Whitbread Porter 1811 recipe (Using oak kilned malt)

[orlando]

I thought this brew day might be of particular interest to those of you interested in historical brewing. This was inspired by a forum member fuggledog (Ben Heaven) over at Jim's who was in turn inspired by Ron Pattinson's research on historical recipes to kiln his own malt. I was intrigued by his post and he has kindly kilned some mal,t in the manner it would have been done in the early 19c, for me to use (charging relatively little, thanks Ben).

The malt is kilned over oak to around 550 EBC and is a brown porter malt with no or little diastatic power. This lead me to debate the value of mashing this but I decided to do so as this was the recommendation. My reservation arose from reading and listening to Gordon Strong on the usual practice of mashing all grains together regardless of the fact that there are obviously no enzymes left to convert the malt sugars, and that mashing at higher temps will extract harshness and bitterness from roasted malts.

Another aspect to the recipe was multi gyle boiling and the use of "aged" hops. Ben had worked out what the bittering potential was and suggested a 1:1 IBU ratio. As for the boiling his own experiments suggest that you can achieve the "intire" effect with a 90 minute boil. From this it is arguable that I haven't exactly replicated the recipe, but as homebrewers we know we can only ever really get close even to modern brews, given our limitations. For me the key to the brew is how the brown malt performs, kilned as it is over oak.

Recipe

4.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins)

4.150 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) 73.5 %

1.500 kg Brown Porter Malt (circa 19th century) - Oak (550.0 EBC) 26.5 %

60.00 g Goldings, East Kent [7.20 %] - First Wort 90.0 min 48.4 IBUs

1.0 pkg Fat Cat Yeast (Fat Cat Brewery #Charles Wells Brewery)

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.051 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %

Bitterness: 48.4 IBUs Calories: 481.9 kcal/l

Est Color: 79.7 EBC

Brew length 25 litres

The mash is obviously important for this brew as I want it to have a lot more body than my standard beers so mashing high was the key. Doughed in at 75.8c with a mash target of 68.9 (started at 69.4 finished at 68.8). Disappointingly the CRS was much more aggressive at lowering PH and this malt, being a little more acidic, lowered the mash PH even more (around 4.6 which at room temp is likely to be .3 lower so a real worry, any comments?) I usually fly sparge but Ben recommended I went for a batch sparge. As my mash tun is large enough I also went for a 1 step sparge, draining the tun (slowly) into the boiler containing all the hops, then recharging the tun with 27 litres of CRS treated water at a much higher temperature than usual but the HLT produced water 2c under target at 73.5. Mash steep temp was 72.4, replaced the lid and thermal cover for 10 minutes. Run off was slowed right down to improve extraction and took 45 minutes. Thought about 15 minutes and arguably should have done but BS2 calculated extraction rate achieved as an astonishing 87.2% so I don't think this mattered. Upshot was I hit all my liquid targets and achieved an OG of 1.051 against a predicted 1.050. I tasted the first runnings and expected harshness or bitterness but was surprised by how smooth it was, there was a very slight hint of smoke but I may have been overly influenced by knowing how it was kilned.

I took pictures but unfortunately somehow lost the early mash shots which are the most interesting. Sorry for the rather boring ones to follow.

Post boil trub, it was thick & dark

OG shot

Crash cool

I like a low start and it ended up a little higher than usual as I had a problem with the chiller. I hadn't opened up the valve for running the warm water away and so it went into FV at about 30+ before I noticed.

Tucked up set at 20c to encourage a litle ester. Will raise by 2 degrees when fermented out to reduce diacetyl.

 

[screamlead]

Like the look of that one i may even roast some of my own barley over oak chips and give it a go too. :

 

[orlando]

You know, you're the first person to respond to this brewday post either here or on Jim's and I thought it would be of more interest. Admittedly it has been viewed a lot but given the unusual nature of the ingredients I thought there might be more questions. Hey ho.

I'm over a week into fermentation now and have been meticulously recording the brew both in terms of temperature and gravity readings and interestingly the aroma and taste, to try and get a feel for how it's performing. The thing that has surprised me most is the amazing complexity of flavours and aromas it has. The thing that has not really come over is the kilning over oak which I expected would give it a smokiness and be off putting. The one problem I have had is attenuation, the fermentation has slowed dramatically and looks like it is sticking at around 1.019 with an expected FG of 1.015. I mashed high and didn't get my mash PH right so this may account for it but if I'm left with a more dextrinous brew then the extra body may well suit the style.

I have tried rousing and raising temps but may have to settle for a higher FG.

If you want to have a go I suggest you contact Ben who has really gone to town on experimenting with a number of methods used back then including hay and hornbeam. His experience could help to ensure you get a realistic malt to brew with.

 

[Vossy1]

Great post O , I hadn't seen it until today. I'm a great fan of older beer recipes, one of my fav brewing books has to be Durden Park. One thing I've learnt making those beer is not to get hung up on detail, as the brewers of yester year wouldn't have...sometimes I think we think to much when we should trust :grin: Same goes for repeatability of results, as an all grain brewer the worlds your oyster so why not wing it a bit every now and then. Fell on your feet getting the grain malted, it's to make it a special brew. I'd be interested to know what you think when it's ready, I'm not a fan of Rauch but I do like mildly smoky porters :drink:

 

[TheMumbler]

Like Vossy I missed this until now. I would love to do something from the Durden Park book as I tried a pale ale made with home made pale amber (by one of the NCB members) a while back and I thought it had a lot of depth of flavour. However I am struggling to get much brewing done at all so I'm not sure whether I could justify the expense of a grain mill to allow me to roast in the oven at home. Very good of Ben to send you some of his home kilned grain.

Thanks for taking the time to give us so much detail on the brewday and fermentation.If you could post some tasting notes when it is matured that would be great.

:

 

[orlando]

Thanks for your interest guys.

What I can tell you already is the smokiness I expected has so far NOT appeared in the daily FV tastings. It is incredibly complex for such a simple grist and the layers of different flavours are really surprising. The novelty of a malt made like this is it will confound expectations and experience, it is literally like no other. That presents a difficulty in that your not quite sure whether what you are tasting is what the malt brings to the party or your equipment & technique. I would be interested to get feedback on it from some beer judges in an attempt to get this level of discrimination. Probably bottle it this weekend and then an agonising month to wait :

 

[Vossy1]

Why not send a bottle along to the Hot Break O, I'm sure the judges will be interested in giving you feed back :hmm:

 

[orlando]

Now that's not a bad idea. The timings a little tight but it might just be ready. Where do I send it? I understand it is £7 to enter a bottle (2 the same?) but don't know the date by which this has to be done.

 

[Vossy1]

I don't think your beer fits into any of the classes :lol: but if you have a word with Dunfie(Calum) he may be able to sort you out

 

[orlando]

Looks like first place then :party:

 

[TheMumbler]

Taking some to the Hot Break sounds like a good plan, neutral feedback is always good. I'd certainly be happy to "judge" a bottle for you. Sadly I won't be at the Hot Break, but I'm sure you would be able to get somebody to have a taste. Probably best to do it early in the day before everybody has a thrashed palate and impaired judgement though

 

[RokDok]

Orlando,

Just spotted our post now.

I like the idea of pushing the boundaries a bit.

Brown malt, smoky was the main ingredient in beers of yore.

I look forward to the tasting notes.

RD

 

[orlando]

Orlando,

Just spotted our post now.

I like the idea of pushing the boundaries a bit.

Brown malt, smoky was the main ingredient in beers of yore.

I look forward to the tasting notes.

RD

You intrigue me, what do you mean by our post?

Happy to write it up once it has come to fruition and would certainly be interested by any feedback. Smoky so far it isn't though, that's what's so intriguing about this malt. Will keep you all posted on its progress. Will be bottled on Monday and then the long wait begins.