Let's brew Wednesday - 1915 Courage Porter

You may have noticed that I publish a lot of recipes from the period 1880 - 1914. There's a good reason for that. It's the other book I'm working on in the background, "Free!, which covers that period.

The manuscript is currently just shy of 100,00 words and is 382 pages. It's maybe 40% done. But a big chunk that still needs to be completed are the recipes. This is number 200. The finished book will probably have at least double that. So I'm chipping away at them when I can.

A year of war hadn’t really affected Courage Porter much. It still had a gravity of 1050º and a decent ABV. Sadly, that wouldn’t last for much longer.

While pretty much dead in the rest of the country, Porter was still very much a mainstream beer in London. Something you’d expect to find on draught in every pub. By 1939, given the tiny quantities brewed, it could only have been available in a handful of pubs.

It has the classic London Porter combination of pale, brown and black malt. Topped off with a little sugar. With over 30% roasted grains, it’s no wonder that the colour is pretty damn dark. A lot darker than the style guidelines specify. But what the fuck do they know?

The hops are a bit of a guess. All I know is that they were English from the 1913 and 1914 harvests. 

1915 Courage Porter
pale malt	6.50 lb	58.43%
brown malt	2.25 lb	20.22%
black malt	1.125 lb	10.11%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.25 lb	11.24%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.50 oz
OG	1050
FG	1015
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	70.00%
IBU	35
SRM	38
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	64º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale