Brewday: Barclay Perkins 1859 EI Porter

As I type I'm brewing a beer from 1859, the Barclay Perkins EI Porter. Thanks to Ron Pattinson's dedication to the obscure and his relentless pursuit of historical minutiae, recipes and detailed information has been freed from the archives and put out there for anyone to read. His blog, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins is an internet treasure trove if you're into that kind of thing and well worth following. I've got a list of about 15 beers from there I'm hoping to brew my way through over the next year or two.

Not quite the right one

Here's part of Ron's introduction of the EI Porter:

EI stands for Export India. This is the Porter that Barclay Perkins produced for the Indian market. It's the Porter equivalent of IPA. As I keep reminding anyone who will listen, there was probably more Porter exported to India than Pale Ale. But for some reason that seems to have been forgotten, with everyone focusing competely on IPA. It's most likely a class thing, IPA having been drunk by officers and officials, Porter by the ordinary soldiers.

Normally I write my own recipes. It's one of my favourite parts of the whole process. But this time I'm just along for the ride. It's good though, it makes me try different things. I'd never write a recipe with 185 IBUs and I'd never write a recipe with nearly 20% Brown malt so I guess it shows what I know about it.

BPIAB: Barclay Perkins In A Bag

Barclay Perkins 1859 EI Porter (18L batch)
(The original recipe)
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.017
IBU: 185 IBU
ABV: 6.5%
EBC: 57

72.5% Golden Promise
19.3% Brown malt
4.8% Amber malt
3.4% Black malt

150g EK Golding @ 120 min
60g EK Golding @ 60 min
60g EK Golding @ 30 min
25g EK Golding @ Dry hop

I'm using WY1968 because that's what I have available at the moment but I'd like to give it a go another time with WY1028. Fermentation will kick off at 20C and probably go up to 23C over a week.

The mash is being carried out without regard for history, I'm going for a fairly highly fermentable mash so that the yeast doesn't give up on my halfway through. It's a 64/68/72/78C mash for 20/30/15/10 minutes.

Little Beer Brewday Continued: Ordinary Bitter

Ordinary Bitter isn't a very inspiring label. Ordinary: pedestrian, plain, dull. We even use ordinary as a descriptor when we mean bad. There's something nice about the idea of an Ordinary Bitter though. Ordinary Bitter just is, no punching people in the face with high ABV or flavours turned up to 11. A well made Bitter has a place even though it can't compete with crazy Belgian beers and West Coast IPAs for straight up impact.

Bitter is better when pronounced 'bit-ta' like Roots Manuva

I brewed this one earlier in the year and I think it worked well. It was just 93% Maris Otter and 7% Medium Crystal with 35 IBU worth of First Gold hops. I carbonated some bottles as normal and carbonated others with only half the normal amount of sugar. When comparing them it was almost as if they were two different beers. This time I've run out of Medium Crystal so it's the less traditional Caramunich II instead and I've got East Kent Goldings instead of the First Gold. I'll start fermenting it at 20C and raise the temperature slowly over the week to 24C. Another time I'd like to leave out the crystal and just add a little black malt to adjust the colour.

It's not a revolution in a bottle, it's not different or new, it won't stand out. It's not meant to. It's just meant to be well brewed and good to drink. I like beers that are different and challenging but it's nice to just brew something that can be simple and good without any extra pretension.

Liberty Bitter (23L batch)
OG: 1.037 (1.038 measured)
FG: 1.010
IBU: 35
ABV: 3.5%
EBC: 11.6

93% Maris Otter
7% Caramunich II

25g East Kent Golding @ 90 min
30g East Kent Golding @ 20 min
30g East Kent Golding @ 0 min

1L starter of WY1968

9g CaSO4, 1g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4

80g Acidulated malt to adjust pH.

Extra Special

I've had glandular fever and been bedridden for the past two months. Not so much fun. In my current state I'm unable to brew but my wife Bron volunteered to brew for me. That's true love right there.

The first beer she did under my direction was an ESB. My favourite ESB, actually one of my favourite beer experiences ever, was at Redoak. Everything was perfect, it was a warm day, I was dodging class with a good mate and I was just discovering the possibilities of craft beer.

That ESB was a revelation to me, one I'll probably be chasing for the rest of my life.

For the brew I was limited to a partial mash because I don't yet have a pot big enough to do a full 23l all grain batch. I was aiming for a deep copper colour, assertive bitterness and some restrained fruitiness. I've used East Kent Golding hops a bit before so I went for Fuggles for something different. I went for a liquid yeast this time and propogated the yeast on 'slants' so I can bring my costs down. I'll post about that another time.

The Hargreaves Hill ESB. Delicious.

Recipe on Hopville.

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.017
IBU: 47

2kg Marris Otter
2kg Light DME
200g Crystal 120 EBC
100g Crystal 270 EBC

50g Northern Brewer @ 60 min
40g Fuggles @ 20 min
40g Fuggles @ 0 min

Wyeast 1968 London ESB

5/2/12 - Brew day. Went off without any drama.
6/2/12 - Pitched the yeast. Ferocious fermentation.
12/2/12 - Airlock is still, I'll leave it a few days and then get it into bottles.