Hey there – this week, we continue our homebrew swap series. We are now into the 20s; that’s a great a thing. We taste a homebrewed English Porter from a guy named Rich who brewed in South Dakota but calls Rhode Island home. Check out our video regarding these Brew Dudes Homebrew Swap – Exchange #21:

Before we get into our notes, here is the recipe that Rich sent us.

Rich’s English Porter Recipe

This recipe is for a 6 US gallon batch.

Ingredients:
11 pounds of Maris Otter malt
1 pound 12 ounces Brown malt
1 pound 12 ounces CaraRed malt
12 ounces Black Patent malt

1 ounce CTZ (14% AA) first wort hopped

3 ounces of molasses at flameout

Yeast: London Ale Wyeast 1028

Notes
After fermentation completed, he put in 1.5 ounces of oak chips soaked in scotch and let them sit for 10-14 days.

Bottled around 5 weeks after the brew day. He added maybe a teaspoon of calcium chloride to filtered tap water from Rapid City, SD. Their tap water is great for dark beers, bicarb levels in the 200-300 range.

Calculations
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.020
ABV 6.1%
IBU 36

Homebrew Swap Notes

Although this beer was almost 10 months old, we thought it tasted great for the style. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss the aroma. It was filled with chocolate, a little bit of coffee, along with a caramel note which we thought came from the molasses. The flavor had a nice roasty/toasty flavor.

We were happy to see the inclusion of Brown malt in his recipe. As Mike said, this specialty malt doesn’t have many applications but it may be absolutely necessary for an English porter style. This malt really brings a nice deep toasty flavor and blends well with the darker roasted malts.

Mike felt the awesome aroma paid off in the taste. The malts were showcased well and the molasses really brought an extra layer that made the beer special.

We didn’t pick up a lot of flavor from the oak or the scotch but it could have been a nice background layer that we would have noticed if it were not there. It may not have been hitting us over the head, but I could see how the vanilla notes would be something that the more forward flavors were building off of.

OK – so that’s our 21st homebrew swap. If you want to exchange beers with us, you can contact us on our Contact Page.

Please comment below and if you like these kinds of videos, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Brew On!