First AG porter recipe help

[Hengoedbrewer]

Hi all

I have a galaxy IPA to brew next but I am trying to plan ahead for future brews with some time on my hands. I used to exclusively drink dark beers and so would like a go at a porter, the only one I have ever done was the Festival Kit which was okay but very early in my brewing.

I have come up with the recipe below. Brewers Friend tells me that for a 10L ish batch (BIAB) I will get 30 IBU's and ABV of 5.3 at 70% efficiency. My main concern is the percentage of speciality malts...should it be around 5%?

1,750 g	United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale	38	3.75	71.4%
175 g	Crisp Malting - Crystal Dark - 77L	33.1	77	7.1%
150 g	Crisp Malting - Chocolate Malt	32.66	380	6.1%
175 g	United Kingdom - Brown	32	65	7.1%
200 g	Flaked Barley	32	2.2	8.2%

13 g	East Kent Goldings	Pellet	6.1	Boil	60 min	23.08	54.2%
11 g	East Kent Goldings	Pellet	6.1	Boil	10 min	7.08	45.8%

Yeast- Notty.
Ferment at 18-19c (temp controlled fridge).

Comments appreciated!

 

[Sadfield]

Chocolate and Brown malt together in those percentages is lovely. Any bitterness from them is offset by your lower hop IBUs. Nice.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Chocolate and Brown malt together in those percentages is lovely. Any bitterness from them is offset by your lower hop IBUs. Nice.

That's brill- thank you so much!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Arguably brown malt is the defining ingredient of London porters and you could do with more - the Fuller's porter is arguably the benchmark and consists of 75% pale, 14% crystal, 10% brown and 1.5% chocolate, 37 IBU of Fuggles, 5.4% ABV (so 1.056-ish OG, 1.016ish FG?).

Personally I'd use a yeast with less attenuation than Notty if you have the option.

I love Goldings to bits, but a less fancy hop is perhaps truer to style.

In these difficult times, perhaps you could partigyle a table beer/mild using most of the second runnings and some of the first runnings, fermented separately?

 

[Cyberjip]

Looks like a pretty solid recipie to me. Can't comment on the yeast though as I have never used it

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Arguably brown malt is the defining ingredient of London porters and you could do with more - the Fuller's porter is arguably the benchmark and consists of 75% pale, 14% crystal, 10% brown and 1.5% chocolate, 37 IBU of Fuggles, 5.4% ABV (so 1.056-ish OG, 1.016ish FG?).

Personally I'd use a yeast with less attenuation than Notty if you have the option.

I love Goldings to bits, but a less fancy hop is perhaps truer to style.

In these difficult times, perhaps you could partigyle a table beer/mild using most of the second runnings and some of the first runnings, fermented separately?

Fullers Porter was and remains one of my favourite porters- I had a bottle of it a few months back in a Fullers pub in Bristol which was my first in ages. I don't actually have any of the ingredients at all yet so free to mess about with recipe- what yeast woud better suit then do you think? I have half a pack of Safale 05 and an M44 which is earmarked for the Galaxy IPA, the only other yeast I have ever used were kit supplied ones and Wilko Gervin (which again is Notty I think?)

Thank you for that and the advice on the table beer!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Fuller's have a close relationship with Waitrose so you can often find the Porter there if one's convenient - but the stocking arrangements are haphazard, one Waitrose can have both Black Cab and the Porter, the next one will have none of the dark beers but will have Golden Pride. It's just a shame that the new regime are reluctant to put it on cask.

Yep, Wilko is generally considered to be a repacked Nottingham derivative of some kind, M44 is probably repacked BRY-97 (so don't be worried if it takes 48h to get going, it's notoriously laggy).

You just want a traditional British yeast that doesn't attenuate too much - so if you're sticking with dry then that could either be Windsor/S-33 or their more peppery cousin T-58, or Lallemand New England or at a pinch S-04. A pinch of something like Wilko after 48h will help Windsor/S-33/T-58 flocculate.

Or you could harvest Fuller's actual yeast from 1845 or Lancer, Imperial A09 Pub is meant to be close whereas WLP002 and 1968 that allegedly came from Fuller's don't have the marmalade that is so characteristic of Fuller's. I quite like WLP041 Pacific Ale (despite the name, it's British in origin) for its drinkability.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Fuller's have a close relationship with Waitrose so you can often find the Porter there if one's convenient - but the stocking arrangements are haphazard, one Waitrose can have both Black Cab and the Porter, the next one will have none of the dark beers but will have Golden Pride. It's just a shame that the new regime are reluctant to put it on cask.

Yep, Wilko is generally considered to be a repacked Nottingham derivative of some kind, M44 is probably repacked BRY-97 (so don't be worried if it takes 48h to get going, it's notoriously laggy).

You just want a traditional British yeast that doesn't attenuate too much - so if you're sticking with dry then that could either be Windsor/S-33 or their more peppery cousin T-58, or Lallemand New England or at a pinch S-04. A pinch of something like Wilko after 48h will help Windsor/S-33/T-58 flocculate.

Or you could harvest Fuller's actual yeast from 1845 or Lancer, Imperial A09 Pub is meant to be close whereas WLP002 and 1968 that allegedly came from Fuller's don't have the marmalade that is so characteristic of Fuller's. I quite like WLP041 Pacific Ale (despite the name, it's British in origin) for its drinkability.

Thanks again for the detailed info. Nearest Waitrose is a bit away which is not really too much of an issue- I enjoyed the London Porter as a change from the hoppy IPA's I now prefer but it was more a novelty than wanting to buy loads of it.

I'll have a look at yeast options when I order the ingredients. Would barley flakes be worthwhile to add; or are they not needed?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

You don't need barley flakes - you could add say 1% of peated malt (but no more - a little goes a long way) if you wanted a bit of smoke to it. There's a lot to be said for KISS though.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Revisiting this thread as about ready to order ingredients now. This looks a bit closer to London Porter recipe I think...

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
2,100 g	United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale	38	3.75	74.5%
400 g	Crisp Malting - Crystal Dark - 77L	33.1	77	14.2%
40g	Crisp Malting - Chocolate Malt	32.66	380	1.4%
280 g	United Kingdom - Brown	32	65	9.9%

25 g	Fuggles	Pellet	4.5	Boil	60 min	27.1	67.6%
12 g	Fuggles	Pellet	4.5	Boil	10 min	4.72	32.4%

Yeast- Danstar Nottingham.

Looking for about 10L in the FV.

How does this look? TIA!!

One question- is Dark Crystal ok, or is lighter preferred, or doesn't it matter?

 

[foxy]

According to Gordon Strong keep the dark crystal to a small percentage, he is a Grand Master Beer Judge so can probably pick up more in a beer than any of us could.
Steep your specialty grains, either hot 77 C for 20 to 30 mins or cold overnight.

 

[UKSkydiver]

Here is a link to the porter I have fermenting right now. The grain bill isn't that far off the one you originally posted.

It's not something I've brewed before and isn't ready yet, so can't give you advice, other than it's pretty similar.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/ukskydivers-brewdays.84762/post-894313

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Yeast- Danstar Nottingham.

One question- is Dark Crystal ok, or is lighter preferred, or doesn't it matter?

I'd use a less attenuating, more characterful yeast if you can - S-04 will do if you're stuck with dry yeasts, Imperial A09 Pub or harvesting from 1845 bottles would be better.

Fuller's brewbooks now record just "light crystal" for both the porter and the main Pride/ESB partigyle. Given that they were using 5% of 75°L in the partigyle according to John Keeling (original source BYO) and are now using 7.2% of "light crystal", I'd assume the new crystal is probably of the order of 50°L (130 EBC, 70 SRM).

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

I'd use a less attenuating, more characterful yeast if you can - S-04 will do if you're stuck with dry yeasts, Imperial A09 Pub or harvesting from 1845 bottles would be better.

Fuller's brewbooks now record just "light crystal" for both the porter and the main Pride/ESB partigyle. Given that they were using 5% of 75°L in the partigyle according to John Keeling (original source BYO) and are now using 7.2% of "light crystal", I'd assume the new crystal is probably of the order of 50°L (130 EBC, 70 SRM).

Thank you- I will be using Geterbrewed for ingriedients which lists light chrystal as 145-160EBC- so will probably go for that and hopefully get sufficient Porter colour from the choc and brown malts.