As featured in CAMRA’s – The Modern Homebrewer – Andy Parker & Jamil Zainasheff and sponsored by ourselves The Malt Miller.

We would highly recommend purchasing and reading this book as it feature not only a wide selection of recipes but some great knowledge and techniques from Andy and Jamil on how to brew the best beer possible at home.

This recipe was provided for the book from a professional brewer, all of the recipes were scaled by the writers to a 20ltr batch size using 75% efficiency.

Where ever possible we have matched the exact ingredients, however in some recipes slight changes may be required and volume adjustments based on ingredient available to homebrewers. Be sure to fully read the below details before purchasing so you are fully confident in the process and aware of any ingredients which are not included with this kit that you will need to add.

Weights are removed on this page due to publishing agreements but will be provided on the bags when the recipe is purchased or are present in the book for those who purchase it.

 

---

Ingredients Included

Crisp – Black Malt
Crisp – Amber MaltCrisp – Chocolate Malt
Crisp Best (Pale) Ale Malt
Cascade T90 Pellets (80 grams)
Goldings (East Kent Goldings) – T90 Pellets 100g (1 pack)
Fermentis SafAle US-05 11.5g (1 pack)

---

Method

Beer Style (main): British Ales
Beer Style (sub): Brown Porter
Batch Size: 20
Original Gravity: 1.065
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV %: 6.7

Mash efficiency: 75
Brewing equipment:

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 67
Length (mins) (Step 1): 60

Mash notes: London water, just treated with a bit of campden to knock the chlorine out

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60

Hop / kettle additions and timing:

EKG 20g/0.7oz @ 60 mins

EKG 20g/0.7oz, Cascade 20g/0.7oz @ 20 mins

EKG 20g/0.7oz, Cascade 20g/0.7oz @ 10 mins

EKG 40g/1.4oz, Cascade 40g/1.4oz @ 0 mins

Whirlpool / hop stand:

N/A

Yeast: Pitch 1 pack (11.5g/0.4oz) of Fermentis SafAle™ US-05
Fermentation temperature/steps: Ferment at 19°C/68°F for 7 days until gravity is stable, then cold crash

Secondary additions:

N/A

Comments:

Founders Paul Anspach and Jack Hobday boldly launched with The Porter as their flagship beer, staying true to the London roots. Paul explains “for Jack and me, learning to brew and learning about beer and its history very much went hand in hand. There is a lovely symmetry between the fact that The Porter was the beer that launched our brewery, and that it was the beer that put London on the map as the brewing capital of the world.”

In a way it is not at all surprising – if you consider that historically it is the water chemistry of a region that tends to define its beer, then it follows that London based homebrewers just beginning to get to grips with this aspect of brewing would find success with a Porter. With regards to the beer itself, I think brewing darker beers gives you a better opportunity to properly engage with the malts, in a way that producing Pale Ales and IPAs does not. It’s a great way to learn about the malting process and what it brings to the beer, and given the big, bold flavour characteristics that highly kilned and roasted malts have, it forces you to really focus on balance.

Paul worked hard to get the grist right for The Porter – “The danger with very dark beers such as The Porter is always about losing the balance. Highly kilned and roasted malts such as Chocolate and Black Malt can be extremely powerful and overwhelming, specifically with regards to astringency. This really needs to be kept in check, otherwise things can get a little ashy. As a rule of thumb, the higher the level of kiln/roast, the less of the malt you should be using. Sweetness also needs to be kept in check. Its also easy to underestimate the importance of hops in darker beers. As beers such as The Porter arent primarily hop-forward beers, its tempting to not give too much thought to the hops, or to conclude that you really dont need to use that many at all. In a sense, the opposite is true. Given how bold the malt characteristics can be, the hops really have to work hard to make themselves known. Whether you are trying to balance out the malt sweetness with some hop bitterness or add some nice punchy fruit aromas to the beer, its always worth thinking about how much malt character you are up against. Indeed, The Porter actually has a larger kettle addition than The IPA.

Be sure to check out our YouTube channel where you will be able to find lots of great content featuring other breweries.

Don’t forget we also have an amazing range of beer to buy in our online beer shop Indie Beer Fridge for your enjoyment at home