Another rye porter - feedback wanted

[peteru]

I'm formulating my very first all grain porter recipe from scratch and planning on using a Grainfather to do this. I would appreciate feedback on this recipe and in particular the mash. I can do a more complicated step mash if that would give better results.

I'm limited in the variety of the grains I have on hand, but I have enough in stock to alter the quantities.

I also have a reasonable selection of hops, including Citra, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus, Cascade, East Kent Goldings, Mosaic and Simcoe. So, I could change the hopping if my choices seems inappropriate. I'm unsure if I want to dry hop this or not. I was thinking I'll evaluate fermenter samples and if it seems like it needs more aroma, throw in a handful of Citra (possibly into the keg)

Rye Porter - Robust Porter (12B)
================================================================================
Batch Size 23 L
Boil Size  26 L
Boil Time  60 min
Efficiency 70%
OG         1.056 sg
FG         1.014 sg
ABV        5.7%
Bitterness 37.6 IBU (Tinseth)
Color      72.3 ebc (Morey)

Fermentables
================================================================================
Name                         Amount     Yield   Colour
Gladfield - Ale Malt         3.000 kg   79%       6.0 ebc
Gladfield - Aurora Malt      2.200 kg   79%      50.0 ebc
Gladfield - Rye Malt         1.000 kg   81%       7.0 ebc
Gladfield - Light Chocolate  0.500 kg   71%     950.0 ebc
Total grain: 6.700 kg

Hops
================================================================================
Name          Alpha   Amount   Use     Time      Form    IBU
Centennial    10.5%   20 g     Boil    60 min    Pellet  20.7
Kent Goldings  5.5%   30 g     Boil    30 min    Pellet  12.5
Kent Goldings  5.5%   40 g     Boil     5 min    Pellet   4.3

Yeasts
================================================================================
Name        Type  Form     Amount   Stage
Safale S-05 Ale   Culture  1.00 L   Primary

Mash
================================================================================
Name     Type         Amount     Temp     Time
Mash In  Infusion     20.100 L   55 C     10 min
Step 1   Temperature  ---        65 C     1 hr
Mash Out Temperature  ---        77 C     15 min
Sparge   Infusion     11.800 L   75 C     15 min

 

[peteru]

Wow. No comments. That's a bit unusual for AHB.

Have I got a perfect recipe?

 

[Zorco]

Haha, I'm not a recipe expert mate. But you don't seem to get much wrong - so I'm putting on $10 that you've got the perfect recipe.

 

[manticle]

I'm unsure about the amount of aurora. I use it sparingly.
I also prefer a blend of a few roasts in my porters.

 

[warra48]

Drop 400 to 500 gr of one of your ale malts, and substitute Brown Malt for it. You'll love the result.

 

[Mardoo]

Agreed, with Warra48. Brown is the shizz in porters. I haven't matched it with the aurora though, so have no idea how they'll work together.

Do you taste blends of your grains, in the same proportion as your recipe, when putting together a recipe? So far that's been working out really well for me in formulating good recipes. I've tried little 1L mashes of proposed grain bills too, but the grain tasting seems to get me there without needing the extra step. For some reason I find it harder to extrapolate results from the mini-wort tastings than from the grain tastings.

 

[peteru]

I don't have any brown malt to hand right now, so perhaps for the next iteration.

Tasting the grain blend is a brilliant idea. I wonder if I'll be able to extrapolate the flavours. I'll have to give it a go. It's just a bit too late now, I'm about 30 minutes into the mash. Everything is running late.

I am using a new mill and had some major issues with it keeping the setting. The adjustable roller kept slipping out of place, even when I tightened the wing nut with pliers. It's a cheap eBay 2 roller jobbie. I'll take it apart tonight and see if it is tweakable. I ended up with grain that is quite floury, yet still has whole grains too.

I might extend the 75 minute mash to somewhere closer to 3-4 hours, since I need to pick up son from school and take him to guitar lesson. It seems to be draining very slowly, with most wort just going in circles through the overflow and the efficiency is not looking great. Perhaps a longer mash will get more out.

 

[peteru]

Well, this one turned out to be a long brew day. Mainly thanks to the el-cheapo eBay grain mill. But I got there in the end.

The final gravity was way, way above the target. A hydrometer sample at the start of ferment gave me 1.078. That puts the efficiency at 97%.

The good news is that the wort tasted great. The light chocolate malt came through very nicely. If my fermentation goes well, this will be a great beer.

Speaking of fermentation, I think I'll be OK. The wort went into the fermenter at 22C and landed on top of a US-05 yeast cake from a session IPA (around 3.5%). I added 12ml of 6% hydrogen peroxide to provide O2. Set the fermentation chamber to 18C. About 2 hours later, I started getting the first few bubbles through the airlock. 8 hours later, the fermentation freezer has dropped the temperature to 18C and the blow off tube was bubbling away at around 2-3 bubbles per second, so we're cooking with CO2 gas!

BTW: I had response from the hydrogen peroxide manufacturer. The product is pharmaceutical grade and the stabilisers they use are phosphoric acid (you'll get more of it from StarSan) and phenacetin. At the concentration levels in this application, I'm not too concerned about the phenacetin in a once-off application. For regular use, I'd want to use an oxygenation method that does not have phenacetin.

 

[peteru]

The fermentation with US-05 finished at 1.012 and tastes nice. The combo of malts and hops worked out pretty well. I'll crash chill and keg it in the next few days. I think I'll also "keg hop" a sample in a plastic bottle for the next day or two to see if a dry hopping twist will add to it or just confuse things.

I had some wort left over and decided to dump it in a keg. It was the thick trubby stuff from the bottom. I threw in a little bit of Cooper's Sparkling Ale recultured yeast, sealed and shook the keg a bit and then left it at room temperature. I let out a bit of the pressure as it fermented every few hours over the next few days. Today I had a little sample of this "experiment" and wow! I'm impressed. I think it's nicer than the main batch. It's probably the yeast that works so much better, although fermenting under pressure and warmer may also be a contributor.

I think I will have to try the same basic recipe again, but do a split batch with Cooper's yeast in temp controlled plastic fermenter and room temperature keg under pressure, then compare the results.

 

[peteru]

Just coming back to report on the results here. I decided not to dry hop at all and put the main batch in a keg as it was. Couple of weeks later, I attached a stout spout to my Intertap and started pouring. I'm mighty impressed at how well balanced this is, given that this is the first all grain recipe that I ever formulated.

It has a nice dark chocolate flavour, bordering on espresso, with plenty of malt character and just enough bitterness without any overpowering hop character. A slight hint of clean alcohol, reminiscent of a smooth rum. This is exactly the kind of beer that would benefit from aging in oak. A friend described it as slightly watered down Black Albert. **** yeah! I take that as a massive compliment!

I might tweak the recipe in the future a bit, but this is certainly going to be a basis for my house porter.

I'd better save a bottle or two for the next beer club meeting at Flat Rock.