Ginger Porter

I love making porters. There’s a lot you can do with them, and they hold up pretty well to experimentation. With this beer, I added grated ginger to the boil. The result was a light bodied beer that was dark in color and had a refreshing spiciness from the ginger. It required longer aging before drinking than other beers. My recipe suggests six weeks, though you could go longer. I definitely need to make this one again.

Goals

• 5 gallons
• Starting specific gravity: 1.050
• Finishing specific gravity: 1.010
• ABV: 5% - 6%
• Bitterness: 30 - 35 IBU
• Color: 25 - 30 SRM

Mini-mash recipe

Ingredients

• 3.3 lb. light malt extract syrup
• 1 lb. brown malt
• 2.3 lb. British pale ale malt
• 0.5 lb. 60L crystal malt
• 0.1 lb. (1 oz.) Chocolate malt
• 1 oz. Northern Brewer (60 minutes)
• 1 oz. Goldings (20 minutes)
• 1 oz. Fuggle (5 minutes)
• Wyeast #1318 (London Ale III) or #1099 (Whitbread)

Procedure

• Heat 1 gallon of strike water to 165° F.
• Add strike water and crushed grains to mash tun, stirring well.
• Temperature should stabilize around 150° F. Hold this temperature for one hour, checking the temperature every 15 minutes.
• While mash is being conducted, heat 2.6 gallons of sparge water to 150° F.
• Recirculate runnings until clear, then sparge and collect a total of 3 gallons.
• Add malt extract. Steep 4 oz. grated ginger in a muslin bag while bringing to a boil.
• Add 1 oz. Northern Brewer hops. Boil 60 minutes.
• With 20 minutes remaining, add 1 oz. Goldings hops.
• With 5 minutes remaining, add 1 oz. Fuggle hops.
• Cool with wort chiller to ~ 75° F and add to 2 gallons of water in carboy. Top up to 5 gallons.
• Pitch yeast.
• Bottle or keg when fermentation is complete.
• Age approximately six weeks.