Porter recipe

[Immy's Dad]

I have a John Bull Porter kit (wife's purchase "It's beer isn't it?") and was thinking about adding 1kg of dark spraymalt. My question(s) is(are) this(these):

1.Would you add any hops? When, what and how much?

2. Would the use of steeped crystal malt add anything?

Thanks.

[Immy's Dad]

Would you use them as aroma or flavour? I assume it's going to be hopped for bitterness already. Hang on, let me check.......yep iso-hop extract. Just noticed it's 1.8kg, good size for a kit.

This is what the website says about it:

London Porter
The famous 18th Century London beer slightly lighter in colour than stout. A fruity roasted malt brew with a lovely smooth finish. Serve with seafood. Serve at 13°C (55°F). Makes 40 UK pints.
130 +/-13 °EBC, 40 +/-4 °EBU

[DRB]

Going to have a go at a porter sometime soon,this is what i have come up with from beertools.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Porter
Subcategory: Brown Porter
Recipe Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 19 liters
Volume Boiled: 23 liters
Mash Efficiency: 65 %
Total Grain/Extract: 4.11 kg.
Total Hops: 40.2 g.
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 161.6
Cost to Brew: $21.74 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.): $0.41 (USD)
Ingredients
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.19 kg. Maris Otter Pale
0.20 kg. English Chocolate Malt
0.14 kg. Belgian Cara-Pils
0.38 kg. British Crystal 55°L
0.10 kg. Barley Flaked
0.10 kg. Torrified Wheat
26.38 g. Fuggle (Whole, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
13.84 g. Whitbread Golding (WGV) (Whole, 6.00 %AA) boiled 15
minutes.
Yeast: WYeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale
Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vital Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Gravity: 1.041
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 23.07 SRM
Bitterness: 21.2 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.1 %
--

[tubby_shaw]

I have a recipe which I put together to try and emulate an original porter from the 19th century.

5 gallons

7lb Pale malt
1 lb Amber malt
1 lb Rauchmalz
1/2lb Crystal malt
1/4 lb Flaked barley
2oz Cracked wheat
1 oz Chocolate malt

3/4 oz Target 9% A.A 90 miute boil
1/4 oz Kent goldings 4% A.A 15 miutes of boil

Mashed in 3 1/4 gallons liquor at 65 C for 90 minutes

Original gravity 1.048

This made a very nice and somewhat interesting beer with just a hint of smokeyness nothing at all as overwhelming as Rauchbier

When I was a member of th C.B.A and Birmingham University Brewers Society some of the above ale was taken to the GBBF to be given away as samples on the C.B.A stand.

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/dpickett/ ... i3_cov.htm

[SteveD]

Well, Porter was around so long, and was made in so many ways with such a wide range of ingredients at different points in it's 'time line', that any recipe you come up with that is strongish and fairlly dark could legitimately be called Porter!

Originally it was a plain brown beer, rebranded.. created as a result of the fashion for mixing brews (possibly to cover up faults in one or more casks). In the early-mid 18th century it was made exclusively from brown malt, kilned over wood, which was 'blown' ie torrified and the drink was given the name entire, intire, or entire butt, and then porter. It was certainly smoky, and Clive La Pensee reckons that Rauchbeer today is the nearest you'd get to an old Porter

Brewers and the public thought dark meant strong, before the invention of the hydrometer. Once they had that they realised how much poorer the level of extract was compared to pale malt. At that point, late 18th/early 19th Century, grists of pale/brown started to appear. As more pale was used, they maintained the illusion of strength (for the public) by keeping the beer dark with the new 'patent black malt'...so the pale/brown/black recipes appear....As time moved on, various additives were tried in order to cheapen the drink, while still maintaining the appearance of quality and strength....burnt caramel, liquorice, chilli, all sorts was chucked in. Brown malt, the original porter malt, was virtually phased out.

Inevitably the quality suffered and Porter went into decline, helped on it's way by the arrival and popularity of IPA and pale ale.

That's one view....there are as many Porter theories as there are beer historians.....the 'Ralf Harwood invented it' story is almost certainly bollocks.

Discuss...

[PieOPah]

Taken From

Porter is dark, almost black beer with malty savour and high content of extract (classically brewed according to top fermentation method). Porter was extremely popular in 19th century. Gradually the interest to the porter started to fade and after World War II this kind of English has almost disappeared. It was first brewed in London in 1722 by a man named Ralf Harwood. He is now considered to be the creator of porter. He mixed all existing then ales - light, thin and dark and created the new kind of beer. This rather B and dark mixture was called "Entire". You can still sometimes see it on posters saying "Entire porter". Porter was brewed of highly dried barley (with or without malt) with top fermentation.

[Andy]

Kegged my Durden Park Porter on Saturday and it tasted pretty darn good. Will see how it ends up after its four month maturation period!

[PieOPah]

Don't think I could ever wait that long for an entire batch to mature.... I have enough problems waiting 2-3 weeks....

I guess the only way I could wait that long would be to ensure I had plenty of beer on tap already.

[oblivious]

A mix of rauchmalz and a couple of pounds of brown malt is supposed to be pretty accurate comparison to a 1750’s porter. Originally brown malt would have a smoky character to it, but this not the case these days.

[SteveD]

Taken From

It was first brewed in London in 1722 by a man named Ralf Harwood. He is now considered to be the creator of porter. He mixed all existing then ales - light, thin and dark and created the new kind of beer. This rather B and dark mixture was called "Entire".

That's the myth, which most learned beer historians have debunked. The Ralf Harwood story emerged roughly 80 years after it allegedly happened. There's no contemporary evidence to show he invented it. Strong brown-malt beers had been around for a long long time before Harwood.