Home Brew Forum

This might interest you guys so did a few pics as well. I bought some Bengal Lancer and decided to recover the yeast from 4 of them. I started the recovery with 100ml of weak LME wort then stepped up to 500 then a further 1.5l to make sure I had enough viable cells. I decide to brew the Fullers London Porter clone from GW's book BYOBRA which I have brewed before and really liked. Inevitably though I have tweaked a little. I have used a rather special Brown Porter Malt that is based on a 19c technique for roasting over oak. I have used this malt a couple of times and it has really impressed with the complexity of flavour it has given to the brew.

I also decided to up the ante by boosting the coffee aroma in this by brewing a pot of coffee to my usual strength and adding 250ml of it to the 25 litre brew after I had cooled and pitched the wort.

Recipe is:

4.000 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) 64.0 %
1.500 kg Brown Porter Malt Oak Kilned (550.0 EBC) 24.0 %
0.600 kg Crystal Malt (150.0 EBC) 9.6 %
0.150 kg Chocolate Malt (800.0 EBC) 4 2.4 %
70.00 g Fuggles [3.85 %] - Boil 90.0 min 28.2 IBUs
23.00 g Fuggles [3.85 %] - Boil 10.0 min 3.1 IBUs
250ml black coffee into FV

Mashed at 68.9 for 60 min., want a fuller (pardon the pun) body.

OG predicted at 1.048 but came out at 1.056 (83% efficiency )

Grain showing the oak kilned malt top left



Plan of action with brewday sheet on the right



Mash covered by my insulation cupboard.



Fly Sparge



Boiling with two elements, which is vigourous, lost 7.5 litres today



Run off: took 15 minutes today, might be less I was having a sandwich, groundwater temp is really helpful.



After aeration



Bengal Lancer ready for action.



Money shot. I called it as 1.056



Tucked up. Brew/fridge occupied with 4 way SMaSH experiment so aquarium heater to the rescue.



I put on my Brewday shoes (to the tune of Boogie shoes by KC & The Sunshine Band) I tend to splash a lot of wort around.

great pics mate, especially the shoes, whats your brew length ?

sorry just read it again 25, not surprised at the og then

Oh baby. Fullers London Porter with oak-smoked toasty malt and coffee and brewery's own yeast strain?! I'd like to invite you over to dinner in about six weeks. BYOB.

far9410 wrote:great pics mate, especially the shoes, whats your brew length ?

Cheeky, oh you mean.. yes er sorry, 25 litres but only got 24 and a bit due to hops and deadspace in the boiler exacerbated by my throttling back the run off to get it down to just over 17c (bloody sandwich, wasn't monitoring so missed out on full syphon effect)

seymour wrote:Oh baby. Fullers London Porter with oak-smoked toasty malt and coffee and brewery's own yeast strain?! I'd like to invite you over to dinner in about six weeks. BYOB.

You will no doubt recall (modestly, I'm sure) it was your idea on quantities.

Send me the tickets and I'm on my way

orlando wrote: ...You will no doubt recall (modestly, I'm sure) it was your idea on quantities...

Well, the coffee, sure. But what we're talking about here is obviously a case of "the sum is greater than the parts"...
Sounds delicious, mate!

Sorry that's what I meant.

Nothing on the tickets then?

Man, if I could afford flights, I'd be over there on a pub crawl with you blokes!

Where would you choose?

orlando wrote:Where would you choose?

Friday night: a huge Jim's Beer Kit gathering at whichever locale would attract the most members, where we could all meet in-person and share homebrews.
Saturday and Sunday: you name it...couple brewery tours, hitting as many historic pubs, real ale outlets, as possible, any and all, anywhere in the UK. Stop somewhere for an Adnams mini-cask so I can smuggle their dual-strain home...
Or the other way around, I'm easy.

You're in North Norfolk, huh? That'll work. Yetman's, Brancaster, Ole Slewfoot, Uncle Stewarts, Branthill malt farm, windmills, time it with an area beer festival...hell, I dunno...you tell me!

My family originates from Wulfhall, the medieval manor home in the civil parish of Burbage (previously Grafton, previously Great Bedwyn), on the edge of Savernake Forest, in the English county of Wiltshire. I'd love to see that area someday. You probably gathered I'm a Tolkien and Lewis fan, so The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford would be cool. I've got a Snowdonia railway poster from 1933 on my wall. I see that farmhouse underneath a big dark mountain and shaft of light in my dreams. North Wales, right? But seriously, just to get over there, anywhere, would be really fun. Scotland and Ireland, too. My wife is a big Anglophile, too, so we'd find plenty to do...



Yikes, I'm getting off-topic. Sorry to high-jack your post, Orlando!

Not at all I enjoyed it, you obviously have thought about this and you have a hell of a grasp of my local delights. I assume you know about the Real Ale Shop at Branthill Farm ? I would probably have to take you into Norwich as well as we have quite a few brew pubs there, not least of which is the Fat Cat Tap, drop off at the Adnams Shop in Holt for the mini keg and of course to sample my cellar.

It's off and running with a beautiful creamy head, not seen a yeast head this good before, looks like a cappucino. The picture was taken only 10 minutes after I top cropped it (the lighter coloured area) so it's really starting to motor now. Checked the temperature, which is always a little haphazard with the aquarium heater and it has settled at 20.5, which is only 1/2 degree over what I wanted Will crop again later and maybe tomorrow to make sure I get a good sample of all the yeast and not just the fast starters, I want it to attenuate properly.

MMMMmmm sounds and looks gooood.

orlando wrote:...I would probably have to take you into Norwich as well as we have quite a few brew pubs there, not least of which is the Fat Cat Tap, drop off at the Adnams Shop in Holt for the mini keg and of course to sample my cellar.

See? Now you're just rubbing it in.

That would be unbelievably fun. Someday! I'll have to bring along some of my own wares to swap.