Brewing a 'traditional London porter'

Agentgonzo · Friday at 4:33 PM

One of my friends has asked me to brew a traditional London porter for him... or at least what he thinks one was.
Traditional, in the sense that it's what London porters working on the Thames back in the 17/1800s.

We spent a jolly nice weekend 'testing' out a bunch of dark beers.

What he's after:

4-4.5%
Maltiness: A fair bit of maltiness, but needs to be thirst quenching. The burnt notes/acrid flavours from stouts are to be avoided.
Colour: Not that important as it turns out... but 'darkish'.
Body: this is hard to quantify, but it should be thirst quenching - ie well attenuated/digestible. We tried a few milds and those were a bit too thin (in terms of their 'watered down flavour' that you can get with milds. But the 'quaffability' was good.
Fruitiness/Belgian spice: it's not a goal, but he's not averse to a bit of these flavours to add to the interest of the drink
hops: enough to get a good balance, but definitely light on both the flavour and bitterness of the hops. When quizzed, he would prefer earthy flavours rather than floral flavours, so I'm thinking English hops like fuggles instead of American hops
Mouthfeel: ideally silky.

We tried a few. Starting with Fuller's London Porter. This was about the right amount of 'quaffability' but he'd prefer it a little less bitter (roasted bitterness) and an increased maltiness

For the more obscure beers (if people have had them)
Postman's knock by Hobson was pretty much on the money. Staffordshire Black Grouse Stout was great in terms of the maltiness/body, if the bitterness could be reduced.

So I've not brewed porters much at all. I've orderded myself some:

black malt
light chocolate
chocolate
brown (450 EBC)
carafa 1 special

I have others in stock, Maris otter, munich, crystal, amber, cara-aroma

Do people have any recommendations/recipes to attempt the above? Any/all help will be appreciated

Agentgonzo · Friday at 4:59 PM

I don't keep liquid yeasts and tend to get the yeast from CML as they are the only ones who won't charge a fiver to post a sachet of yeast... what would people recommend for the yeast for a porter? S-04 is my go-to for english ales, and have some of that in the fridge

Clint · Friday at 5:19 PM

Back in the day I think those porters may have been re-brewed beers that were past their best. You may also want to look at water profiles.
Your required description with thirst quenching with some Belgian character makes me think of a dark SAISON!

Agentgonzo · Friday at 5:26 PM

Clint said:
Back in the day I think those porters may have been re-brewed beers that were past their best. You may also want to look at water profiles.
Your required description with thirst quenching with some Belgian character makes me think of a dark SAISON!

I'm thinking a dark saison might work.

He did mention that a German dunkel would be pretty good if it had more malt flavour

YeastFace · Friday at 5:44 PM

May I suggest this from the LAB archives:

https://londonamateurbrewers.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Bring_Your_Daughter_to_the_Porter

I haven't brewed it myself, but definitely used it as a reference for my recent Porter.

Seems you have everything in stock grist wise, apart from the Crystal Rye.

Edit - At 1.018 FG that might not hit the quaffability mark, but may be helpful in any case.

Caramel Ox · Friday at 5:45 PM

When you said traditional I was thinking of this https://store.thekernelbrewery.com/products/vatted-stout-porter-1864-8-2-330ml

jof · Friday at 5:49 PM

I prefer to use chocolate & crystal malt in my dark beers.
Usually around 200g of each per batch.

Tried using black malt once, but went back to chocolate after I used it up, as I think it's more versatile.

Oh & 10g magnum for bittering and around 30g combination of Brambling cross/EKG/Fuggles for flavour & aroma.

Clint · Friday at 6:05 PM

Is that 10g magnum for everything?

YeastFace · Friday at 6:17 PM

Hobson's list the ingredients if you hadn't already seen:

Local Maris Otter malting barley, Pale Chocolate malt and Dark Crystal malt.

Goldings and Fuggles British hop varieties.

stubrewworx · Friday at 7:08 PM

Pale/brown/black at 90/7/3% with ekg at start and end of boil. Windsor and Notts to finish. A brew I was happy with.

The next iteration is pale/brown/crystal 240/black with fuggles.

I think Brown malt is the key for a London porter.

Hazelwood Brewery · Friday at 7:20 PM

YeastFace said:
May I suggest this from the LAB archives:

https://londonamateurbrewers.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Bring_Your_Daughter_to_the_Porter

I haven't brewed it myself, but definitely used it as a reference for my recent Porter.

Seems you have everything in stock grist wise, apart from the Crystal Rye.

Edit - At 1.018 FG that might not hit the quaffability mark, but may be helpful in any case.

This is a nice porter, I had it when Lee (the brewer) and I did a bottle swap and video-chat. It’s won several awards too so you can have confidence in it.

jof · Friday at 7:37 PM

Clint said:
Is that 10g magnum for everything?

No. 10g magnum for bittering at the start.
Then I use real hops for flavour & aroma

Clint · Friday at 8:10 PM

Won't the 10g give you a bog standard,plus or minus an odd %. What batch size are you brewing?

YeastFace · Friday at 8:15 PM

For v2 of mine, I'm thinking of halving the Brown and replacing that with Simpson's Imperial (which is probably the closest to old diastatic Amber we have, like the Victorian recipes have). Should cut down time waiting for the Brown to mellow.

jof · Friday at 8:33 PM

Clint said:
Won't the 10g give you a bog standard,plus or minus an odd %. What batch size are you brewing?

Yep that's the point.
23l of porter only needs a light bittering.
I'm not trying to conflict with other people more complete recipes, I'm just reporting what I do.
After all it's homebrew so I hope everyone adjusts their recipies to their personal preference if they repeat them.

Clint · Friday at 8:41 PM

Sorry...I got distracted..topic is PORTER!

Agentgonzo · Friday at 11:12 PM

jof said:
I prefer to use chocolate & crystal malt in my dark beers.
Usually around 200g of each per batch.

Tried using black malt once, but went back to chocolate after I used it up, as I think it's more versatile.

Oh & 10g magnum for bittering and around 30g combination of Brambling cross/EKG/Fuggles for flavour & aroma.

What was wrong with black malt and in what way is chocolate more versatile?

Agentgonzo · Friday at 11:37 PM

YeastFace said:
May I suggest this from the LAB archives:

https://londonamateurbrewers.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Bring_Your_Daughter_to_the_Porter

I haven't brewed it myself, but definitely used it as a reference for my recent Porter.

Seems you have everything in stock grist wise, apart from the Crystal Rye.

Edit - At 1.018 FG that might not hit the quaffability mark, but may be helpful in any case.

Looks promising. Slightly higher ABV and IBU than I was intending, but if I keep the ratios the same I can just reduce them both slightly and I think I'll be on to a winner!

Thanks for the tip.

Agentgonzo · Friday at 11:38 PM

Has anyone had much experience with carafa special?

I'm a bit skeptical about the reduced bitterness due to dehusking - especially after I've had it delivered and it looks just the same as other malts!

Agentgonzo · Friday at 11:41 PM

Similar question with cold steeping dark grains overnight... I did a simple test by cold steeping about 10g overnight compared with hot steeping for an hour. The cold steep did have reduced bitterness, but also flavour and colour, so I honestly didn't notice much difference between cold steeping and "using less malt to begin with"

Brewing a 'traditional London porter'

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