English Porter Poppy's London Porter

Here is a Robust Porter I have been working on. I have it where I want it now. Huge flavor of coffee and chocolate, rich, dark and smooth. An excellent after dinner porter. Just enough hops to help with a clean finish but there is no real hop flavor or aroma. This has been a huge hit with my beer buddies.

Poppy's London Porter Ale

Partial Mash

5.25 gallon batch size
3 gallon boil
60 minute boil time
1.056 O.G.
1.018 F.G.
31 SRM (black)
28 IBU (Tinseth)

Ingrediants:

4 pounds Briess light LME
1 pound Briess light DME
1 1/2 pounds Briess Carabrown
1 pound Muntons Maris Otter
1 pound Briess Caramel 80L
12 ounces Briess Chocolate 350L
1 1/4 ounces 4AAU Fuggle hop pellets @ 60 minutes
3/4 ounces 4AAU Fuggle hop pellets @ 30 minutes
4 ounces priming sugar
Yeast: Wyeast 1968 or White Labs WLP037

Combine all grains (crushed) into a muslin grain bag. Heat 5 1/2 quarts of water to 165 degrees, shut off heat and put grain bag in. Stir well to mix grain and water well and stabilize temperature which will settle around 152. Put lid on pot and let steep/mash for 60 minutes. Remove bag of grain, drain into pot and "rinse" with an additional 6 quarts of 170 degree water for 15 minutes (I use the tea bag dunk and steep method for this). Combine all wort into boiling pot, add enough water to bring pot up to 3 gallons. Add DME and stir well to dissolve. Turn heat on and bring to a boil. Add first hops and start 60 minute timer when boil begins. At 30 minutes, add second hop addition. At the 30 minute mark, I also add 1 quart of boiling water to keep my total at 3 gallon (replace what has boiled off). At flame out, add LME, stir well. Cool, transfer to fermenting bucket, top off to 5.25 gallons, measure O.G. for records, pitch yeast. Make a good yeast starter for this. I find that fermenting 2 to 3 days in mid 60's works great for flavor but the temperature must be raised before fermenting is finished to allow the yeast to do their final cleanup before they drop out. Bringing the temperature up to 72-74 degrees does a good job of this otherwise the yeast will drop out and you will end up with too high of a F.G. (use a heating pad). Leave in the fermenting bucket for 2 to 3 weeks before bottling. I have tried 3 ounces of priming sugar and it was not enough so have since bumped it to 4 ounces. This seems to produce the right carbonation without being excessive for the style.

Enjoy. -Tony

All grain 3 gallon version:

3 gallon batch size
3.3 gallon boil
60 minute boil time
1.056 O.G.
1.016 F.G.
31 SRM
28 IBU

4 lbs. Crisp Maris Otter
14 oz. Briess Carabrown Malt
9 oz. Briess Caramel 80L
7 oz. Briess Chocolate 350L

3/4 oz. Fuggle 4AA @ 60 minutes
1/2 oz. Fuggle 4AA @ 30 minutes

Mash in 7 1/4 quarts of water at 169 degrees. Temperature will settle back to 155-ish. Mash for 60 minutes. Drain and sparge with 1 1/2 gallons of 170 degree water. After 15 minutes, drain and discard grain. Add water to bring pre boil amount to 3.3 gallon. Boil for 60 minutes. Add hops per schedule. Cool, transfer to fermenting bucket, cool to 65 degrees and pitch yeast. Bottle prime with 2 ounces of corn sugar. Wyeast 1968 is excellent for this recipe but also are Wyeast 1469 and 1318. I do not recommend bottle conditioning with 1968. This recipe is best after 4 weeks and before 6 months. I prefer Crisp Maris Otter for the base on this.