Whitbread London Porter

[SiHoltye]

I managed 24L @ 1.067. Was originally going for 30L but sparge dropped to 1.010 early.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.37 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 79.05 %
1.25 kg Brown Malt (130.0 EBC) Grain 15.50 %
0.44 kg Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC) Grain 5.46 %
175.70 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 56.0 IBU
2 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.92 %
Bitterness: 56.0 IBU
Est Color: 64.1 EBC

The grain and 21L of liquor fit in my H&G MT with less than 1cm to spare, honestly it really was that full! Didn't hit mash temp from strike temp, so with no room for additions to the tun I tapped of some wort and heated it in a pan before returning it to correct the mash temp to 67°. Mash was shorter than usual at 60mins and I found starches converted by this time.

Have used pellets in this brew 'cos that's what my local HBS had. Gonna drain to fermentor in a mo so fingers crossed. This brew has an Xmas corny with it's name on it, and with no drinky drinky until April (needs a long maturation, I'll have to hide it well from myself!

One question, I usually force carb beer, but since I'm in no rush should I force it, or prime it?

[SiHoltye]

Damn hop strainer had come apart, so I've got pelletized hops and trub in the FV. Skimming should help.

[SiHoltye]

Fortunately although the copper manifold was broken, it was not altogether apart and there seemed to be a lot of trub/hobs in the bottom of the boiler. So less disasterous than annoying. I will skim though, and not delay in racking to secondary.

Gonna do 1 week primary, one week secondary, into corni with priming sugars. As long as decent gravity reached , and it should be with a 1L 22g S04 starter, (It nearly bit my arm off to get in that fermentor!) all should be well.

[Seveneer]

This is a beautiful beer. I have made a few batches myself. The trouble is it tastes so good young

I recently found a dozen bottles I hid from a batch I made last March. It is fabulous.

Hope it turns out well.

/Phil.

[SiHoltye]

Cheers Phil,

This is the first 'Mr Whippy' krausen I've achieved! Putting that down to high gravity and larger starter than normal. I sampled the wort before pitching, wow that'll take some taming! Got a corni to keg and forget it in though so it should make it to maturation with a bit of luck.

What yeast did you use?

[SiHoltye]

S-04 has chewed down to 1.024 from 1.067 in 1½ days. How young do you mean Phil, this sample jar tastes great now!
Changed my mind about a settling tank. Will keg when FG stable.

[Seveneer]

I have a reputation for "sampling" my beers as soon as they get into the keg. This beer is great 2 weeks after brewing so I brew 10-12 gallons; 9 go into normal kegs for aging and the rest goes into a small keg for "sampling".

I have used S-04 and Nottingham. Both do well with this recipe.

/Phil.

[BitterTed]

I have a reputation for "sampling" my beers as soon as they get into the keg. This beer is great 2 weeks after brewing so I brew 10-12 gallons; 9 go into normal kegs for aging and the rest goes into a small keg for "sampling".

I have used S-04 and Nottingham. Both do well with this recipe.

/Phil.

Yes this is a great beer after 2 weeks! I need to follow your method and make 10 gallons at a time!!

[SiHoltye]

It's at 1.023 after 7 days. 64% attenuation with 22g S-04. Will try rousing. This level of attenuation has been reached on the last 2 brews. Wonder why?

[SiHoltye]

Gave it a gentle stir yesterday. A few bubbles today, and a reassuring 'poof' when I cracked the lid a moment ago.

[SiHoltye]

I kegged at 1.017 so 75% attenuation there.

[SiHoltye]

Am having a sneaky ½pt just to remove sediment from the corni - honest! The brew has by no means finished maturing and has a harsh bitter quality to it still. This is 7 weeks into the 4 months min maturation Durden Park recommend. It's tasting like it's gonna be really good. I'm not blowing my trumpet in any way; it's not my recipe and the methods to make it have been supplied by advice on this forum. I'm keen to try other historic recipe's if this turns out like it's suggesting.

[SteveD]

Nice work. You'll enjoy that if you manage to hang on to it long enough. Those Durden Park recipes are excellent. Some look so deceptively simple but especially when you keep them for the suggested maturation time, they're cracking beers.

I brewed the Simpsons of Baldock March beers recently - the OG1061 one tastes really good already, and the OG1100 will be a killer in a year's time

[oblivious]

I see on Stonch's site Brouwerij de Molen in the Netherlands is producing a 1914 London porter

http://stonch.blogspot.com/2008/02/1914 ... tison.html

[SteveD]

I see on Stonch's site Brouwerij de Molen in the Netherlands is producing a 1914 London porter

http://stonch.blogspot.com/2008/02/1914 ... tison.html

[/quote]

Interesting blog. It's being contract brewed by the Dutch brewery to his recipe. I'd have gone for the 1850 Porter - by 1914 restrictions were beginning to bite and beer was about to be changed dramatically for rest of the century. The 1914 brew was already down 10 gravity points compared to the 1850 version