.5 2 64º
1853 Whitbread Contract India Beer Porter 1059.6 1018.6 5.42 68.84% 20.31 4.95 1.5 1.5 2 64º
1854 Whitbread Contract India Beer Porter 1057.9 1015.0 5.68 74.16% 19.62 4.64 1.5 1.5 2 64º
1854 Whitbread Contract India Beer Porter 1058.4 1014.7 5.79 74.88% 19.58 4.57 1.5 1.5 2 64º
1854 Whitbread Expt. India Beer Stout 1072.0 1022.2 6.60 69.23% 19.33 6.42 1.75 1.5 2 64º
1854 Whitbread Expt. India Beer Stout 1071.2 1019.9 6.78 71.98% 18.90 5.93 1.5 1.5 2 64º
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/542.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/047 and LMA/4453/D/09/048 .

Note that Whitbread also brewed a Stout for export to India.

Here's more evidence of soldiers receiving Porter as part of their rations:

Brig.-Gen. Russell—, . . . . Every effort was made to draw men from the canteen, which was kept as far as possible from the place of amusement. The men preferred going thither and getting their porter fresh to having it brought to them at dinner.
"Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire Into the Sanitary State of the Army in India", 1863, page 227.
Finally, something that flies in the face of all received wisdom about India and beer:

Dr. Dempster—, . . . .  Advises pure water or slightly acidulated drinks only in general, but in some cases pale ale, i.e., for weak persons after several years' residence.   . . . . It is difficult to keep ale imported from England. Porter keeps better.
"Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire Into the Sanitary State of the Army in India", 1863, page 229.

Yes, that's right. Dr. Dempster reckoned Porter lasted better in the heat than IPA.

6 comments:

Jeremy Drew said...

That is because the porter was brewed stronger and more heavily hopped to survive the journey...

mrbowenz said...

Timely, I have been arguing this point for a few weeks now with someone. They asserted that Porter would have never survived the journey and that IPA was "invented" to make the trip. What lead them to believe this you ask?, they read it on the back of an IPA bottle !

Ron Pattinson said...

Jeremy Drewm,

the gravity was about the same as domestic Porter. The level of hopping was much higher than Running or Mild Porter. But only about the same as Keeping Porter.

Hopping rates: 1853 Whitbread Keeping Porter 4.61 lbs per barrel, Contract India Porter 5.58 lbs per barrel.

I should have published the numbers for domestic Porter, too.

Martyn Cornell said...

Chris, I'll try to look out a link to a newspaper from Calcutta that clearly shows porter being importer from London in the 1780s so you can print it out and stuff it up his nose ...

Anonymous said...

Ron, I think Jeremy was making fun of the standard IPA story. Amazing how ofter I hear the strong and super hopped to make it across to India despite it being totally debunked.

Jeremy Drew said...

Yes, it was a tongue in cheek comment.

Obviously,porter was porter, just the way that Ralph Harwood invented it :-)