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Bottle Wreck Porter 4.7%
Laying on the seabed near Littlehampton is a 19th century shipwreck. Her name is unknown but the cargo included hundreds of bottles of Porter which gave rise to her common name The Bottle Wreck
The archaeological evidence gathered during a 2005 field session indicates that the wreck is the remains of a wooden merchant sailing vessel. Judging by the extent of the site and the preserved hull timbers, the vessel was ca. 28m (91.8ft) long and had a breadth of 7-8m (23ft-26ft)
It had at least two, possibly three masts. The foremast was situated 4m aft of the stem post. The distance between foremast and mainmast was 9m. The ship was carvel built from oak and fastened with trenails and copper alloy bolts. The outer hull was copper sheathed
Beer bottles and barrels were found forward of the pipe cargo mound. At least two barrels were excavated in 1983. The barrel staves are 1.07m (42in) long and the words 'BARCLAY & PERKINS' are burnt into the lids of the barrels. The barrels were probably hogsheads and would have contained 54 gallons of ale or porter. The Barclay & Perkins brewery was founded in Southwark, London in 1781 and was the biggest producer and exporter of beer in the 19th century.
Broken beer bottles are scattered on the seabed all around the bow area, forward of the pipe cargo. In 1983 around 500 complete and corked bottles were lifted from the site. The bottles are all of the typical 'porter' shape, common between 1760 and 1918. They are ½ pint in size. Some of the bottle corks were inscribed 'Kinnley Williams London'. Brewers of this name could not yet be tracked down. The bottles contained porter, which was a very dark and malty type of ale based on roasted malt. Porter became popular at the beginning of the 18th century and was known as a working class beer. English porter was exported to a number of countries, among others the United States, Australia and India.
Samples of yeast preserved in some of the corked bottles lifted from the site were used to recreate the original beer in 1991. The result is sold as Flag Porter by the Darwin Brewery, UK.
First produced in 2007, Hammerpot Bottle Wreck Porter was immediately popular. It is produced in 9 Gallon firkins and also in bottles. It is available from September to March.
A traditional black porter with chocolate coffee and rich roast malt flavours which warm your cockles. Ahhaaa Jim lad!
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