Fuller's London Porter Clone

Seasons Greetings!

This is my first time trying to clone a commercial beer I really like. With the help of my LHBS I came up with the following which seems to be bang on in terms of the brown porter style (at least as reported by promash). Since I'm trying to get close to an actual beer I thought I'd solicit some opinions.

Estimated OG: 1.051
Estimated IBU: 32.5

2.00 kg. Generic DME - Light
0.90 kg. Pale Malt(2-row)
0.45 kg. Victory Malt
0.22 kg. Chocolate Malt
0.22 kg. Crystal 60L
0.11 kg. Black Patent Malt

1.50 oz. Fuggle 60 min.
0.25 oz. Fuggle 30 min.
0.25 oz. Fuggle 15 min.
0.25 oz. Fuggle 0 min.

1.00 Unit(s)Irish Moss 15 Min.(boil)

White Labs WLP002 English Ale

I had wondered about adding a small amount of roasted barley but my LHBS guy didn't seem to think it was necessary. I'm also not sure about the victory malt - but only because I've never used it and I don't know what it adds.

Thanks a bunch and I look forward to any comments!

Brad

I dunno about the Victory malt either. If it were me, I'd lose that and increase the crystal and chocolate a little. Also, any particular reason you're only using Fuggles? Why not finish with a little Willamette? Also, I used #WLP013 on my oatmeal stout and it came out pretty good, although I've heard great things about #WLP002 too.

bradsul said:

I'm also not sure about the victory malt - but only because I've never used it and I don't know what it adds.
Brad

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Toasted malt that adds a "Biscuit" or toasted flavor to English ales.
Use for: Nut brown ales, porters

Victory malt is pretty good so leave it there, I don't think you will be dissapointed. If it was mine I think I would exclude the Black patent. I think the hop choice is good for a Bristish Ale.

Blender said:

If it was mine I think I would exclude the Black patent.

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I would tend to agree with this for a brown porter. Read the guidlines in the link below and I believe that the dry, burnt roastyness if the black patent would not be in a brown porter. It would however be in a robust porter.
Your gravity is at the high end for a brown and low end for a robust so you could go either way.
Bottom line is to make a porter that you like. You are trying to clone a commercial version so if it has the black patent charactor then leave it in.


http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category12.html

Torchiest said:

Also, any particular reason you're only using Fuggles? Why not finish with a little Willamette?

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Fuggles just happened to be something I had a lot of in stock. I don't have immediate access to Willamette for my planned brew day but I may try that in future attempts.

Blender said:

If it was mine I think I would exclude the Black patent.

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After doing further 'research' I agree, if there is black patent in this porter it's an extremely small amount. As was suggested I think I will take it out and up the chocolate malt to 450G.

Great feedback guys, thanks! I plan to purchase my ingredients tomorrow and brew on boxing day (hopefully with a nice new brew pot ).

Brad

There is a clone recipe for Fullers Porter is in Beer Captured and also in the BYO Recipe Edition. Oddly enough, they are rather different. The Beer Captured version uses Crystal Malt, Chocolate, and Brown Malt with Fuggles all the way.
And again, oddly enough, I'm brewing this tomorrow. Oh yeah, and the BC version uses wyeast ESB.

Here is the recipe I ended up brewing today. My initial impression on the wort flavour is it may not end up tasting much like Fuller's; but it tastes excellent in its own right. I'm looking forward to tasting the sample without all the sweetness on first racking.

This was my first partial mash using my cooler mash/lauter tun so I think I did a pretty good job on the efficiency. Promash estimated an OG of 1.051 and I got 1.050 when all was said and done.

Batch: 23L
OG: 1.050

2.00 kg. Generic DME - Light
0.90 kg. Pale Malt(2-row)
0.45 kg. Victory Malt
0.22 kg. Chocolate Malt
0.45 kg. Crystal 60L

1.50 oz. Fuggle 60 min.
0.25 oz. Fuggle 30 min.
0.25 oz. Fuggle 15 min.
0.25 oz. Willamette 0 min.

1.00 Unit(s)Irish Moss 15 Min.

Munton's Premium Gold Brewing Yeast

Your final recipe looks darn good. Let us know how it turns out.

This recipe ended up barely qualifying as a brown porter but all in all I think it's still a nice beer. It has a really deep ruby colour when held up to the light and a nice tan(ish) coloured head. The roasted flavour is very slight, which is disappointing but it is still a nice subtle flavour.

I think version 2 of this recipe will have double the chocolate and maybe 110G or so of black patent. I've also switched to AG now so no more DME for me! I picked up the BYO issue with the Fullers clone and will be giving it a shot. It's definitely a different recipe than mine.

I had an attenuation problem with this beer and one other I made at the same time. They both stuck at exactly 1.030 (similar OG's as well). After 3 weeks of swirling a couple times per day (3.5 weeks total in primary) I ended up ordering some amylase enzyme to finish them up. I'm wondering if this had something to do with the less than strong flavours. My understanding is the enzyme converts the more complex sugars that are usually left for flavouring into fermentable sugars. I imagine this would have an adverse affect on the flavour.

Subsequent talks with my LHBS indicated that a lot of guys had problems with his current batch of DME. It ended up finishing pretty dry at 1.008 but is still quite good.

Has anyone had experience with amylase reducing the flavour of their beer or am I way off base here?

Bradsul, I am curious how close your recipe was to the BYO clone recipe? Fuller's London Porter is a brew I have been trying to duplicate since I got into homebrewing. It is one of my favourite beers, and hard to find 'fresh' bottles here.

Anyways, I think dark crystal, chocolate and black patent are the key. I am also convinced that far and away the best yeast to use is Wyeast 1028 London Ale. My buddy and I have experimented with this yeast a lot, and I see a lot of similarities to Fuller's porter in our browns and porters that I am sure is because of the yeast.

Also, if you have that BYO clone recipe, would you mind PM'ing it to me? I would really be interested to see it. Thanks!

This is by far one of my favourite beers. I was definitely off on the dark grains. I'll PM you the BYO recipe. I would highly recommend ordering this back issue (may-june 2006) as it has clones for Youngs Special London Ale, Newcastle Brown Ale, Bass Pale Ale and Youngs Double Chocolate Stout in addition to Fullers. For $4.25CDN it is well worth the money.

Good suggestion -- I think I may just do that! And please let us know how version 2 works out, when you get to it. And thanks for posting the follow-up on v1.

ive tried to clone fullers a few times and i never seem to have to hop flavor right like mine always seems to fall short, same as roasted taste, mine has a nice roasted chocolaty taste, but i never seem to get that strong bitter choclate flavour of there london porter. ive used as much as 3/4 lb of chocolate and 3/4 black patent malt

Can't vouch for this yet.


FULLERS LONDON PORTER According to Real Ale Almanac

25 litre batch OG 1053 ABV 5% 140 units of colour 33 EBU

OPTIC PALE MALT 4300 gms
CRYSTAL MALT 568 gms
BROWN MALT 683 gms
CHOCOLATE MALT 115 gms

HOPS 90 minute boil

FUGGLES 86 gms

Add 10 gms Fuggles last 15 minutes

Used White Labs London yeast.

Thanks for the recipe orfy. I'm not familiar with brown malt (does it have another name?) but that is quite a bit different than the clone from the BYO article. It has both roasted barley and black patent in addition to the chocolate and crystal. Perhaps brown malt is a combination of these? The BYO recipe looks very promising, I can't wait to try it out (eventually anyway, I'm at my capacity limit now).

the wiki's got the malt details.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt#Brown_Malt

It'll give the colour of the black and the roastiness of the roasted. It's got a biscuit flavor.

So did anyone ever nail this one or come close?

I tried the recipe in BYO 150 Clones issue a year or so ago and it was pretty close. Certainly closer than I ever came.

Could you please post the BYO recipe or PM it to me?

I know this is an old thread, but since Fuller's London Porter is such a good beer, I feel obliged to share this recipe. I wont say this is the spot on same %'s they use, but this recipe will make you a beer that tastes 99.1% like the original. I got it from a guy who emailed the brewer and got a response. I've brewed this a couple of times and it's pretty much the same as the original.

74% Pale Malt
10% Brown Malt
8% Crystal 75L
8% Chocolate Malt

fuggles at 27 IBU / wy1968

If you look at their website, this is the ingredients listed: "London Porter is brewed from a blend of Brown, Crystal and Chocolate malts for a creamy delivery balanced by traditional Fuggles hops."

Thanks for the ratios - now could someone who knows how do the math and tell me how many (in lbs/oz) of each grain to make a 5 gallon batch(I don't even know what the proper OG/FG should be), what temps to mash/sparge, how long to boil the hops, etc? Thanks

bbriscoe said:

Thanks for the ratios - now could someone who knows how do the math and tell me how many (in lbs/oz) of each grain to make a 5 gallon batch(I don't even know what the proper OG/FG should be), what temps to mash/sparge, how long to boil the hops, etc? Thanks

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Just using a rough calculator, you're looking at about:

7.5 lbs Marris Otter
1 lb Brown
0.8 lbs. Crystal 70
0.8 lbs. Chocolate

1.25 oz Fuggle (4.5% AA) at 60
0.5 oz. Fuggle (4.5% AA) at 15

The mash ratio, temp, etc. you will have to figure out based on your preferences/equipment, but i'd mash this around 154-156 if it were me. Hope this helps (three years after your request for help).

thought I was about to resurrect this zombie thread too until I realized the previous post was yesterday. Go figure. Looking for a good brown porter recipe and this seems like it would be a quality option.

Here is the BYO London Porter clone recipe, for those looking for another version. Its very similar to the one I posted although it has more brown malt and less chocolate. And darker in color.

Fuller’s London Porter clone
(5 gallons/ 19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.014
IBU = 30 SRM = 46 ABV = 5.4%

Ingredients
8.27 lbs. (3.75 kg) Muntons pale ale malt
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) brown malt
1.0 lb. (0.45 kg) crystal malt (75 °L)
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) chocolate malt

6.25 AAU Fuggle hops (60 min) (1.3 oz./37 g of 4.7% alpha acids)
3.15 AAU Fuggle hops (15 min) (0.67 oz./19 g of 4.7% alpha acids)

Wyeast 1968 or White Labs WLP002

I just brewed the Beer Captured version, adjusting to my setup and preferences, compromising between the extract and all grain Beer Captured recipes.

150F 45 min
2 lb 3 oz Pale Ale (Bairds)
1 lb English Medium Crystal (Simpsons)
10 oz English Brown (Crisp)
10 oz English Chocolate (Simpsons)

2 oz Fuggle (UK) (60 min)
3.3 lb Light LME (Munton's)
1 lb Light DME (Munton's)
0.25 oz Fuggle (US) 15 min (leftover US)

English Ale WLP002

4 weeks primary
3 weeks bottle
First taste 22 September 2018

4 weeks in the primary for 002? 002 in my brewhouse is usually done and flocked out after 5-7 days. It's a really fast yeast. Get that thing into secondary, so we can find out how your beer tasted...LOL

Side by side tasting, my Beer Captured is a tad darker, a bit more bitter, but very close.