Ag Porter Recipe. How Does This Look?

[crozdog]

Hi guys,

I'd like to put down a double batch (50l) of Porter to get ready for winter. After looking at a pile of recipes & seeing what I have in the shed, I have come up with the following:

8kg JWM Trad Ale
1kg JWM Light Munich
0.5kg 120* Crystal
0.3kg 1300* Chocolate
0.1 kg Wyermann Carafa Special 3 (1300*)

Northern Brewer to bitter to around 23IBU, then Cascade for flavour & aroma to end up around 29IBU.

Brewsta tells me it will end up around 60 EBC, have an OG of 1046 & a BU:GU of 62%.

This is my first attempt at a dark beer & some of these malts, so any comments or suggestions are most welcome. FWIW, I was thinking of mashing at around 67.


Beers

Crozdog

 

[Bobby]

cascade in a porter? I would go with EKG or such

 

[crozdog]

cascade in a porter? I would go with EKG or such

Yeah I know it isn't traditionally used, but I did find a couple of recipes that used it & I have it instock unlike EKG of Fuggles.

Crozdog

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Personally I would up the SG a bit, and definatly up the IBU's. You will end up with more of a brown than a porter

 

[Tony]

Recipe looks great.

Id buy some EKG though.

I supose you could use cascade and call it an AMerican Brown Ale.

cheers

 

[vlbaby]

g'day crozdog,
I did a porter a while ago that used a grain bill almost identical to yours and it turned out great.
Must admit I didnt use cascade, but rather northern brewer for bittering and some fuggles for flavour.
Cascade will impart a very distinctive aroma that will make the beer very much unlike a porter. Couldn't say it would be a bad beer or anything, but it certainly wouldnt be a porter.
Brew it and see if you like it. Its the only way to learn.

vl.

 

[Trent]

Crozdog
You dont mention the kind of yeast you are going to use - are you using american, english or irish? I probably wouldnt use any cascade, but if thats the flavour you are after, then go for it. Probably fine, especially if you are using an american yeast. Apart from that, it looks good, though maybe consider upping the choc malt a touch to around 500g. I would also probably tend to aim for about 1054 or so OG, but that is just my personal preference for dark beers, gives it a bit more kick.
All the best
Trent

 

[crozdog]

thanks for the feedback so far guys. I've got a Wyeast 1084 irish Ale, I was going to try with it.

The only other hops on hand are Hallertauer, mt hood, Saaz, Saaz B, Amarillo, Liberty & Stisselspalt. You'd be right if you guessed that I haven't made English beers to date.

 

[goatherder]

As a suggestion, how about trying some english malts? Use maris otter in place of the pale, amber in place of some of the munich, use english crystal and choc and drop the carafa in favour of some patent. Your recipe looks great but I like using english malts when making english style beers.

If you haven't got any english flavour/aroma hops then I'd not bother with any at all. Just go with a bittering charge - easier to get away with no hop aroma in a porter than the wrong hop aroma.

Your yeast sounds good, keep it to the lower end of the temp range so the esters don't end up too dominant.

 

[Steve Lacey]

The owner of the main craft beer bar here in Tokyo commissioned a strongish porter-like beer featuring American flavour and aroma hops. It is called Divine Vamp IBA ... India Black Ale. Very nice too. There is no great compulsion to slavishly follow styles, but as the other correspondents point out, the beer would not fit the profile of a trad porter. If it is a question of using the ingredients on hand, go for it and just adjust your expectation/naming from porter to American brown ale as Tony suggested.

 

[crozdog]

Cheers guys for the responses.

I'm basically attempting to make something dark using what I have on hand. Like Syteve says, I wasn't attempting to be 100% correct as far as the style goes, just get a nice dark ale.

So given the feedback, I reckon that I'll give it a go - but call it an american brown(ish) ale & get some english hops to attempt a proper porter.

beers

philip