Brewing a 'traditional London porter'

RoomWithABrew · 2025-03-08T00:26:01+0000

Perhaps for something " traditional"

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1823-devenish-porter.html?m=1

jof · 2025-03-08T07:44:58+0000

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

Just my opinion. I like the colour & taste it imparts, so I order it in 3kg bags and use it in several of my brew permutations.

I'll often follow the recipie first time. If I like it, the next time I make it I will change it slightly depending on what ingredients I have available on brewday. The result isn't always better (my last dunkleweis turned out like a dark mild), but I find it's a fun way to gain knowledge.

I did buy a 500g bag of black malt in the past, and while it did the job, I preferred the flavour of the chocolate malt.

YeastFace · 2025-03-08T08:19:31+0000

Agentgonzo said:
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!

Yes. In a Black IPA and Dunkel. And I have used Sinamar (which is a concentrated Carafa Special wort) to adjust colour in many beers.

Dehusking reduces the astringency associated with roasting, since there's no husk to burn.

Agentgonzo · 2025-03-08T08:20:24+0000

YeastFace said:
Yes. In a Black IPA and Dunkel. And I have used Sinamar (which is a concentrated Carafa Special wort) to adjust colour in many beers.

Dehusking reduces the astringency associated with roasting, since there's no husk to burn.

Did you notice the reduced bitterness/astringency?

YeastFace · 2025-03-08T09:06:16+0000

Agentgonzo said:
Did you notice the reduced bitterness/astringency?

I haven't compared like-for-like, but there's very little roast astringency in the Dunkel.

I have added some sinamar to a pint of Red IPA, and there is just a slight background hint of dryness.

Have tried cold steeping and mash capping my stout recipe, and get little difference than my normal mashing of the dark grains tbh.

Wigglebutts Brewery · 2025-03-08T16:00:28+0000

Hold dark grains until the last 10 minutes of boil. You’ll get color and flavor with little of the bitterness. John Palmer mentions this process in his guidance.

Agentgonzo · 2025-03-08T16:36:52+0000

Wigglebutts Brewery said:
Hold dark grains until the last 10 minutes of boil. You’ll get color and flavor with little of the bitterness. John Palmer mentions this process in his guidance.

I've read a variety of sources around this. A lot of them are anecdotal (like Palmer's) and as humans we are very susceptible to confirmation bias.

Experiments/side by side testing reveal that "mash capping" reduces bitterness along with flavour and colour.

So I remain skeptical as to whether leaving the roasted grains until the last 10 minutes offers anything above "using less grains in the first place"

I might use this as an opportunity to experiment myself

Dark Arts · 2025-03-09T05:58:59+0000

Thought a traditional porter was 100% brown malt??? Until they could measure the gravity and worked out using a base malt+dark roasts was more efficient(cost affective) etc etc

Try something like,

Base malt=79%
Crystal=7%
Brown=7%
Chocolate=7%

Yeast Us05

Hopps fuggles/EKG to get 30-40ibu

jof · 2025-03-09T09:39:58+0000

@DocAnna previously posted a summary page from crisp malt showing %malt type for a range of beer styles.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/homebrew-recipes-from-crisp-malt.102497/

Brewing a 'traditional London porter'

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