Otter Porter (2011)
This is the main competition beer recipe, named for the elusive Chertsey Otter. A porter is a good, strong dark beer originating in the East End of London. It's quite different from the standard ales we've brewed the last couple of years, falling somewhere between a bitter and a stout. And awesomely drinkable. Guvnah.
The following recipe will make you 5 gallons - approximately
40 pints. The average cost of a homebrewed pint is about 75p. You know it makes sense.
Ingredients
These ingredients are available from any homebrew shop.
1.8kg can of Pale Liquid Malt Extract (a gloopy brown syrup)
1kg Dark Spraymalt (a brown powder that usually comes in 500g bags)
500g of Crushed Crystal Malt (looks like muesli/gravel)
300g of Chocolate Malt (looks like darker muesli/gravel)
100g of Black Patent Malt (looks like black muesli/gravel)
113g Goldings or Challenger Hops (hops come in bags of dried greenish leaves)
50g of Fuggles Hops or Chertsey Hops if you have them.
1 packet Ale Yeast - preferably Safale s-04 Dry Ale Yeast (comes in little 12g silver foil packs)
2 teaspoons of Gypsum (an off-white, chalky powder)
Also, you'll need either brewing sugar or bog standard caster sugar enough to add a teaspoon each to 40 bottles.
Brewing Equipment
You can beg, borrow or share a lot of this stuff with your friends.
- 1 x Stockpot or similarly large saucepan (3 gallon)
- 1 x 5 gallon Fermenting Bucket with Lid
- 1 x Brewing Thermometer
- 1 x Long Handled Spoon (stainless steel or heatproof plastic)
- 1 x Brewing Bag for hops and crystal malt
- 1 x Large Colander or Strainer (metal not plastic)
- 1 x Siphon Tube
- 1 x Funnel
- 1 x Chlorine-based Sterilising Powder
Bottling
You will need bottles sufficient to hold 36 to 40 pints. Equipment listed is for glass bottles with crown caps, because they look great and your beer just tastes better coming out of them.
- 40 x One Pint Bottles (you can either buy these new or recycle commercial ale bottles - these should be the robust, heavy duty type, i.e. Bombardier, not flimsy lager bottles that will blow up during fermentation)
-
1 x 100 Crown Caps (cheapest to buy in bags of 100)
-
1 x Crown Capper (a device that crimps the crown caps onto the bottles)
Alternatively, you can buy Grolsch-style homebrew bottles (don't use actual Grolsch bottles - they will blow up as well), or put them in plastic with screwtop lids. Don't, if you can avoid it. It's just wrong.
Optional kit
- 1 x Fish Tank Air Pump with clean Aeration Stone (helps with good fast fermentation
- 1 x Hydrometer (you only need one of these if you want to work out how alcoholic your beer is - if 'somewhere around 4%' is OK with you, you probably don't need to bother with one.)
-
1 x Beer Heater to keep the beer warmed at a consistent temperature
Making the Beer
Right, you've got all that stuff. Here's how to bring it all together into beer, glorious beer. Happily, it's dead easy.
Step One
1. Clear the decks. You need a fair amount of space to do this.
2. Sterilise all your equipment (fermenting bucket, thermometer, spoon, etc) according to the instructions on your sterilising powder. Make sure all sterilant is washed off, or it will kill your beer.
3. Fill your 3 gallon stockpot about two-thirds full of tap water (2 gallons or 7.5 litres).
4. Put stockpot full of water on stove. Add 2tsp of gypsum as it warms.
5. Put your crystal, chocolate and black patent malts in your brewing bag and your Goldings/Challenger hops in the brewing bag and tie the top.
6. When the stockpot is just starting bubble (NOT boil), slowly stir in the spraymalt and the can of liquid malt extract. (The malt extract's a bit sticky, so warm the can in warm water first to make it runnier.) Expect it to foam a lot. Don't panic.
7. Stir. Don't let anything stick to the bottom of the pot. And whatever you do DON'T LET IT BOIL OVER. It's a bugger to get off the stove.
8. As it comes to the boil, add the bag full of hops and crystal malt. Keep stirring to hold down the foaming.
9. Boil as hard as you can for 40 mins. Don't put a lid on it - it will only encourage the blighter to foam and boil over. Stir occasionally.
10. At the end of 40 mins, add the Fuggles hops directly to the liquid. This will add bitter hop flavour.
11. Boil for another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave the liquid to stand. Don't be tempted to go for longer. It will destroy all the magic.
12. Boil the kettle. This is to rinse out the bag full of hops and malts.
13. Strain the liquid mixture in the stockpot (the
wort) into the fermenting bucket, using the colander. Be really careful - hot sugary water burns like nothing else.
14. Rinse the bag of hops and crystal into the fermenting bucket, using the kettle of boiling water.
15. Top the fermenting bucket up to the 5 gallon mark with cold tap water and stir with your long-handled spoon.
16. Check the temperature is lower than 25°C, then sprinkle the yeast on the surface.
17. If you're using an air pump, now is the time. Place in fermenting bucket and let is bubble for about 4 hours, then put the lid on.
18. If you're not using an air pump, put the lid on.
19. Store in a place where the temperature can be maintained steadily somewhere between 15°C and 25°C. You can wrap your bucket in towels to insulate. Check the temperature daily.
20. The brew should start to foam/bubble and ferment after 12 to 18 hours.
Note: Keep the lid on at all times to prevent infection by bacteria that will make your beer go off.
Step 2
1. After 3 to 7 days, fermentation will cease and your beer will stop foaming/bubbling, becoming flat.
2. When you're sure fermentation is over, you'll need to add your finings. These help clear the beer and should be added - and the beer left to stand - according to the instructions on the packet. Once that's done, your beer is ready to bottle.
3. Sterilise your bottles, funnel, syphon and crown caps. Make sure the sterilising solution is washed off completely, or it will kill your beer!
4. Being careful not to stir up the yeast sediment at the bottom, move your fermenting bin back to the kitchen.
5. Pour a half teaspoon of sugar into each bottle. Use the funnel.
6. Siphon your beer into the bottles, being careful to leave 1.5 to 2 inches of air in the top of each.
7. Crown cap your bottles and leave for a minimum of three weeks. Bottles should be stored where the temperature is between 15°C and 25°C.
8. Don't open until the beer has cleared. You can usually tell when this has happened, even with the dark brown bottles, by holding up against the light. If it's clear and you can hear angels singing, it's ready to drink.
