How To Brew A Porter

Porters are one of my favorite beer styles to drink… what I brewed here was a robust porter that goes down smooth…

Recipe:
5 Lbs 9 oz of Munton’s Light DME
11 oz Crystal 40 °L
8 oz Chocolate Malt (UK) 450 °L
3 oz Munich Malt
1 oz Roasted Barley
1 oz Cascade Hops 6.2% AA (60 min)
.5 oz Willamette Hops 5.5% AA (15 min)
WLP023 Burton Ale Yeast

OG 1.046
FG 1.016

Steeping the grains…
Take your grains in two separate muslin bags and steep them in 1 1/4 gallon of water at 154 °F for 30 minutes. When done steeping, take a quart of hot water and rinse of the grains. Top your pot with 2 3/4 gallons of water, add your DME and bring to a boil. *make sure you have room in your pot to prevent a boilover. Wort rises when it heats up…

The Boil
When your wort begins to boil and you have controlled your temperature to achieve a slow rolling boil, add your first charge of hops (Cascade Hops), and stir occasionally for 45 minutes. At that point, add your second charge of hops (Willamette Hops)… stir occasionally for 15 more minutes and turn off the heat.

Pitch Yeast & Ferment
Cool down your wort to 70 °F, aerate your wort and pitch 1 Liter starter. Ferment beer at 65 °F for 3 weeks…

Prime & Bottle Your Beer
Here’s where you may want to make some modifications… I primed this beer with 4.2 oz of corn sugar, though I feel the beer was carbonated a little bit more than I wanted it to be. Next time I brew this beer, I will probably only add about 3.5 to 3.8 oz of corn sugar…

The complex flavors of this beer get better with time. I started drinking this beer 3 weeks after I bottled it, but I found the beer really come together 5 weeks after bottling. It was a great beer to have available to drink during the winter, though I wouldn’t mind drinking this beer during the summer…

As always, let me know what you think if you brew this beer and I’m open to suggestions…

If you want to learn how to put together your own recipes for styles such as Porters, check my home brew training program which goes over how to chose ingredients and teaches you how to improve you brewing.

How To Brew Beer