Irish Brewing History: Black Water - Cork's 'Great' Porter Flood

On Thursday the 5th of December 1850, just as the workers in the Beamish & Crawford brewery in Cork city were taking their morning break and they heard what sounded like an explosion followed by a roar and a crash that shook the whole building. It brought everyone to their feet and heading in the direction of the sound, where they soon found the source. A huge vat containing porter had burst, its steel bands having given way and sending a torrent of porter through the vat room that carried everything in its path, including knocking down a substantial wall on one side of the structure. As if this calamity was not enough, the force of the deluge of porter had also damaged a jigger, a machine for pumping out the vast vats, which meant that porter was also now pouring from those in turn, which added to the wastage and damage.

Luckily the porter flowed out of the brewery towards the river Lee and not out towards the street or the rest of the brewery, which certainly helped to reduce the damage. Indeed, the workers themselves were extremely lucky to have been on their break or it is almost certain that there would have been serious casualties, or worse.

According to the more detailed reports the vat held 750 tierces* or 26,500 gallons (120,471 litres) of porter plus whatever was lost from the other vats, so possibly in excess of a quarter of a million pints of porter poured into the river, which would certainly have dyed a portion of it brown if not black. The value at the time was said to be £1,500 for the porter and £350 for the vat itself, so including the extra wastage it was probably £2,000 - a not inconsiderable sum at the time - and this did not take into account the clean up and the rebuilding of the fallen wall.

No doubt it would have made more news but for the lack of lives lost, although the story was carried by many newspapers on these islands as a small mention amongst the other calamities of the time.

To put the volume into perspective the great London porter flood at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery in 1814 released 128,000 gallons from the initial vat that burst, although more was released from other vats in the ensuing damage according to newspaper reports of the time. So Cork's version was perhaps one fifth of the volume of that main vat. Not a huge amount but still quite a considerable volume if it had flowed in the wrong direction, and unlike the London flood there was no loss of life.

The vat that burst in Beamish & Crawford was probably in the location I have shown here on the Goad fire insurance map of 1897, the vat room with a similar configuration is shown in the same location in a map from 1839 in Beamish & Crawford – The History of an Irish Brewery book. There was a quay right beside the river at that time so it is possible (but not definite) that it was the wall closest to the river which gave way, given that the porter seemed to escape damaging the rest of the brewery.

A quarter of a million pints flowing out into the Lee? It brings a whole new meaning to the term Running Porter …

Liam K.

(Here is the newspaper report from The Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier on the 7th December 1850.)

*Tierce = 35 Imperial Gallons (42 Wine Gallons)

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