Bring Your Daughter to the Porter
By Lee Immins
BJCP 2021 Style 13C English Porter
The most awarded home brew beer in LAB history, and as far as we can tell - in the whole of the UK too.
This recipe is Lee's favourite amber malt version with roast malts added at at the end of the mash to reduce any harshness or astringency. Previous versions have the roast malts included in the mash and worked out fine.
An interesting substitution is to use Brown malt instead of Amber (weight for weight) or a mixture of Amber and Brown. Using Amber and/or Brown malt is considered the key factor in this beer - dont skip this ingredient! Because these malts take a while to meld into the beer, it is suggested to age this beer for a several months before drinking.
This beer works well as base for experimenting. Lee has tried oak-ageing, brett-ageing or as a basis for a smoked porter. It doesnt seem to matter what you do it, this beer almost always places in competition!
You can also see Lee's presentation on this beer here: Bring Your Porter
Awards
Black Friday 2015 (UBrew London, 11/2015)
1st - Table
3rd - Best in Show
London and South East Craft Brewing Competition (UBrew London, 05/2015)
3rd - Table
UK National Homebrewing Competition, 2016 (Bristol 2016)
1st - Table
Black Friday 2016 (UBrew London, 11/2016)
3rd - Table
Brew Con World Series I (Oval Space London, 11/2017)
2nd - Table
Hertford Brewing Club #1 The English Sessions (Hertford, 16/4/2018)
1st - Table 7: Porter and Brown Ale
1st - Best in Show
Welsh National 2018 (Tiny Rebel Newport, 9/2018)
1st - Table 6: Brown Ale & Porter
London Amateur Brewers Annual Club Trophy 2021 (Three Hills Outpost London, 2/8/2021)
1st - Champion
Measures
- IBU 38
- ABV 5.5%
- OG 1.060
- FG 1.018
- EBC 60
Ingredients
Water
London Water
Or aim for pH 5.45 mash, sulphate to chloride ratio 0.7
Or absolute ion values (ppm:) : C1 187 CL2 145, SO4 101
Malt
- Pale, 3 EBC, 71.3%
- Amber, 50 EBC, 12.5%
- Crystal, 150 EBC, 4.4%
- Crystal Rye (Thomas Fawcett), 175 EBC, 3.1%
- Dextrin/Cara-Pils, 2 EBC, 2.5%
Added at end of mash:
- Pale Chocolate, 500 EBC, 3.1%
- Chocolate, 1000 EBC, 1.3%
- Black, 1280 EBC, 1.9%
Hops
- 1.2g/litre Fuggles or Goldings at 15 minutes for flavour
- bittering hops at 60 minutes to 38 IBU. Lee has mainly English hops but recently switched to Colombus.
Example
For a 40 litre boil, 36 litres at end of boil:
40g Goldings pellets 4.8%aa at 15 mins
30g Colombus pellets 14.2%aa at 60 minutes
Yeast
West Yorkshire Ale (Wyeast 1469) is Lee's go-to yeast, but he has tried a fair few British yeasts and Pacific Ale worked well too
Process
Mash
- 60 minutes at 68C
- 15 minutes at 72C (for head retention)
- 10 minutes at 76C (mash out)
Boil
60 minute boil
Fermentation
- Ferment fairly cool - say 18C
- Raise a few degrees near the end of fermentation to drive attenuation