Dear Replicator,

Every year, we make our way to Canton, Ohio for the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions and game. We love to search out and sample  the local craft brews while we’re there. One favorite place  is The Thirsty Dog. They have this amazing porter called Old Leghumper. It’s a robust, dark brown porter that is very refreshing. This past year, they even had a raspberry version of Old Leghumper that was unbelievable. We would love to duplicate these at home.
Al Potter
Kirkwood, New York

Old Leghumper is a beer born of passion. I spoke at length with Fred Karm, head brewer at Thirsty Dog, and he truly loves brewing! Fred is very passionate about his beer. In fact, he doesn’t get enough brewing at Thirsty Dog, so he gathers some friends and homebrews about once a month. Fred was generous enough to give us lots of tips for brewing his Old Leghumper.

Old Leghumper is a robust porter, creamy and full-bodied with a malty sweet taste. It has a high starting gravity of 1.067 and a high finishing gravity of 1.024. The high finishing gravity is achieved by a large amount of non-fermentable sugars, derived from dextrin malt (or malto-dextrin powder) and crystal malts in the grain bill.

This beer is unusual because more than half of the grain bill is comprised of specialty malts. Hop bitterness is on the low end of the scale for this style, coming in at 26 IBUs. Thirsty Dog uses London Ale yeast (Wyeast 1028), and pitches a large starter volume, then ferments at a high 72º F. Finally, Fred uses isinglass finings after the beer is fermented to give this beer a nice level of clarity.

To make the raspberry version, add 6 ounces of natural raspberry flavoring (or the juice from 4 pounds of fresh raspberries) at the end of the boil. Let sit for 10 minutes to sanitize juice. You can add more or less to suit your personal taste. For more information about Thirsty Dog beers, check out www.thirstydog.com.

Thirsty Dog Old Leghumper Porter
(5 gallons, extract with grains)
OG = 1.067   FG = 1.024 IBUs = 24

 Ingredients

• 6.6 lbs. John Bull plain light malt extract syrup
• 1 lb. malto-dextrin
• 10 oz. crystal malt (20° Lovibond)
• 10 oz. crystal malt (80° Lovibond)
• 10 oz. crystal malt (120° Lovibond)
• 1 lb. chocolate malt
• 1.5 lbs. Munich  malt (20° Lovibond)
• 12 oz. flaked barley
• 8 AAU German Northern Brewer hops
• (1 oz. of 8% alpha acid)
• 5 AAU Liberty hops
• (1.5 oz. at 3.7% alpha acid)
• London Ale (Wyeast 1028) or Burton Ale (White Labs WLP023) or (seasonal) London Ale (WLP013)
• 1/2 teaspoon isinglass for fining
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step
Steep the 6 grains in 3 gallons of water at 150º F for 30 minutes. Strain out the grains, and add the malto-dextrin and malt syrup and return to a boil. When the wort begins boiling, add Northern Brewer hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add the Liberty hops for the last 5 minutes of the boil.

Cool wort in an ice bath or with wort chiller. Transfer to primary fermenter and add enough cold water to bring the volume up to 5.5 gallons. Pitch yeast and oxygenate-aerate well. Ferment this beer on the warm side, at 72º F as per the brewer’s instructions, for 7 to 10 days. Add the isinglass to the beer after fermentation is complete to help achieve clarity. Prime, bottle and age for about two weeks.

All-Grain Option: Replace the malt syrup and malto-dextrin with 6.5 lbs. of pale malt and 1.25 lbs. of dextrin malt. Mash the grains together.  Fred says Thirsty Dog uses a simple single-infusion mash at 155º F for this beer. I would suggest 60 minutes. Change the boiling hops to 6 AAU German Northern Brewer hops (0.75 ounce at 8% alpha acid).  Note that the boiling hops are slightly lower for the all-grain batch, due to greater hop extract efficiency from a full boil of the entire wort. Ferment and condition as described in the extract-with-grains instructions.