RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

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seymour
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RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by seymour » Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:32 pm

This is big.

Every once in awhile, I stumble upon some brand new information (to me) which really blows my mind, alters my whole understanding of beer history, inspires creativity, and renews my excitement about homebrewing. This is one of those times, and full credit goes to Ron Pattinson (patto1ro on these forums), of the excellent "Shut Up About Barclay Perkins" blog and book series.

I recently learned that he collaborated with an American craft brewery to reproduce an historic India Porter. That's kinda cool. Good for them. Too bad they don't distribute…

(beat)

Wait…WHAT!? India Porter? That's a thing? You mean us arrogant bastards didn't recently invent "Brown IPA" or "Black IPA" or whatever we wanna call it?! Well, as usual, our English forefathers beat us to it. Like 158 years ago, while we were busy killing each other with bayonets and sh!t. It turns out there really is nothing new under the sun.

http://www.oldbeers.com/1855eip/
http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2012/05 ... red-beers/
http://www.prettythingsbeertoday.com/wp ... pattinson/

Do yourself a favor and read Ron's whole background story, but here are some particularly interesting nuggets:
We’ve all heard the romantic tale of beer being shipped half way around the world to quench the thirst of the British in India: the birth of IPA. But Pale Ale wasn’t the only beer sent to India: In fact, it wasn’t even a majority of the beer sent. That honour belongs to beer that’s been lost to history: India Porter…

…Why have we only ever heard of IPA and not India Porter? It’s all to do with who drank the beers. IPA was the tipple for officers, officials and bureaucrats. Porter was the drink of the ordinary soldiers. Like so much of British history, it’s all about class: It was the middle and upper classes who wrote about their experiences in India, so as far as anyone knew (or cared), IPA was the beer consumed. No-one really cared about the tales of the enlisted men….
Well, I care. A lot. I'm all about Big Brown Beers of the people, for the people, and I know you guys are too. Now us hop-heads are vindicated: we're allowed to taste and smell some hops in true-to-style dark ales, too. Any bets on who'll get the credit in BJCP guidelines? I digress...

So dig this: I asked Ron if he'd share the recipe, and he did. Understandably, this isn't the exact 1855 recipe he worked out for Pretty Things Beers, but it's an equally authentic recipe from 1867. What a guy, right?!

Power to the people!

1867 Barclay Perkins East India Porter

ALL-MALT GRAINBILL:
64.15% = 8.50 lb = 3.86 kg, Pale Malt
16.98% = 2.25 lb = 1.02 kg, Crystal Malt 60°L
15.09% = 2 lb = 907 g, Brown Malt
3.77% = .5 lb = 227 g, Black Malt

MASH at 152º F/66.7ºC
SPARGE at 168º F/75.6ºC
BOIL 90 minutes

HOPS:
2.5 oz = 70.9 g, Goldings, 90 min
2 oz = 56.7 g, Goldings, 60 min

FERMENT AT 65ºF/18.3ºC

STATS (assuming apparent attenuation 70.91%):
OG: 1055
FG: 1016
ABV: 5.16%
IBU: 68
COLOUR: 30ºSRM/59ºEBC

Matt12398

Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by Matt12398 » Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:32 pm

I always love your enthusiasm Seymour.

I'll put this one on the list.

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Re: Odp: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by zgoda » Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:58 pm

Looks similar but is not identical to http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2012 ... rkins.html

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by subfaction » Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:00 pm

Sounds very interesting, sounds tasty too, but...I've blended a pint of nice porter with an great IPA before and it was really awful, I imagine this would be a quite different beast though. So... When are you brewing it!

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by seymour » Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:22 pm

subfaction wrote:So... When are you brewing it!
Hopefully very soon. I'll definitely let everyone know when I do.

barney

Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by barney » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:08 pm

Good work Seymour, I will be having a go at that.

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by oz11 » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:22 pm

Me too :). Fortuitously my local micro happens to use Barclay Perkins yeast - clicky

barney

Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by barney » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:32 pm

Oz11, If you can get a slope of that yeast I will swap you for something interesting that you might fancy. :)

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by seymour » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:42 pm

oz11 wrote:Me too :). Fortuitously my local micro happens to use Barclay Perkins yeast - clicky
barney wrote:Oz11, If you can get a slope of that yeast I will swap you for something interesting that you might fancy.
Jealous!

Seriously, though, that would be a very faithful experiment. Cool. Please post a brewday thread!

alfie09

Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by alfie09 » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:56 pm

Nice info. not to far of mine but mine as fuggles. and a few more grains. yummy

Mckelvie20

Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by Mckelvie20 » Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:35 pm

This looks pretty simlair to fullers porter, haven't got my book to hand but so might be mistaken only major change is Fuggles instead of Golding and the amount of hops used.

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by oz11 » Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:45 pm

Mckelvie20 wrote:.... and the amount of hops used.
Yup =P~ =D>

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by orlando » Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:27 am

Mckelvie20 wrote:This looks pretty simlair to fullers porter, haven't got my book to hand but so might be mistaken only major change is Fuggles instead of Golding and the amount of hops used.
I thought it looked familiar as I've made something similar a number of times now with Fuggles as the hop, have to look at % to see how close, do you have those to save me working them out (lazy sod I know). :roll:
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Mckelvie20

Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by Mckelvie20 » Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:22 pm

in this recipe when compared to GW Fullers porter recipe there is 10% less pale and 5% more Caramel and 5% more Brown. so more specialty malts nearly the same abv and double the ibu's.

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Re: RON THROWS US A GEM: 1867 INDIA PORTER!

Post by orlando » Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:38 pm

Mckelvie20 wrote:in this recipe when compared to GW Fullers porter recipe there is 10% less pale and 5% more Caramel and 5% more Brown. so more specialty malts nearly the same abv and double the ibu's.
OK, well as I suspected, apart from the bitterness (and individual perception is more important here) I doubt I would taste a major departure from the Fullers recipe, which of course is their "old fashioned" one anyway.
I am "The Little Red Brooster"

Fermenting:
Conditioning:
Drinking: Southwold Again,

Up Next: John Barleycorn (Barley Wine)
Planning: Winter drinking Beer

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