Porter Kit Recommendations

[Shed101]

But I have read several places that treacle has been used by British brewers of Porter, so still considering using just a touch of it..

I've got a 19th century recipe that calls for 8 pounds of hops, 9 pounds of treacle, 8 pounds of colour (?), 8 pounds of sliced liquorice root, 2 drachms of salt of tartar, 2 ounces of Spanish-liquorice (?), and half an ounce of capsicum (!)

... so I guess treacle wasn't that radical. I'd definitely give it a go as I have a bit of liking for treacle :unsure:

 

[Shed101]

Thanks for that Robbo, looks a goodun!

Shed101 - my recipe that was, well not a disaster, but it was not the brown porter i wanted and was too strong in caramel and molasses flavour (i don't like dessert beer)

Coopers Dark Ale Tin ( too dark :unsure: )
Morgans Caramalt LME
250g Treacle (too sweet/molassesy)
100g Choc Malt
100g Crystal
Late hops 5mins - 25g Styrian Goldings & Fuggles
S-04 Yeast

NEXT brew i will Sub In Lighter Base Tin, US05 yeast and Sub Out Treacle and S-04 Yeast. (These two outs will stay in my Dark Ale recipe which just has Roast Barley instead of crystal, and LDME instead of the Caramalt, and will reduce treacle by 100g)

Mick.

Thanks Mickthe ... and Robbo, too.

Oh, so many recipes, so little time... :icon_cheers:

 

[BjornJ]

I've got a 19th century recipe that calls for 8 pounds of hops, 9 pounds of treacle, 8 pounds of colour (?), 8 pounds of sliced liquorice root, 2 drachms of salt of tartar, 2 ounces of Spanish-liquorice (?), and half an ounce of capsicum (!)

... so I guess treacle wasn't that radical. I'd definitely give it a go as I have a bit of liking for treacle :unsure:

You may be referring to this recipe? http
://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/Londo...ew-Porter.html

I saw that one as well, it defines "colour" as:

Put into some of the wort while warm half a pound of moist sugar, boil this in an iron pot till it becomes a thick black liquid, and then add before it is cold a pint of the warm porter, with a spoonful of salt of steel, and mix them well together, this is what the porter brewers call colour, and it is in quality between a bitter and sweet which gives to the liquor a fine mellow taste and colour so much admired in good porter;


(salt of Steel seems to be Ferrous Sulphate, not sure if this helps break the sugars down or just increase sulphate levels)

 

[Shed101]

You may be referring to this recipe? http
://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/Londo...ew-Porter.html

Mine's from The Cottage Economy ... it's actually there as a typical example of the terrible things people were putting in beer, "what a mess of drugs!", and says that it was a taken from a book published around the time (1820s).

Thanks for the link and the description of colouring