Let's Brew - 1897 Fullers Porter

I've finished all the recipes for "Keg!". But I do like to continue writing recipes. In this case for the other book I'm working om, "Free!". This is recipe number 182. Still a long way to go. I'm probably not even half way. It makes sense to knock off a few recipes for it whenever I can. I don't want to end in the same situation as with "Blitzkrieg!" where I spent weeks putting together recipes when the rest of the book was complete.

Though its popularity had seriously waned elsewhere, Porter was still very much a mainstream beer in London. And Fullers produced large quantities of it. This batch, for example, was 190 barrels.

There’s been a bit of shuffling around in the grist. There’s a little more base malt and a little less brown malt. But the big change is in the black malt, down from 6.5% to 2%. Unsurprisingly, the changes leave the beer a good bit paler: 23 SRM rather than 33 SRM.

The sugar is still just described as the very unspecific “saccharum”. For which I’ve substituted No. 2 invert.

The hopping rate has also been reduced. But, as the majority are now Californian rather than English, the calculated bitterness level has actually increased a little.

By this point, ageing Porter was well over and this would have been served fresh, with no more than aa week or two of conditioning in the cask, at most.

1897 Fullers Porter
pale malt	6.00 lb	53.33%
brown malt	2.00 lb	17.78%
black malt	0.25 lb	2.22%
No. 2 invert	3.00 lb	26.67%
Cluster 90 mins	1.00 oz
Cluster 60 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1057
FG	1016
ABV	5.42
Apparent attenuation	71.93%
IBU	46
SRM	23
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	56º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale