Help with a porter recipe based on George Washingtons original porter recipe

Background: I was trying to figure out what to brew on Presidents day. After a bit of reserach I discovered that Geroge Washington was very fond of porters and in fact his wife brewed them at home to give to his officers. I dug a little bit more and found that Yards Brewing was commisioned to brew GW's beer based off of his original recipe. I contacted to the bewery to see if they could provide some guidance on creating this beer.

Thought I would post what I learned and see if anyone had any advice/thoughts/recommendations. I'm hoping to have this finalized so I can brew this coming Monday.

Here is what they responded with:

"I was forwarded your e-mail by Steve Mashington. As a rule we don't give out exact recipes to our beers, but I'd be more than happy to point you in the right direction. The beer starts at 17 plato, and finishes between 4.5 and 5 degrees, using a fairly common English Ale yeast. There is about an fluid ounce per gallon of molasses (not black strap) in the beer, and we use crystal 65, black malt, roasted barley, and chocolate for color and flavor. There are no aroma hops in the beer, and we use bittering hops fairly sparingly. Hope this helps, and if you have anymore questions, please don't hesitate to ask."

The commercial version of this beer is around 7.5% abv

I think this is my ingredients list my problem is I just don't know what quantities. I may be missing something obvious as well.

crystal 65
black malt
roasted barley
chocolate (cocoa)
5-6oz of molasses
Hops, I'm not sure on
english ale yeast.

Sounds like one batch sparge and a 60 min boil.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Yeah, you are missing the Base Malt. Most likely 2-Row.

Look at the porter recipes on this site and pay attention to the percentages used of the malts you have listed as well as common hops used. I use Northern Brewer as a bittering hop and not much of it. .75 ounce for a 5 gallon batch.

Thanks to friend her is what I am thinking about:

OG 1.071
FG 1.018
IBU 51
ABV 6.8%

Boil Volume: 6 gallons
Batch: 5 gallons
10.50 lbs American two row Pale
00.75 lbs Black Patent
00.60 lbs Roasted Barley
00.50 lbs Chocolate
00.25 lbs Americak Crystal 60
00.40 lbs Molasses

1.00 oz Chinook - 60 min
0.75 oz Willamette - 20 min

I can say with near 100% certainty that george washington's original recipe did not contain black malt, crystal malt, chinook or willamette as none of those existed when he was alive - black patent wasn't invented until 1817, crystal doesn't show up until the end of the 1800's, willamette from the 1970's and chinook is from the 1980s. I don't know about roast barley but I'm pretty sure its a 20th century thing. A recipe from the late 1700's would probably have included 6-row and brown malt and goldings or cluster for hopping.