United Kingdom
Daniel Wheeler patents black malt
A drum-roasting patent that let brewers produce dark beer from a mostly pale grist, changing how porter was made.
Before it, dark beer required large proportions of brown malt, which was expensive in extract terms. Black patent malt delivered colour and roast in small quantities alongside efficient pale malt.
The porter brewed afterwards was a materially different beer from the porter brewed before, which is one reason historical porter recipes are hard to map onto modern ones.
What was going on around it
An event on its own is a date. These are the periods it belongs to, where the argument about what changed is actually made.
Why it matters
Reshaped porter and stout, and made the modern grist — pale base plus small speciality additions — possible.
How well this is established
| Certainty | Documented. Supported by contemporary records that survive and are agreed on. |
|---|---|
| When | 1817. Known to the year rather than to the day. |
| Where | United Kingdom |
Styles this shaped
Traditions
- London porter brewing — The first industrial-scale brewing tradition, built in eighteenth-century London around dark beer, long maturation and enormous vats.
- Irish stout brewing — The Dublin divergence from London porter, built on unmalted roasted barley and later on nitrogen dispense.
Either side of this
← 1814: The London beer flood · 1820: Irish brewers adopt unmalted roasted barley →
See the whole sequence on the beer history timeline.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.