Historic Irish ale & porter recipes

[cruiscinlan]

The importation of malt would have been unlikely even after the advent of the railways. In the late 19th century small distillers were contracting for barley locally, i.e. Persse's in Galway, so production remained local.

With the invention of hydrometers brewers realised that darker malts had very little diastatic power and switched to pale, but the change was gradual so at that point (the 1830s) you could have a stout made from 1/3 pale 1/3 brown malt and 1/3 amber. Ron Pattison has lots of information on the subject including articles on Irish brewing.

[nigel_c]

I'd love to see a maltster doing a brown with enough diaistatic power to do a 100% brown porter.

[LiamK]

Thanks Cruiscinlan,

Yep Ron's site has been some help but not on the specifics of Irish malts as that time, or at least I haven't found much. The recipe I'm using as a starting point is from his latest book...

You're right of course about the local malts for local brewers and distillers, but I was just speculating as to whether they were proficient enough to produce a range of malts ... but I guess they were.

I'll keep digging and see can I find a range of malts available at this time in the 1800s. The local brewers seem to have been relatively knowledgeable so I'm guessing that they would used mostly pale with a little black so given what you say ... and maybe no brown or amber at all.

Anyhow I'll keep digging ... and I'm still curious as to the smoked quality (or probably not) and the effect of barrelling on the overall end product and taste.

Plus the yeast...

Thanks again.

PS. Nigel_c, you had better talk nice to Minch! They are on my radar for more info on historical malts too...