Article

Brown Porter

by the numbers
OG: 1.040–1.052 (10.0–12.9 °P)
FG: 1.008–1.014 (2.1–3.6 °P)
SRM: 20–30
IBU: 18–35 ABV: 4.0–5.4%

I am a big fan of all British-style beers. I think the great balance of malt and hop character along with tremendous yeast character makes them all eminently drinkable. The British beer style brown porter has traditionally been problematic for many North American judges and brewers, due to the lack of easy access to fresh commercial examples (especially a decade or more ago).

The problem for judges is that brown porter, like most beers brewed in Britain that are imported to North America, has often traveled long distances under poor conditions and become oxidized by the time it gets served. Oxidation in a caramel-rich beer comes across as a sweet, weird caramel character, not the “paper, wet cardboard” character that new judges are taught to find in light American lager. When I finally developed a recipe and brewed a beer that I felt was on par with the finest commercial examples found in England, few judges were familiar with what a fresh brown porter should taste like. Some scored it high, but it was frustrating to read comments from some of the other judges about a lack of that “special English malt character” when they were mistakenly trying to find oxidation in the beer.

Style-wise, many brewers and judges find brown porter confusing, as they are not sure where it fits among the other dark British beer styles. Brown porter exists in the space between English southern brown ale, mild and robust porter. It is a light brown to dark brown English ale with restrained roast malt characteristics. In comparison, robust porter has a more roast character, while brown porter is often sweeter with more caramel character. While brown porter shares a lot of the same chocolate malt notes as robust porter, it does not have any of the burnt or black malt notes of robust porter; its dark malt character is more chocolate than coffee. The starting gravity on brown porter is often lower than robust porter and higher than mild and brown ales. Brown porter is usually balanced more toward malt sweetness than hop bittering. It should have a caramel and toasty malt character, similar to southern brown ale, but it is bigger and has more roast malt character than southern brown. The hop character is usually low, if any is present at all.

To brew a great all-grain example of this style, start with British pale ale malt as the base. It provides that background rich malt character that is a key component in fine British beers. British pale ale malt is kilned a bit darker (2.5 to 3.5 °L) than the average American two-row or pale malt (1.5 to 2.5 °L) and this higher level of kilning brings out the malt’s biscuit-toasty flavors. Some brewers use North American pale ale malt or North American two-row with the addition of some specialty malts, but this will not produce the same beer as using British pale ale malt. Spend the money, make the effort, and use the proper base malt if you want to make an excellent example of the style.

Similarly, extract brewers should make the effort to source an extract made from British pale ale malt. If you end up using North American two-row malt extract, you can try to compensate by partial mashing some additional specialty malts such as Munich, biscuit or Victory®. For a 5-gallon (19-L) batch, use about 5 to 10% of the total base malt.

All-grain brewers should use a single infusion mash. A temperature in the range of 150 to 155 °F (66 to 68 °C) works well. Use a lower temperature when using lower attenuating yeasts or higher starting gravities. Use a higher mash temperature when using the higher attenuating yeasts or lower starting gravity beers. If you are unsure, a great starting point is 152 °F (67 °C).

While using the proper base malt is important, brown porter also requires a fair amount of specialty malt. For the sweetness and caramel component, consider using 5% to 10% of 40 to 120 °L crystal malt. I prefer to use crystal malts in the 40 to 60 °L range, since they have a more caramel-like flavor. To create the brown color and a chocolate richness, British chocolate malt is an excellent choice, but do not over do it. About 5% is appropriate. Be aware that the chocolate malt from different maltsters can vary substantially in color and flavor. I prefer the lower color chocolate malts, around 350 to 400 °L. The darker malts can be too much like black malt. You want to avoid highly kilned malt (500 to 600 °L), as that gives a character more appropriate to a robust porter or stout. While you can make a really good brown porter with just base, crystal, and chocolate malt, the secret ingredient for an outstanding brown porter is brown malt (5% to 10%). Brown malt provides the nutty, slightly roasty, gentle chocolate background note apparent in some commercial examples. Without it, most recipes lean too heavily upon darker roasted malts and will end up with too much roast character. If you are looking for more complexity or increased head retention, you can add other malts as well. Wheat malt, Victory®, biscuit and others are common additions in many recipes, but keep in mind that using too many specialty malts often ends up as a muddled malt character, not a more complex one. Emphasize one or two particular malt characters in your recipe by using two or three grains. Select high quality British specialty malts such as Simpsons or Thomas Fawcett. These malts have a rich malt character, which is complex on its own.
All English-style beer is best brewed with English hops, such as East Kent Goldings, Fuggles, Target, Northdown or Challenger. The bittering level for brown porter has a wide range of 18 to 35 IBU, but you should be shooting for a balance of slightly sweet to slightly bitter. A bitterness to starting gravity ratio (IBU divided by OG) in the range of 0.4 and 0.6 is good. You can skip the late hop additions in this style, but if you want late hop character show some restraint. As a general rule of thumb, add no more late hops than half the amount of bittering hops. This is just a generalization, since using very low or high alpha acid hops makes the equation faulty. One late hop addition, totaling around 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 oz. (14 to 21 g) for a 5-gallon (19-L) batch at 15 minutes
or later, is plenty. Hop flavor and aroma, when present, is a minor player in this style.

Fermentation creates most of the flavor and aroma in many British beers. English-type yeast strains provide a variety of interesting esters and leave some residual sweetness to balance the hop bittering. Many English yeasts attenuate on the lower side(< 70%), but there are some that attenuate quite well (up to 80%). For many British-style beers you have to think about the final balance of the beer. Most British beer styles are near even or on the bitter side. If the beer has a high starting gravity, or you are using lots of specialty grains that add residual sweetness (such as crystal malts), you need to select a more attenuative strain. If you are brewing a beer with a lower starting gravity and/or limited specialty grains, then you want to go with a less attenuative yeast. This is one of the most important things to know about crafting your own British-style recipes. My favorites for brown porter are White Labs WLP013 (London Ale) and Wyeast 1028 (London Ale). They both provide a wonderful ester profile without being excessively fruity, and they attenuate a little more than most English yeasts. Higher attenuation in this case allows you to use more crystal malts for greater caramel flavor without ending up with too much residual malt sweetness.

At lower temperatures (<65 °F/18 °C), these yeasts produce a relatively low level of esters and at high temperatures (>70 °F/21 °C) they produce abundant fruity esters and fusel alcohol notes. I start fermentation in the middle of this range (67 °F/19 °C), letting the temperature rise a few degrees over a couple days. This creates the expected level of esters, helps the yeast attenuate fully, and keeps the amount of diacetyl in the finished beer to a minimum.

Serving British-style beers at cellar temperature, around 52 to 55 °F (11 to 13 °C), allows the
character of the beer to come out and can improve drinkability. Colder temperatures prevent the drinker from picking up the interesting fermentation and malt flavors and aromas, so try serving your brown porter above 50 °F (10 °C). Target a carbonation level around 1.5 to 2 volumes of CO2.

Brown Porter

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.052 (12.9 °P)
FG = 1.013 (3.4 °P)
IBU = 28 SRM = 26 ABV = 5.1%

Ingredients

8.6 lbs. (3.9 kg) Crisp British pale ale malt (or similar English pale ale malt)
14.1 oz. (400 g) Great Western crystal malt 40 °L (or similar)
14.1 oz. (400 g) Thomas Fawcett & Sons brown malt 70 °L (or similar)
8.8 oz. (250 g) Thomas Fawcett & Sons chocolate malt 350 °L
5.5 AAU Fuggle pellet hops (1.1 oz./30 g at 5% alpha acids) (60 min.)
4.8 AAU Kent Goldings pellet hops (0.4 oz./12 g at 5% alpha acids) (10 min.)
White Labs WLP013 London Ale, Wyeast 1028 London Ale or Danstar Nottingham yeast

Step by Step

Mill the grains and dough-in targeting a mash of around 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain (a liquor-to-grist ratio of about 3:1 by weight) and a temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold the mash at 152 °F (67 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete. Infuse the mash with near boiling water while stirring or with a recirculating mash system raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Sparge slowly with 170 °F (77 °C) water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is around 5.9 gallons (22-L) and a gravity of 1.044 (11°P).

The total wort boil time is 60 minutes. Add the first hop addition as soon as the wort reaches a full boil and then start your timer. Add Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil and the second hop addition with 10 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort to 67 °F (19 °C) and aerate thoroughly.

The proper pitch rate is 9 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast, two packages of liquid yeast, or one package of liquid yeast in a 1.5-liter starter. Ferment at 67 °F (19 °C) to start, raising the temperature gradually to 70 °F (21 °C) for the last 1⁄3 of fermentation. When finished, carbonate the beer to approximately 1.5 to 2 volumes.

 

Brown Porter

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.052 (12.9 °P)
FG = 1.013 (3.4 °P)
IBU = 28 SRM = 26 ABV = 5.1%

Ingredients

5.7 lbs. (2.6 kg) Muntons English pale liquid malt extract
14.1 oz. (400 g) Great Western crystal malt 40 °L (or similar)
14.1 oz. (400 g) Thomas Fawcett & Sons brown malt 70 °L (or similar)
8.8 oz. (250 g) Thomas Fawcett & Sons chocolate malt 350 °L
5.5 AAU Fuggle pellet hops (1.1 oz./30 g at 5% alpha acids) (60 min.)
4.8 AAU Kent Goldings pellet hops (0.4 oz./12 g at 5% alpha acids) (10 min.)
White Labs WLP013 London Ale, Wyeast 1028 London Ale or Danstar Nottingham yeast

Step by Step

I use an English pale liquid malt extract for this recipe. If you can’t get fresh liquid malt extract, it is better to use an appropriate amount of dried malt extract (DME) instead of liquid malt extract (LME).

Mill or coarsely crack the specialty malt and place loosely in a grain bag. Avoid packing the grains too tightly in the bag, using more bags if needed. Steep the bag in about 1.5 gallons (~6 liters) of water at roughly 170 °F (77 °C) for about 30 minutes. Lift the grain bag out of the steeping liquid and rinse with warm water. Allow the bags to drip into the kettle for a few minutes while you add the malt extract. Do not squeeze the bags. Add enough water to the steeping liquor and malt extract to make a pre-boil volume of 5.9 gallons (22 liters) and a gravity of 1.044 (11°P). Stir thoroughly to help dissolve the extract and bring to a boil.

The total wort boil time is 60 minutes. Add the first hop addition as soon as the wort reaches a full boil and then start your timer. Add Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil and the second hop addition with 10 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort to 67 °F (19 °C) and aerate thoroughly.

The proper pitch rate is 9 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast, two packages of liquid yeast, or one package of liquid yeast in a 1.5-liter starter. Ferment at 67 °F (19 °C) to start, raising the temperature gradually to 70 °F (21 °C) for the last 1⁄3 of fermentation. When finished, carbonate
the beer to approximately 1.5 to 2 volumes.

Issue: Special Issue: 30 Great Beer Styles