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Now that we’re headed into the winter months hopefully your homebrewing season is well underway. Many of us find that the darker days and colder weather really call for a dark beer, and a homebrewed porter is a great beer to have on hand for your friends and family to enjoy during the holiday season. It’s also a great food beer to match with hearty winter fare like meats and stews.

As the recent ASN porter tasting (see page--) showed, there is a wide range of roast flavors and alcohol content in commercially available porters. On the lighter end of the scale there are beers that some refer to as brown porters, with alcohol not much above 5%, and fairly restrained roast flavors and hop bitterness. Many English porters such as Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter and Fuller’s Porter are brown porters. And then there are the roastier, stronger (roughly 5 to 7%) versions called robust porter which are more typified by those brewed by American craft breweries like Sierra Nevada and Anchor. And then of course there are the imperial or Baltic porters that are above 7%, like Southampton Imperial Baltic Porter, and Smuttynose Baltic Porter.

So style-wise there’s a lot of latitude when brewing a porter. A good idea is to gather some of your favorite examples to drink side by side, so you can think about which elements you want to emulate with your brew. In addition to the easily categorized beers listed above there are a lot of other great porters available in the beer stores and bars now, like those made by Troeg’s, Founder’s, Stone, and Captain Lawrence, to name a few. Don’t forget to let them warm up a bit, that’s when the more subtle flavors and aromas come out.

Consider how strong a beer you want, and the ideal proportions of malt, roast, and hops, and proceed accordingly. Of course the higher the gravity the longer it will take to be ready, so that may also have some effect on your decision. The recipe below is right about in the middle of the robust porter range, but feel free to modify it according to your vision. Increase the proportion of roasted malts if you want more of those flavors, and bump up the gravity for a bigger beer, or increase mash temperatures for more body. You also may want to include special ingredients like coffee or bitter chocolate for a real winter treat.

There are also a lot of yeast choices for this style of beer. Porters historically have been made with all sorts of different yeasts, ale or lager. Choose based on the fermentation temperature you will be using, as well as your preference for degree of attenuation. I prefer Fullers yeast, available as Wyeast 1968, or White Labs WLP002, for it’s round maltiness and ester profile, but you could also use a different yeast if you have a more hop-accented profile in mind. Of course it’s always interesting to split a batch between two different yeasts and taste the differences for yourself.

Porter: all grain recipe

Ingredients:
9 lbs two row pale malt
1 lb Munich malt
.75 lb chocolate malt
.5 lbs cara pils
.4 lbs dark crystal malt
.25 lbs black patent malt
8 AAU’s hop pellets - 70 minutes
3 AAU’s hop pellets - 30 minutes
liquid yeast starter

Method:
Heat 12 quarts brewing water to 165 degrees. Mash in crushed grain to reach 152 degrees. Hold for 60 minutes. Stir in about 3 quarts boiling water to raise temperature to 168 degrees. Recirculate gently until runoff appears clear, then sparge with 168 degree water to collect 6.5 gallons. Boil for 80 minutes, adding hops as indicated. Cool and pitch yeast starter. Aerate thoroughly. O.G. = 1.053.

Porter: extract recipe

Ingredients:
6.5 lbs dry or 9 lbs. syrup malt extract
1 lb Munich malt
.75 lb chocolate malt
.5 lbs cara pils
.4 lbs dark crystal malt
.25 lbs black patent malt
8 AAU's hop pellets - 60 minutes
3 AAU’s hop pellets - 20 minutes.
liquid yeast starter

Method:
Heat 6 gallons of brewing water (use two pots if necessary). Steep the crushed grains in a grain bag. When the water reaches 170 degrees, hold for 20 minutes and then remove the grain bag. Stir in malt extract into the brewing water until dissolved and boil for 70 minutes, adding hops as indicated. Cool and pitch yeast starter. Aerate thoroughly. O.G. = 1052.

Paul Sullivan has won three Gold Medals in AHA National competitions. He is a professional musician, writer and teacher living in New York City. For more information, go to paulsullivan.com