Release #11 in our Archives series of bygone Porter & Stout, an original era Imperial Stout.
Imperial Brown Stout
As mentioned previously here, Porter originated from Brown Beer as an offering that had been aged at the brewery (as opposed to by the publican or cellarman at the pub). The stronger varieties of Porter were referred to as Stout and early on as Brown Stout.
The highest quality of Brown Stout was drank by the elite. Quality being defined primarily by the quantity of hops and the original gravity (sugar content prior to fermentation) of the recipe. These high strength and intensely flavored Porters were prized not only by the upper class in England but also in export markets, notably Russia and the Baltic region.
Brewing Archives 1848 Imperial Brown Stout
What defines “stronger”, or strong enough to be an Imperial Brown Stout? In terms of original gravity, the amount of sugar extracted from the brewing process, greater than 1.100 specific gravity (24 degrees Plato) prior to fermentation. In addition, these beers were insanely hopped and this would be even higher when taking into account dry hopping for export. Our version has 4 pounds per barrel (31 gallons) of high quality whole leaf East Kent Goldings from the UK and a touch of the modern UK varietal Admiral as dry hops for added complexity. The International Bitterness Units (IBU) calculated is 200 for the recipe, which is way off the scale. The IBU value doesn’t mean much here in terms of bitterness other than the fact that is is certainly bitter, but think about the flavor intensity (not flavors) relative to a richly flavored Double IPA that sits at 100 IBU.
Release #5 in our Archives series of bygone Porter & Stout recipes is the 1832 Barclay Perkins BSt recipe out of Ron Pattinson’s “The Homebrewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer!”.
Brown Stout
In the 18th century, Brown Beer encompassed all of what we think of as Porter and Stout these days. Stout denoted a higher strength beer, which wasn’t necessarily a Brown Beer. There was Brown Stout and also Pale Stout. We’ll be brewing a Pale Stout later in the Archives series! Brown Stout was simply beer made from brown malt that was stronger than the standard strength beer made from brown malt, the original Porter.
Did you follow that? Seems pretty basic, right? Brown in color, and Stout in strength. Well, we wouldn’t know a lot of the details regarding the evolution of beers and naming conventions for Porter and Stout if it wasn’t for the research Ron Pattinson, beer historian and author, has done. When we began on our journey to create the Archives series at ChuckAlek Ind. Brewers, I came into contact with Ron and found out that he had a book being released in January of 2014. Soon enough, we began talking about a visit to San Diego to promote his book and our Archive series and the idea came about to brew one of the recipes out of his book verbatim! His suggestion… Barclay Perkins 1832 BSt (Brown Stout).
Brewing Archives 1832 Brown Stout
Typically, when referencing Ron Pattinson’s work, I glean details from several recipes around the same time period. Most of the years we place on the Archives releases represent an interesting time period in the development of Porter and Stout for which Ron has published some recipes, or at least the building blocks. He’s also been gracious enough to send full tables of beer statistics for a particular style or time period when queried. If you’ve read his blog “Shutup about Barclay Perkins”, you know he likes tables of data.
Well, this time around it was much easier to settle on the recipe… we opened up Ron’s book to page 57. Ron Pattinson’s notes for this beer indicate that there was a lot less Brown malt in the recipe than in 1804. After the invention of Black Patent malt in 1817, Brown malt was used in lesser quantity alongside the more efficient (for sugar extraction) Pale malt and a small amount of Black Patent malt to up the color. He also notes the hopping level for this beer has risen.
That pretty much sets the stage for this beer. It is a really deep brown, but I actually find the color a little odd (in a good way?). It’s just dark enough that you can’t see through, but not dark enough to fall in line with the stouts we see these days. Even in a 4oz taster glass, you can’t quite see through and at first glance you might think it is cloudy with yeast (I did). Yet, it is just a muddy brown. Trust me, I filtered some and nothing changed. In fact, the Whitbread strain of yeast is notoriously flocculent; meaning it settles out of the beer in a thick manner and clears well naturally.
On to the hops. Our scaled up version of Ron’s homebrew (5 gallon) recipe ended up with 3 pounds per BBL (31 gallons) of East Kent Golding hops, and all of the hopping was early additions in the boil at 90 minute and 60 minutes remaining! That’s a lot of hops for a Stout and calculates out to 120 IBU! We used all whole leaf hops and the brewhouse smelled amazing.
Drinking Archives 1832 Brown Stout
Deep mud-brown color with a tan head. Aroma of moss, dirt, rose petal, and grass.
Milk chocolate and graham cracker malts with a fairly intense bitterness that lingers with notes of ginger, French oak, and earth. While the bitterness creates an impression of dryness, there is a full body to this beer that presents itself in the middle of the palate.
ABV: 7.7%, IBU: 120
Be sure to check out our events this weekend as we host Ron Pattinson in San Diego, all the way from Amsterdam.
Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing Co. gives a concise run-down of the events both at Stone Brewing Co. and ChuckAlek Ind. Brewers here:
Release #4 in our Archives series of bygone Porter & Stout recipes is a 1912 era Triple Stout.
Triple Stout
During the first World War Porter & Stout gravities (sugar content before fermentation) dropped significantly, as did most other beer. Our vintage of 1912, just before the war, is a time when Triple Stout was more or less consistent in strength (in the 1.090’s of specific gravity) to the Triple Stout that was produced for the previous 70 years or more by the prominent London Porter brewer Whitbread.
As I’ve mentioned previously here, the highest quality and thus highest valued Porters were those of the greatest strength: Triple Stout (SSS) and Imperial Stout (~1.100 specific gravity). However, strength isn’t everything. Triple Stout at this time had Amber malt in a fairly large percentage, which wouldn’t be found in lower strength Porters or even in Whitbread SSS until the 1900s. And, the percentage of Pale, Amber, Brown and Black malt varied over the years.
We based our recipe for this release very closely on the Whitbread breweries log for SSS on May 15th, 1912. Which, is available in beer historian Ron Pattinson’s “Porter!” collection.
Sugar became illegal to use in 1816 after the Napoleonic War, and Black malt was invented in 1817 as a way to provide an alternative malt-based color. Black malt can be used in a small percentage alongside Pale malted barley, from which greater extraction of sugar could be obtained than from Brown malt (the sole or primary ingredient in early Porter). However, sugar later became legal to use again and in the early 1900s the use of sugar in Whitbread Triple Stout rose to a substantial 13% of the total recipe, which is the same in weight as the amount of Brown malt used!
The sugar used here is called brewers invert. Invert sugar is raw sugar that has been processed to break the sucrose down to fructose and glucose by adding a bit of an acid (e.g. citric acid or lactic acid). We then boiled the sugar for a few hours to create a deep flavor and color. You can almost think of it as a dark, syrupy, honey but a little more fruity and without the floral components common in honey.
A blend of Maris Otter Pale, Amber, Brown, and Black malt is balanced by substantial East Kent Golding (EKG) hops in the boil and a touch of EKG dry hops.
Drinking Archives 1912 SSS
Archives 1912 SSS is a deep brown-black colored stout with aroma of molasses and smooth floral hop.
Upfront notes of light blueberry quickly replaced by a touch of roast and alcohol, then hop flavor of oak and leather. A dry cocoa finish, but with moderate body present that seems to thicken as the glass warms. Light carbonation.
Also, be sure to check out our “Firkin Friday” event at Hamilton’s Tavern on April 25th! This is the first time all 4 of the Archives series beers that we have brewed so far will be on tap side-by-side! A Firkin of Archives 1912 SSS dry-hopped in the cask with locally grown Chinook hops will also be available!
Cheers,
Grant
Thanks to Ron Pattinson for his documentation of British brewing history and his wealth of writings on Whitbread Porter history that we referenced for this release, particularly the recipe for Whitbread SSS brewed on May 15th, 1912!
Release #3 in our Archives series of bygone Porter & Stout recipes is an Irish Single Stout brewed to the vintage of 1880.
Irish Porter
When thinking on Stout, most of us immediately reference the world renowned brewer from Dublin with the iconic harp logo. Indeed, Guinness is part of a long brewing history in Ireland, and Stout is the most famous style of beer in that tradition.
As mentioned in my previous post on Double Stout during the same time period, Porters were brewed in a range of strength from Single Stout Porter up to Triple or Imperial Stout Porter. Guinness produced three main varieties: Single Stout, Double Stout, and Foreign Export. After 1896, these beers became known as the equivalent Porter, Extra Stout, and Foreign Export Stout. (Source: Ron Pattinson, Shutup about Barclay Perkins) The latter two being what we are familiar with from Guinness today, at least in name.
So, our 1880 SS (Single Stout) is the standard, entry-level strength, Irish Porter of the day. Note that “SS” could also be used to denote a Double Stout, but we use it here as an abbreviation for Single Stout!
Also, keep in mind that Porter has evolved greatly over the years… 1880 Single Stout is stronger than modern day Irish Extra Stout!
Other than strength, there are a couple of items we took into account when recreating our 1880 SS.
Irish Porter breweries abandoned Brown malt use rather quickly when Black malt came about early in the 19th century, whereas London breweries held on to the use of Brown malt much longer. Most of the color in Irish stouts at this time came from the Black malt, and the rest of the grist was Pale and Amber malt. Roasted barley, the grain that most breweries think of as quintessential for producing Irish “Dry” Stout wasn’t used until later!
We also strove to reproduce the lactic “sub-acidity” described in Irish Porter through the use of acidulated malt, which gives a lactic tang to the final product.
Drinking Irish Porter
Archives 1880 SS has a deep, dark, brown color with a ruby hue and a roasty aroma with a touch of sourdough bread and caramel.
On the palate, Archives 1880 SS has a medium-full body with cinnamon and cocoa upfront and complex vinous notes of black currant and toffee in the middle. The finish is dry and tangy despite the moderate fullness of body, which results in a nicely drinkable Porter.
Thanks to Ron Pattinson for his documentation of Irish brewing history and his wealth of writings on Porter history that we referenced for this release.
Our second installment of the ChuckAlek Archives series is a 7.5% Double Stout brewed a la 1890.
Why the Double in DS? London Porter breweries of the 19th century had a range of Stouts that were increasing in gravity (sugar content prior to fermentation) from Single Stout, Double Stout, sometimes a Triple Stout, up to Imperial Stout.
In the current day beer world, Imperial and Double are thrown around interchangeably to describe a beer that is stronger in alcohol content and perhaps flavor (e.g. hops) than the standard strength version of the same general style. But, for 19th century stouts they were distinctly different descriptors. Imperial was named as such because it was the top of the line… the highest starting gravity, typically resulting in more alcohol after fermentation. Imperial was a term coined because these were the most valued beers sent to elite and often preferred by royalty. There were both export Double Stouts and export Imperial Stouts, among other export products. Double, then, was simply something in between the standard Single Stout and fine quality Imperial Stout of a given brewery.
Brewing Archives 1890 DS
Our recipe was modeled after the 1890 Truman Double Stout dug up by beer historian Ronald Pattinson, and published in his “Porter!” collection. As with the Archives 1850 Runner we released last month, we achieve a complex set of malt flavors with a simple blend of Pale, Brown, and Black malt.
The Truman Double Stout recipe notes two varieties of British hops from the Kent region and one German variety of Bavarian hops. Hopping also includes a dry hop addition, something you don’t find shining through most modern stouts. In fact, many present day brewers shy away from much hopping at all in stouts in favor of malt focused beers.
In our Archives 1890 DS, we chose to dry hop with a variety from the Spalt region in Bavaria. Dry hops are those added into the storage tank after fermentation is mostly complete, as opposed hops added by a brewer during the boil and prior to fermentation. The flavor and aroma contributions of dry hops are potentially high, and the bitterness contributions quite low (because they aren’t boiled for any length of time).
Drinking Archives 1890 DS
It all boils down to the final product.
Aroma of fennel, soft floral hop, and a hint of blood orange.
Bready, heirloom, British pale malt is layered with rich brown and black malt flavor exhibiting notes of milk chocolate and toffee.
Spalt Select dry hops combine with light raisin and roast of the malt to form a licorice note to the finish. This is a nice full-bodied stout with a moderate viscosity and smooth carbonation.
Thanks to Ron Pattinson for his documentation of the 1890 Truman Double Stout recipe from 7/7/1890 and also the endless wealth of his writings on Porter history that we drew on for this release.
Enough buildup, it’s finally here… our first release of the ChuckAlek Archives series for 2014!
Flash back to 1850. Porter brewing had rose from its origin as a Stout Brown Beer in the 1700s to it’s heyday in the first few decades of 1800s. Porters were being aged at the brewery in large wooden vats before being sent out to pubs.
Yet, they didn’t all see the same length of aging. Some Porter was served “Mild”, or un-aged, and breweries would denote these as Running Porter. As opposed to, say, Keeping Porter which would be a very well aged beer that could even be blended with a young Porter to give it a bit of the aged flavor.
What sets the Archives 1850 Runner apart from most modern-day porters is a little more generous hop rate that shines through and really dances with the dark malts. And, a pretty straight forward 3-malt grain bill of Heirloom Pale, Brown, and Black malt. Yet, as you’ll see throughout the Archives series there is a diverse range of beer that can be produced from simply varying the percentage of these three barley malts in a recipe. The alcohol by volume (ABV) of 6.3% is very typical of the time period, before ABV of Porters dropped in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
For the curious brewers out there, we brewed in parti-gyle style producing 2 BBL of beer from our 1 BBL system by collecting two runnings of wort from a single charge of grain in our mash tun. Each of the two gyles were boiled for 2 hours and blended in the fermenter.
1850 Runner (Running Porter) 6.3% ABV, 62 IBU
How does it taste? Wonderful notes of oaky, earthy, (British) East Kent Golding hops play in a deep brown hued beer that offer light notes of chocolate and berries from the malt.
Stop by the ChuckAlek tasting room in Ramona this weekend for a pint! Also, keep an eye out for kegs of the 1850 Runner being tapped at Urge, Plan 9, and Monkey Paw over the next couple of weeks!
Thanks to Ron Pattinson for his documentation of Running Porter recipes and Porter history that we drew on for this release. Brewers, check out Ron Pattinson’s new book on brewing Vintage Beer!
Over the course of 2014 we’ll be releasing a variant of the Porter and Stout styles every month in a series we’re calling “Archives”. The premise is that we’ll trace the history of Porter from its beginnings in the 1700s, heyday in the mid 1800s, to decline in the early 20th century.
Our recipes are based on research by prominent beer historians, much of which is done by Ron Pattinson. Ron has already been a great help as we’ve brewed our first few releases, and we hope to host him in San Diego later this year as he promotes his new book on brewing vintage beer.
ChuckAlek Archives beers won’t be released in chronological order due to brewing logistics and aging, but will span from 1804 to 1933 and include everything from an original era Russian Imperial Stout and Keeping (barrel aged) Double Stout to a low ABV Table Porter and even a Pale Stout!
It will truly be an exciting year as we release the Archives series and put on events both at the tasting room and with our friends at a few of the top beer bars / restaurants in San Diego County. Releases will be limited in quantity, but each month’s release will be available (while they last) at ChuckAlek in Ramona, Urge Gastropub in Rancho Bernardo, Plan 9 Alehouse in Escondido, and Monkey Paw Pub & Brewery in San Diego! In addition, we’ll hold events every few months at other locations around the county.
And… we have a couple of exciting collaborations with other local breweries in the works. Stay tuned for updates on these and keep an eye out here on the blog, or on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram to see when and where you can try these very special beers!
