George Washington Porter

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some assistance from some more seasoned brewers than I. Im trying to find a home brew version of George Washington's Porter recipe. The only thing I can find on Google is the actual transcript of the recipe, but it appears to be a HUGE batch size(30 gal) and im only setup for 5 gals. Has anyone heard of this and has a grain bill & recipe or can someone translate this into one?

Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste.
-- Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot.
let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yeat if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask
-- leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working
-- Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed."

think old georgie ever thought 300 and some years later we'd be tryin to understand his chicken scratch?

i love historical brews. its my "new" goal as a brewer.

can anyone help with this brew?

Well he was a pretty sharp tack with tremendous foresight(stepping down after 2 terms, refusing a noble title, etc), so I assume he knew that everything he wrote would be held with some esteem by posterity.

I like your idea of brewing historic recipes. What do you have on hand?

There are a lot of threads on this brew. Yards Brewing makes a version of this, but took plenty of liberty with the original recipe. They said that the amount of molasses in the original recipe made it pretty disgusting.

BrewThruYou said:

There are a lot of threads on this brew. Yards Brewing makes a version of this, but took plenty of liberty with the original recipe. They said that the amount of molasses in the original recipe made it pretty disgusting.

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Can you link? i searched the forums using the icrap app and didnt find one.

Clearwall said:

Can you link? i searched the forums using the icrap app and didnt find one.

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There's like dozens of threads. Not sure how it didn't find one of those.

BrewThruYou said:

There's like dozens of threads. Not sure how it didn't find one of those.

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Which folder?

Clearwall said:

Well he was a pretty sharp tack with tremendous foresight(stepping down after 2 terms, refusing a noble title, etc), so I assume he knew that everything he wrote would be held with some esteem by posterity.

I like your idea of brewing historic recipes. What do you have on hand?

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2 different versions of t.jefferson ale, next up is poor richards ale, and a 1776 porter.

brewing outside over an open fire is on the list for next spring/summer.

1ratdog said:

2 different versions of t.jefferson ale, next up is poor richards ale, and a 1776 porter.

brewing outside over an open fire is on the list for next spring/summer.

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Would you mind sharing the recipes?

Clearwall said:

Would you mind sharing the recipes?

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sure. later tonight when im home (at work now shhhhhhhhhhh) id be happy to share them.

unionrdr said:

I found through some searching,something that in colonial slang was called "whiskely". Stout,or it's pre-cursor,porter,even dark ales were aged in used bourbon barrels for a time. Whiskey beer,or whiskely as it was called up to prohibition. Some old timers still talk about making it.
So I used a cooper's dark ale can,3lbs of Munton's plain amber DME,& some hops to brew a dark ale. Soaked 4oz of medium toast French oak chips in 5 jiggers of Beam's Black for the whole ferment time in a plastic container in the fridge. Racked the dark ale onto them,liquid & all,for 8 days. It's been aging in the bottles about 7 weeks now.
It already had a smooth,dark malty/bourbon flavor. But it needed more time to carb & round out a bit more.

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sounds yummy.

unionrdr said:

I put 2 bottles in the fridge on day 29,a couple days ago. The qualities I described in the previous post was day 22. I found that folks say the French oak/bourbon combo mellows to an oaky vanilla sort of flavor @ 7 weeks or so. Have to try some & see. Not to bad that it's also 5.9%...:cross:

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keep me posted. i love oak/bourbon

Clearwall said:

Would you mind sharing the recipes?

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poor richards ale (from internet)
8lbs marris otter
2lbs flaked corn
.375 lbs molasses
.75 lb biscuit
.25 lb special b
.125 lbs chocholate
OG 1.060
1.25 oz EKG@75mins

1728 wyeast

i assume this recipe is for 5 gallons, doesnt say and i havent ran it thru my recipe calculator yet




thomas jefferson ale (from BYO magazine jan-feb 2002)
10lbs pilsner malt
5lbs malted wheat
1lb crystal 60
.25 lb chocolate
1.5oz EKG
1388 wyeast
---single infusion 155-158 60-90mins
add half hops at boil and half at 5 mins before flameout



thomas jefferson ale (from the homebrewers recipe guide by patrick higgens)
5 gallons

6lbs 2-row
4lbs wheat
1lb mollasses
1.5oz EKG bittering
1 oz EKG aroma
1 american ale yeast




1776 porter (from radical brewing by randy mosher)
5 gallons

4.5lbs engish pale malt
4.5lbs biscuit/amber malt
4.5lbs brown malt

3-4oz fuggle or golding (55-70 IBU)
.25oz licorice root,ground
.25oz brewers licorice

what yeast???? doent say


hope this helps