I first became aware of Edmund Fitzgerald Porter through Scott Russell‘s book North American Clone Brews. He and I were working together at the time, and he told me it was possibly his favorite American porter.

A year or so later while visiting family in northwestern Pennsylvania — not too far from the beer’s home turf of Cleveland — I found this gem at the local package shop, and found out for myself just how tasty it is.

This beer recipe was intended to follow the American Homebrewers Association article “50 Commercial Clone Beer Recipes,” where they printed one recipe per each American state. Great Lakes Brewing’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter was Ohio’s representative, and it is a worthy candidate.

Continue to the recipe…

Adrift

Our recipe is only based loosely on this recipe because I simply grabbed the wrong hops at the Lebanon Brew Shop, and didn’t notice until I was about to add them to the boil.

I decided not to care.

Hey, at least I took notes, and created a record of the changes I made! It may turn out to be awesome on its own. But it is not a clone anymore. Galaxy is most definitely not Golding!

To paraphrase Charlie Papazian: Relax. Don’t worry. And just make the damned homebrew.

I had fun brewing this beer while Sarah and her mum ran a test batch dyeing yarn using flowers. Family craft day!

However, if you would like to actually clone this fine beer, please reference Scott’s book, North American Clone Brews, or the AHA’s published recipe on their site.

INGREDIENTS

(For 5 gallons | All Grain)

Grains
• 9.5 lbs Pale Malt
• .75 lb Crystal (60ºL)
• 0.5 lb Black Patent Malt
• 0.5 lb Roasted Barley

Hops

• 0.75 oz Galaxy pellets, 14.5% AAU (60 min)
• 0.25 oz Northern Brewer pellets, 5.4% AAU (60 min)
• 0.50 oz Northern Brewer pellets, 5.4% AAU (35 min)
• 0.50 oz Northern Brewer pellets, 5.41% AAU (10 min)
• 0.25 oz Galaxy pellets, 14.5% AAU (0 min)

Yeast
• WLP Irish Ale Yeast

Specifications
• Original Gravity: 1.062
• Final Gravity: 1.014
• ABV: 6.3%
• Boil Time: 60 minutes
• Pre-boil Volume: 6.75 gallons

DIRECTIONS
• Heat 3.75 gallons to ~154ºF attempting to strike at 152ºF.
• Transfer heated water to mash tun and stir in the grains.
• Cover the mash tun and let rest for 60 minutes.
• Sparge (we used fly method) the grains using  5.6 gallons (based on pounds of grain multiplied by 2) water at ~170ºF.
• Collect the wort and bring to boil.
• Add hops as scheduled above.
• Chill wort and transfer to traditional fermenting bucket.
• Pitch yeast. Ours was at approximately 70ºF at this time.