Ritchies Festival Pride of London Porter Review

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calumscott

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I didn't go into the LHBS to get this, I think I was planning something else...

...but the owner steered me over to his display of these kits, just new in, he says.

Ritchies have really taken care over them to produce something that really feels like you are getting something that is premium product. The styling is nice and understated and consistent across the range, but it's what's in the box that counts.

Two squidgy bags of hopped malt extract totalling 3kg, an additional 600g bag dextrose to bump up the ABV, another little bag of dextrose for priming when you're all done, a packet of hop pellets (unspecified variety) to dry hop and a clever little mesh bag to strain any particles when racking.

"They've really thought these through" was my first impression.

Standard beer kit process to brew, but I had a 500g bag of medium DME kicking around looking for a purpose in life and as it's winter and porters are best strong it found it's destiny beefing up this kit...

Squidgy bags in, dextrose in, extra DME in topped off to 5 gallons. Yeast pitched and tucked away. OG a healthy 1.054.

7 days in and the hop pellets get chucked in, another week and a bit and ready for bottling. The sample jar was certainly promising. FG a reasonable 1.012 giving 5.6%.

Racking was nice and easy with the little mesh sock over the sediment trap - stopped a good amount of the detritus by the look of things. I like things a little fizzier so increased the priming load from the 90g supplied to 105g.

After a couple of weeks getting fizzy, the obligatory "how's this going to turn out?" bottle was opened last night.

This is very nice beer indeed. It is rich and dark and strong with a little residual sweetness. There are coffee and chocolate notes, roastedness, maltiness... It's all in there, it is a porter through and through. Mouthfeel is good, body is excellent and it has a lovely tight head that lasts to the bottom of the glass even after only a couple of weeks in the bottle.

I'm impressed (as I usually am by two cans and squidgy bag kits - I should have worked out that two squidgy bags would be good...) and this should be nicely rounded off by Christmas.

...and probably polished off by New Year!
 
a nice review Calum.
Don't think I've tried a Ritchies kit at all.
 
Nice one Callum, good read that! :thumb:

I might try one as i've been thinking about a nice kit for Christmas. Well, i say 'thinking', i've already but a wherry on this week and bottled 39pints of nelsons revenge. :lol: but something a little stronger would be just the ticket :drink:

I had Ritchies simply bitter and wasn't overly impressed gents. Again, standard kit process with the addition of 500g medium spray malt, 500g dextrose. I kegged this kit, left it for at least 3 weeks and initially it was fairly nice but no means a 'cracker'. there wasn't much mouth feel and i was expecting more flavour as, as you say, the squidgy packets are impressive (hambleton bard IPA springs to mind) but this definately was lacking something. after 5 weeks it had started to loose it's quality and ultimately i binned about a quarter of it :( . It was only a couple of shades better than John Bulls bitter IMOP

Edit: Just been on the hunt for one - The premium festival kits were only released in August.
 
i did one of these alongside the old suffolk strong and i will say the same bottle these kits instead of kegging as they simply take too long to brew but are great beers strong too this beer was a very nice drop of porter
 
Did this as my third kit and really couldn't be simpler. Good instructions come with the kit and it really is as simple as adding the pouches to some boiling water, mixing well, topping up with cold and pitching the yeast. The only new thing to me was the dry hopping but again that is really straightforward ( and the kit comes with a hop strainer bag that fits over the end of your syphon.) Mine has been in the Fv for about 14 days now and will be getting bottled on Friday. Smells fantastic and looking forward to drinking it.
 
This is the one in my fermenter at present and i'm pretty excited about it having tried a porter in a village called rye harbour last year (it was by Hastings brewery) I added the hop pellets at day 4 by tipping in the contents and not stirring (Normally with pellets or hops i tie in a muslin bag and then add) i wonder what difference this will make as opposed to the bag method? It's now day 6, so will leave it till a week sunday (making 16 days in all - i'm not usually in a great hurry to bottle up, especially where hops are infiltrating a brew) I then hope to leave it bottled till mid november before trying some and will report back!!!!
 
It's now just over 4 weeks since i bottled. Week 2 tried a 330ml bottle. No head, stouty taste, very average. Week 3, another 330ml bottle, a little head, still no great flavour developed. Week 4, the beer is producing a head, and clinging to the glass. The aroma is of dark fruit, like blackberries. The taste is so much more complex at this stage. Definately getting a sweetness that works against the bitterness. On swallowing, there is no dark roast coffee as there is in Hastings porter. At this stage, it's not what i was expecting, but is actually a lovely tasting winter beer! I will report back for a 6 week update soon!
 
Thanks Riddo. I've got this kit waiting to go so it's interesting to read how your brew is developing. Think I'll get mine going next week.
 
Got my Festival Porter in the FV this morning. Have done it slightly short at 22 litres, using my hydrometer as a guide to aim for around 5% ABV.

Am thinking I'll leave this in primary for 2 weeks then rack to secondary before bunging in the hops for 5 days.
 
Bottling day for this today. Was having one of those mornings but now have 38 bottles safely put away in the warm. Should end up at about 5.2% once bottle conditioned.

I've read that Porters can need a bit longer to condition. I was thinking of leaving mine for the usual 2 weeks indoors plus another 6 in the shed.
 
Is this kit similar to Fuller's London Porter by any chance?

Can't say I've had the Fuller's Porter but I guessing by the name "Pride of London" it's a play on words with London Pride (i.e. Fullers) and it's a porter. Much like their Landlord's Finest kit that I'm going to be sampling soon and expecting it to be a bit like Timothy Taylor's Landlord.

I have made Pride Of London Porter though and I really liked it, definitely on my one to repeat list!
 

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