When these Brew Dudes first started brewing, English Porters were a style we brewed a lot. It’s a good style when the base of your beer is built off of malt extract and your steeping grains on your stovetop. It’s been a while since we have had a Porter on the show, so we go with a bit of a throwback. Here’s a quality, straightforward English Porter with no extraordinary ingredients like fruit or chocolate to mess it up.
Straight Ahead Porter Recipe
For this recipe, we are providing percentages for the grain bill for you to use for your own typical volume.
Water:
Distilled water with additives to hit this profile.
Calcium: 100 ppm
Magnesium: 5 ppm
Sodium: 41 ppm
Sulfate: 80 ppm
Chloride: 200 ppm (resulting in a 2.5 to 1 chloride to sulfate ratio)
Grains:
Rahr Pale Ale Malt (77% of the bill)
English Crystal Malt – 55°L (7% of the bill)
Dark Chocolate Malt – 500° L (7% of the bill)
Biscuit Malt (6% of the bill)
Black Patent Malt (3% of the bill)
Hops:
2 ounces or 56 g of East Kent Goldings Hops – added for a 60 minute boil
Yeast:
1 packet of LalBrew Windsor Ale Yeast
Instructions:
Mashed at 152°F (67° C) for 50 minutes
Ramped up the temperature to 168°F (76° 68C) for 10 minutes mash out
Fermented for 2 weeks at 68°F (20° C)
Outcome:
Starting Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV: 4.2%
Our Straightforward Tasting Notes
Appearance: This beer is dark brown, not black which we feel hits the mark for this style.
Aroma: There is definitely the presence of roasty notes from the Black Patent Malt and some caramel notes from the Crystal malt. There’s also a hint of black licorice and a dusty milk chocolate character.
Flavor: This beer has a balance of flavors, with a significant roast character and a strong presence of darker chocolate malt. The low attenuation yeast keeps a certain sweetness in the beer, which complements the roastiness. Mike thinks there is a subtle hint of instant coffee or a weak cappuccino in the background.
Overall Impression: We like this beer and think with a bit more conditioning time to allow yeast to settle, it will taste cleaner and even better. This English Porter is going to be a great choice for colder weather and campfires that is coming our way in the Northern Hemisphere. Bring on the dark.
BREW ON!
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