Brewing Porters and Stouts: Origins, History, and 60 Recipes for Brewing Them at Home Today

197 Pages·2014·3.43 MB·English

by  Terry Foster

Sign above the door of the Beacon Hotel, brewery tap of Sarah Hughes Brewery
in the Midlands of England. Such signs over pub doors were intended to show
compliance with licensing laws and so were once common, but are now rare.

Copyright © 2014 by Terry Foster All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Brian Peterson Cover photo by CBCK-Christine/iStock/Thinkstock Print ISBN: 978-1-
62914-511-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62914884-7
Printed in the United States of America
AS ALWAYS, MY THANKS MUST GO TO MY WIFE FOR PUTTING UP with my obsession
with brewing and brewing history. She encouraged me to go off and investigate
brewing archives on my own in places like London, Oxford, and New Haven
while she was left to her own devices. Neither did she complain about the time I
spent brewing at home and at BrüRm@BAR, or at my desk beavering away
writing about beer and brewing (and even fiction). Thank you, Lois!
I must also thank Jeff Browning, the brewer at BAR, who has been a good
friend for many years—both for his insight into producing good beer, and his
willingness to adapt some of my experiments to a commercial scale. He says he
has learnt much from me, but so have I from him, and I think overall the score is
even, and we are now into overtime.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1: How It All Began . . . And Nearly Ended
Chapter 2: Porter and Stout Definitions
Chapter 3: Porter and Stout Raw Materials
Chapter 4: The Other Ingredients
Chapter 5: Brewing Porters and Stouts—Recipes
Selected Bibliography
INTRODUCTION
MANY YEARS AGO, CHARLIE PAPAZIAN ASKED ME TO WRITE THE first book in the
Classic Styles series from Brewers Publications. That was Pale Ale, and I later
followed that with a similar effort on Porter. This was at a time when the craft
brewing revolution was still in its early stages, and there was a limited supply of
information and ingredients available to both craft and homebrewers. As always,
such topics never stand still, and I later wrote a much-expanded second edition
on pale ale. However, although I very much wanted to do so, I did not get around
to doing anything on porter until after I had retired from my “day job” and had
time to extend my historical researches.
While I was busy amassing ream upon ream of notes about porter brewing in
the past, modern craft brewing caught up with me as there was a revolution in
brewing this style of beer, as well as a huge expansion in the range and quality of
brewing ingredients available. It was soon clear to me that there was a need to
redo the porter book. But this time, I wanted to not only include results from my
research, but also include stouts, since these are really only derivatives of the
original porters.
I have started with the history of porter/stout brewing, partly because its close
ties to the Industrial Revolution in Britain is very intriguing, but also because it is
key to understanding how beer styles developed, and because it shows us how the
beers we make now have come into being and why they are what they are. I have
incorporated as much as I can of the history of porter and stout in the United
States, the former especially having been a part of America’s brewing portfolio
since 1776. Indeed, porter has been brewed here without a break right up to the
present day, in contrast to England, where it actually ceased to be brewed from
before the Second World War until the renascence of craft brewing there in
modern times. Native porters and stouts have never received great acclaim here,
largely because pale lager beers became so dominant in this country, and because
Prohibition saw the demise of so many breweries, all too often along with the
loss of their records.
I started brewing my own beer in Britain, just as the craft of homebrewing was
beginning to be revived, then moved to the United States just as homebrewing
was legalized here. I have therefore lived through two homebrewing revolutions,
and of course through the great craft brewing revolution here. The quality of
beer I can now produce at home, and that of those craft beers I can buy, has
improved dramatically. Proudly numbered among all these new beers are many
porters, stouts, and their sub-styles, and new variations on these are appearing
almost daily. Therefore, it seemed that this was a good time to review these styles,
their histories, and their brewing methodologies.
I hope I have done justice to the subject from the point of brewing and the
possibilities available to the home and craft brewer. I also hope that I have given
some insight into the history and importance of ale and porter brewing in the
United States. There are still many gaps in this knowledge, and with luck, I shall
have inspired some of you to try to fill these. Above all, I hope I have roused
present and future brewers to further explore porter and stout and to continue to
experiment and innovate in this area.