2018 Stout/porter brewing

[SnailAle]

Gday all,

Just wondering, if I want a nice stout/ porter for next winter should I be brewing it soon to give it 6-8 months to age in the bottle?

Cheers

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Good question ! ..

Musing the same thing myself. It depends on the recipe quite a bit I think .. some age better than others.

I nearly threw a couple early ones out (they were pretty bad) but then 12 months later they turned out nice. Another couple tasted good at the start but then lost their zing later on.

Possibly the higher the alcohol and bolder you are with the hops and dark grains - the longer it takes for the flavours to settle down. The better they age.

 

[Stouter]

My standard Stout recipe appears to need at least two months, but at 4 months it's much nicer. My taste buds tingle at the thought of leaving it for 6-8 months and that's what I'm trying to do.
I've started putting away a few bottles from each batch I do, but it's so bloody tempting to drink them.
6 P's? Prior planning and patience produces perfect Porter??

 

[Andy_27]

I've only done 1 porter and it was pretty nice about a month after bottling, but I just drank the last one yesterday after 4 months and it was bloody amazing. The flavours had mellowed and it was such an easy drinker.So much depth to the flavour with coffee, chocolate etc.

 

[SnailAle]

I was tempted to try an oatmeal stout. I'll make sure I have enough other beer to hold me over so I don't crack it too early.

Any recipes you guys would recommend for a first time stouter?

 

[Andy_27]

Not an oatmeal, but its good!

Robust Porter
25L batch

4.8kg Maris Otter
600g Chocolate
420g Biscuit
110g Melanoidin
110g Oats

50g EKG @60
10g Northern Brewer @ 60
10g Target @ 60
20g EKG @ 5

Wyeast 1084

Mash @ 66.7

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
IBU: 45
ABV: 5.4%
EBC: 77.4

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Base malt + roast barley 10 - 15% and you can't go too wrong.

Nottingham yeast works well, keep the temps down though. If it gets hot it throws out paint stripper.

 

[manticle]

My stouts are ready for kegging about a week after ferment starts. Good straight away, better when the yeast drops.

They age well if looked after.

Recipe and process dependent.

Yes you can wait, no you shouldn't have to.

 

[manticle]

To answer your question above about recipes - I rarely measure anything these days so my recipe is an approximation but I've repeated similar approximations multiple times.

5kg maris or golden promise (known quantity from hbs)
About 100g eyeballed biscuit or victory
100 or less of heritage crystal or simpsons dark. Can be omitted.
900-ish g of roast malts made up of:

~150 black
~250 choc
~250 roast barley
~250 simpsons brown (incredible malt)

Roast malts are crushed fine, steeped in cold water anything between 2 and 24 hrs. Add to last 10 mins of mash.

Cal chloride to mash and boil, challenger hops to guesstimate 35 ibu with a small whirlpool addition and wlp london ale started at 17 and bumped to 22 incrementally over the course of a week. 17 for 2 days before raising. That yeast is a cracker.

In my opinion, unlike the kiss approach that works with many other styles, stouts lend themselves to multiple (still judiciously added) malt types - especially roast. Go pale choc, choc, roast, brown, black.

 

[Stouter]

I was tempted to try an oatmeal stout. I'll make sure I have enough other beer to hold me over so I don't crack it too early.

Any recipes you guys would recommend for a first time stouter?

Ducatiboy stu has one in the recipe section here called Pillar of Stout. That was my starting point, and I tweaked it with what I had on hand. You could make an addition of rolled oats into that grain bill.

 

[SnailAle]

Ducatiboy stu has one in the recipe section here called Pillar of Stout. That was my starting point, and I tweaked it with what I had on hand. You could make an addition of rolled oats into that grain bill.

Fyi on this recipe I found the thread but it was up to Poo a bit. Was all written in code.

 

[Meddo]

I brewed @Ducatiboy stu's pillar of stout as my first stout, buggered up my calcs though and brewed it with about double the amount of each of the various black malts compared to the original recipe. It turned out.... aggressive. After about six months it's calmed down half a notch and I'm really enjoying it - still a pretty brutal beer but I'll be sad when the keg blows.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Pillar of Stout does well with oats.

And yes, it needs a few months in the bottle to smooth out

Try it with W1728 Scottish Ale yeats

KG Fermentable
4.4 kg BB Ale Malt
0.34 kg JWM Roast Barley
0.15 kg JWM Chocolate Malt
0.15 kg Weyermann Carafa Special II
0.1 kg TF Black Malt
Hops
34 g Pride of Ringwood (Pellet, 9.0AA%, 60mins)
30 g Pride of Ringwood (Pellet, 9.0AA%, 20mins)

23L
Batch Size

Brew Details
Original Gravity 1.053 (calc)
Final Gravity 1.013 (calc)
Bitterness 51.2 IBU
Efficiency 75%
Alcohol 5.2%
Colour 98 EBC

 

[SnailAle]

Gday all, I ended up brewing a lighter summer porter and had a carbonation question. Keen to try Manticle's recipe next!

I'm still using glass and PET bottles (almost got a kegerator until we went and bought a house).

Just wondering, if I want to stay in that low to moderate range of carbonation should I just use half the carb drop recommendation for Normal carb level beers?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Gday all, I ended up brewing a lighter summer porter and had a carbonation question. Keen to try Manticle's recipe next!

I'm still using glass and PET bottles (almost got a kegerator until we went and bought a house).

Just wondering, if I want to stay in that low to moderate range of carbonation should I just use half the carb drop recommendation for Normal carb level beers?

Batch priming is your friend. That way you can control your sugar per litre in a better format than "1 drop or 2?".

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

All my porters and stouts have been better after a minimum of 2 months, but ideally not drinking until 4+.

 

[SnailAle]

Batch priming is your friend. That way you can control your sugar per litre in a better format than "1 drop or 2?".

I have read that most people do do that. I wouldn't know how to go about it and I'm worried I'd stuff it up and end up with a glass bottle fireworks show in the spare room and a fuming missus! Haha

Mostly though I was given a heap of carb drops when I first got into brewing from a mate that doesn't do it any more.

 

[Rocker1986]

I don't think I'll do one this year. I need the brew fridge to keep up with my usual beers and I'm not gonna ferment at ambient now because it's too hot, but next year I'll do one around September so it can be fermented separate at ambient temperature which should hold it around 20-22 degrees. Keg after two weeks and let sit until the following May/June.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I have read that most people do do that. I wouldn't know how to go about it and I'm worried I'd stuff it up and end up with a glass bottle fireworks show in the spare room and a fuming missus! Haha

Mostly though I was given a heap of carb drops when I first got into brewing from a mate that doesn't do it any more.

Basically calculate out (brew mate will do the trick, as will online calculators such as this https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/ ).

Way I do it, is dissolve the sugar first in hot water, then put into sterilised fermenter and run the beer through a tube onto it - the gentle swirling action will mix it up nicely, and I've never had a bomb from it).

 

[SnailAle]

For the meantime while I don't have a secondary or a siphon can someone recommend how many carbonation drops to add into a porter?