Recipe – Porter

Porter originated in London around 3 centuries ago, so it has a quite long history. Where does the name come from? Well, it became very popular among the porters, who worked at the local markets and delivered those products to the pubs.

According to beer-historians the style evolved from Brown ales, that were widespread back in those days. Since then Porter is continuously developing – in terms of ingredients, technology and of course taste. As many other styles, Porters disappeared after the World Wars, but they ascended with the start of the craft beer era.

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Grain bill

Variety	Quantity	Quantity	Colour EBC	Colour ºL	Ratio
Swaen Ale	4 kg	8.8 lb	7	2.6	70%
Swaen Munich Light	0.7 kg	1.5 lb	14	5.3	12%
Gold Swaen Munich Light	0.4 kg	0.88 lb	100	38	7%
Platinum Swaen Brown Porter	0.3 kg	0.66 lb	425	160	5%
Black Swaen Chocolate B	0.2 kg	0.44 lb	900	339	4%
Black Swaen Black Extra	0.1 kg	0.22 lb	1300	490	2%

The base of the grist is our Ale malt, with some addition of Munich for the fuller rich malt character. Special malt varieties are essential for this style. Cara (Chrystal) malts will help with caramel flavours and residual sweetness, which is required to balance the bitterness of hops and the roasted grains. A mid-colour caramel malt should work well.

Historically Porters were brewed with brown malt, a very dark base malt. We recommend Platinum Swaen Brown Porter. We kilned – not roasted – this product in our roaster, at lower temperature, in order to avoid burnt flavours. You can increase its ratio vs roasted varieties, in order to have a smoother result. A single step mash for 60 minutes in the middle should work well (67ºC / 153ºF).

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Hops

Variety	Quantity	Quantity	Duration	Alpha acid	IBU
Challenger	28 g	1 oz	60 min.	9%	27
Challenger	28 g	1 oz	10 min.	9%	10

As the focus is placed on malt flavours, you don’t need to think a lot about what to add. We recommend traditional English varieties, like Fuggles, EKG, Northern Brewer or Challenger. For an American version feel free to switch to local hops. They can be allocated evenly for bittering and aroma purpose. Please note your hops need to have enough character to compete with bitter flavours of roasted malt.

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Yeast

Any typical English or American-style ale yeast should work well in a Porter. For a fuller body we would recommend to use a lower attenuative strain. To have the best result, ferment at 20°C / 68°F. As for many other styles, the higher is your ABV, the longer aging is required.

Dry examples: Fermentis Safale S-04 or Mangrove Jack M36 Liberty Bell Ale.

Liquid examples: WLP002 English Ale or Wyeast 1028 London Ale.

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