Roasted barley is not appropriate in Porter, at any time.
Black patent and chocolate, yes; roasted barley, no.
Bob
It's kinda confusing isn't it? SInce there was historically little distinction between stouts and porters (you would know, oh Obi Wan of costumed/historical brewing
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For example roasted barley is said to be a key ingredient in stout, especially Guinness. But, there is historical evidence that Guinness did not use roasted barley, but the more expensive roasted malt until fairly recently in their overall history. Yet it seems some brewers of porter did use roasted barley.
The BJCP even concedes that some roasted barley is allowable in porters, but the guidelines from the Brewer's Association specifically say that roasted barley is not acceptable in Porter. I think that is wrong personally, as there is plenty of historical precedent for it.
Besides, isn't black patent just a type of roasted barley? And aren't most of the crystal malts made by "roasting" the barley?
In the same vein, Randy Mosher writes extensively about Porter and Stout in Radical Brewing, and his conclusion is that Porter's definition changed every 20 years or so as technology advanced. Recipes went from 100% Brown Malt, then to 33% Brown/Amber/Pale, then to mostly Pale/Black malt, in the span of a few decades. Now, according to the BJCP, Brown (which we think of as predominatly British) Porter "should not have a significant black malt character."
This is an even more interesting topic than the original one...(Sorry OP) Maybe a kind mod would split this off into a nifty historical/contemprary discussion of ingredients. (It would sure beat answering another question about carbonation
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Camra has a neat blurb about Arthur Guiness adding Roasted barley to it...
http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=180680