Porter

Tasting Notes

Porter was the principal beer style in Britain, and especially in London, during the country's greatest period of industrial and economic growth. Porter is a heavy beer of pronounced bitterness, reddish-brown to a very dark brown, but is usually lighter in body and malt character than stouts. Generally, porters are a medium-bodied counterpart to stouts, with varying degrees of sweetness and hop character. They have a definite - but not marked - estery character and a burnt-coffee-like taste of roasted malt. Porters are known as "robust" and "brown."

Ingredients

Ingredients used for brewing porters include pale ale as the base malt; crystal (the most highly-roasted versions), chocolate, brown, and black malts; and roasted barley. Flaked corn (less than 10%), flaked barley, and some invert sugar (10-20%) are often used. London porters often include black treacle (blackstrap molasses). Crystal malt can make up 10% of the total grist bill and is responsible for much of the mouthfeel. Chocolate malts are more popular in Britain, while American brewers prefer black malts.

Brewing Techniques

Porter is brewed using a single-infusion mash at around 66ºC. Fermentation temperature begins at 16ºC and is increased to 20ºC during fermentation. American craft brewers usually age porters for 2 to 3 weeks at temperatures between 5 and 8ºC, whereas British brewers reportedly use higher maturation temperatures of from 10 to 13ºC. The beer can be dry-hopped.

The information on this page was provided by beer-brewing.com (http://www.beer-brewing.com).