← All brews

13C English Porter

English Porter I

Brewed 2023-03-25 Batch · 23 L Owen Paterson

Grain bill

Gladfield Ale Malt 4 kg 61.4%
Gladfield Munich Malt 1.4 kg 21.5%
Gladfield Light Crystal Malt 0.4 kg 6.1%
Gladfield Light Chocolate Malt 0.3 kg 4.6%
Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt 0.25 kg 3.8%
Gladfield Eclipse Wheat Malt 0.14 kg 2.1%

Adjuncts

Yeast nutrient half tsp @ 10 min
Whirlfloc half tablet @ 10 min

Hop schedule

Hop 60 min10 min1 min
Pacific Jade 12g··
Taiheke ·20g30g

Yeast

LalBrew Nottingham1 packet

Water additions

Calcium Chloride 4 g in mash
Calcium Sulphate 2 g in mash
Sodium Bicarbonate 4 g in mash
Calcium Carbonate 6 g in mash
Magnesium Sulphate 1 g in mash

Tasting notes

First English Porter. Complex dark malt character from Munich, Light Crystal, Light Chocolate and Shepherds Delight. Pacific Jade bittering with Taiheke late additions.

About This Beer

Owen’s first English Porter, brewed just 5 days before the Black IPA — a productive pair of brews in late March 2023. The grain bill is built for complexity: Ale Malt as the backbone, Munich for bready malt depth, Light Crystal for sweetness, Light Chocolate for roast character without harshness, Shepherds Delight for a reddish hue and light caramel notes, and a small Eclipse Wheat for smoothness.

The mash was run with a very high volume — 26L — and only 8L of sparge water, a technique that extracts fully without the risk of astringency from over-sparging on a dark grain bill. Water treatment with sodium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate raises alkalinity to suit the dark malt character.

Pacific Jade provides clean bittering at 60 minutes. Taiheke at 10 minutes and 1 minute adds late aroma. LalBrew Nottingham ferments clean and fast. 23 litres bottled with 140g dextrose.

OG 1.057, FG 1.012, ABV 5.91%.