I am considering a porter for my next brew, came across this one, the brewer took this one from Ron Pattison, A Home Brewers Guide to Vintage Beer. A 19th century Porter.
- Batch size: 5 US gallons (18.9 L)
- Original gravity: 1.058
- Final gravity: 1.016
- Bitterness: 72+ (calculated)
- Color: 29 SRM
MALTS
- 10 lb. (4.55 kg) Maris Otter pale ale malt
- 2.5 lb. (1.14 kg) British brown malt
- 6.5 oz. (182 g) black patent malt
- HOPS
- 2.5 oz. (70 g) Hazel Dell Goldings, 5.7% a.a. @ 60 min
- 2.75 oz. (77 g) Hazel Dell Goldings, 5.7% a.a. @ 45 min
- YEAST
- 2 sachets Safale Fermentis S-04 dry yeast
- ADDITIONAL ITEMS
- 3 oz. (84 g) corn sugar to prime if bottling
BREWING NOTES
Mash at a water-to-grist ratio of 1.5 qt./lb. (3.1 L/kg) at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until wort runs clear, and then sparge with enough water to collect about 6.5 gal. (26 L) of wort in the kettle. Boil for a total of 60 minutes, adding hops as indicated.
Chill wort to 66°F (19°C), rack to fermenting vessel, aerate, and pitch yeast. Ferment for 3 weeks in the upper 60s °F (18–20°C), and then prime and bottle or keg and force carbonate as normal.
PARTIAL-MASH VERSION
Replace 8 lb. (3.6 kg) of the Maris Otter with 5 lb. (2.3 kg) of British liquid malt extract. Conduct a mini-mash with the remaining malts at 150°F (66°C) for 45 minutes. Thoroughly mix the extract into the resulting wort, bring to a boi
I had originally planned to include some amber malt, too, but my local homebrew store didn’t stock it, and I wasn’t that sure that modern amber malt is as close to the amber malt of 200 years ago as today’s brown malt is. So, I substituted in just enough black patent malt to complete a recipe similar to what some brewers might have used back then.
There is some question about the extent to which Goldings were used in dark beers, but it is one of the only hop varieties—maybe
the only hop variety—grown today that was also available in 19th century Britain. It’s such a good hop that it must have been used by at least a few brewers.
I used
The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer by Ron Pattinson to help formulate my porter replica and followed Ron’s suggestion to use Whitbread yeast. Here are my notes.
- March 1, 2017: I pitched yeast at 3 p.m. into 64°F wort.
- March 2, 2017: At 7 a.m., there was a 1/4″ layer of kräusen, and the airlock was burping every 10 seconds.
- March 15, 2017: I took a gravity reading: 1.015.
- March 29, 2017: I kegged most of the batch and bottled a small portion, still at 1.015.
- April 1, 2017: I took a taste from the keg and am quite pleased.
- April 11, 2017: I popped open a bottle with a nice hiss. It’s lightly carbonated and clear, and taste is good, but I slightly prefer the kegged portion.
I don’t know how close these two came to what was actually brewed back in 19th century Britain, but I am quite happy with my results, and if I came anywhere close on the porter, it’s no wonder that it was so popular for so long. If I brew the IPA again, I’ll have to include a way of mimicking the hot rolling ocean voyage to India these beers endured after the breweries released them.
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