Base Porter recipe to build on

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Nizmoose

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Hey guys so I haven't brewed a porter yet but would love to try and so I did some reading and research and have got a really drafty recipe together and would like some advice. Firstly the type of porter I'm going for is something where the coffee and chocolate notes shine through, slight roast notes also good but more about the chocolate and coffee and little bitterness (but enough to balance the beer) I don't just want a sugarbomb sweetness wise I do want balance. So heres my draft so far, the link is to the recipe on brewtoad which gives a good overview:
https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/base-porter-7

Brown Porter:
10L into fermenter
All-grain
BIAB


Grain:
- 2kg / 86% Ale Malt (2L)
- 150g / 6% Dark Chocolate (400L)
- 150g / 6% CaraAroma (130L)
Note: both chocolate and CaraAroma cold steeped overnight before brewday.

Hops:
- 25g Fuggle 5%AA @60mins
- 10g EKG 5%AA @0mins

Yeast:
English Ale Yeast WLP002

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.055
FG:1.018
IBU:27
ABV:4.8%
SRM:/EBC:28/55
IBU/OG: 0.5 (Balanced)
 
I would definitely be including some Brown Malt as it's a pretty key ingredient in my opinion.
 
Definitely agree with the Brown Malt.

Here's a cracker which is sort of my dark house brew. Never fails me.

Brown Porter.JPG
 
It's probably important to mention I'm really trying to nut out a fairly simple base which I can tweak and add intricacies to after a first attempt.
 
My recipe is fairly well balanced between coffee and chocolate, with subtle roast character, but nothing like a Stout.
Mash at 67 or 68ºC, and you'll be fine.
 
Nizmoose said:
Hey guys so I haven't brewed a porter yet but would love to try and so I did some reading and research and have got a really drafty recipe together and would like some advice. Firstly the type of porter I'm going for is something where the coffee and chocolate notes shine through, slight roast notes also good but more about the chocolate and coffee and little bitterness (but enough to balance the beer) I don't just want a sugarbomb sweetness wise I do want balance. So heres my draft so far, the link is to the recipe on brewtoad which gives a good overview:
https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/base-porter-7
Brown Porter:
10L into fermenter
All-grain
BIAB
Grain:
- 2kg / 86% Ale Malt (2L)
- 150g / 6% Dark Chocolate (400L)
- 150g / 6% CaraAroma (130L)
Note: both chocolate and CaraAroma cold steeped overnight before brewday.
Hops:
- 25g Fuggle 5%AA @60mins
- 10g EKG 5%AA @0mins
Yeast:
English Ale Yeast WLP002
Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.055
FG:1.018
IBU:27
ABV:4.8%
SRM:/EBC:28/55
IBU/OG: 0.5 (Balanced)
Looks ok but you'll want fg lower than that.
 
keifer33 said:
It's more on the coffee side of things. Here is a good write up and also includes a few recipes for comparison.

http://byo.com/porter/item/1751-brown-malt
Thanks for this had a read and it was helpful thanks again!

kevo said:
Cheers will give this a listen soon!

warra48 said:
My recipe is fairly well balanced between coffee and chocolate, with subtle roast character, but nothing like a Stout.
Mash at 67 or 68ºC, and you'll be fine.
Okay awesome that's what I'm after

JasonP said:
Looks ok but you'll want fg lower than that.
Thanks for the advice, so less chocolate and CaraAroma for more pale Malt?
 
Nizmoose said:
Thanks for this had a read and it was helpful thanks again!
Cheers will give this a listen soon!
Okay awesome that's what I'm after

Thanks for the advice, so less chocolate and CaraAroma for more pale Malt?
No need to adjust malt bill to attenuate to lower gravity. Mash around 66/67 and pitch enough yeast and should be ok. I too like brown malt in porters but your malt bill is fine.
 
JasonP said:
No need to adjust malt bill to attenuate to lower gravity. Mash around 66/67 and pitch enough yeast and should be ok. I too like brown malt in porters but your malt bill is fine.
Okay cheers I've changed the grain bill slightly to include some brown malt, changes in figures from the original recipes will be bold:

Grain:
- 2kg / 86% Ale Malt (2L)
- 100g / 4% Dark Chocolate (400L)
- 100g / 4% CaraAroma (130L)
- 100g / 4% Brown Malt (60L)
Note: both chocolate and CaraAroma cold steeped overnight before brewday.

Hops:
- 25g Fuggle 5%AA @60mins
- 10g EKG 5%AA @0mins

Yeast:
English Ale Yeast WLP002

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.055
FG:1.018
IBU:27
ABV:4.8%
SRM:/EBC:28/55
IBU/OG: 0.5 (Balanced)
 
kevo said:
Gave this a listen last night and it was very helpful although Jamil (who I havent listened to much of) definitely seems like a bit of an up himself dick lol, anyway good advice nonetheless and I have made some further changes to the recipe.

1. Changed the Dark Chocolate to Pale Chocolate to swing away from really acrid roast to more chocolate
2. Switched to Dry English Ale Liquid Yeast to bring the FG down to 1.013
3. Changed all specialty malt quantities to 150g to bring the colour up
4. Brought the Pale Malt down t0 1.8kg or 80% in order to brng the OG down to 1.053

Pretty happy with it now and this will probably be the final recipe I use on the day. I like drafting recipes several times and think in many cases I've avoided making very average beers to learn lessons from by learning them before I make it. Hopefully I've created an acceptable recipe for a chocolatey coffee-ish porter thats well balanced. Cheers for all the help guys, any more suggestions and/or advice is greatly apprecieated! Cheers
 
Yet to brew! Unfortunately I've been fairly busy and got a grain order for my pacific ale horribly wrong so ordering ingredients for both the pacific ale and the porter tomorrow, brew day for the porter will hopefully be next week some time!
 
Ah that's a shame. I look forward to hearing how it goes. My next brew is going to be a porter, just waiting on PID etc for the brewery before going ahead with it.
 
Chris7 said:
Ah that's a shame. I look forward to hearing how it goes. My next brew is going to be a porter, just waiting on PID etc for the brewery before going ahead with it.
Oh very nice! This will be my first dark beer I've made on purpose (see grain order mistake above) so I'm looking forward to seeing how it tastes, I haven't had many dark beers before so I'm not quite sure what to expect but hoping its good. I'll definitely update this thread once its brewed and again once it is tasted! Let us know how yours goes as well!
 
Chris7 said:
How did this one end up Nizmoose?
Okay Chris brew day was today and it seemed to go well! It was a BIAB with a half arsed 2L sparge (I literally just poured some 30C water over the grains as they drained into a bucket). So my recipe was as follows just as a reminder:

-1.8kg Ale Malt
-150g Chocolate Malt
-150g CaraAroma
-150g Brown Malt

-25g Fuggle @60mins
-10g EKG @ 0 mins
-Nottingham yeast
-10L into the fermenter

Heres my granny spec mash setup lol
DSC_0180.JPG

Heres the delicious wort, looks awesome
DSC_0181.JPG

Heres what Im fermenting in, to anyone reading is this okay with the lid on like this? its a pretty good seal but I'm assuming co2 will get out? If not I better drill a hole quick smart lol

In my next post later tonight I'll upload a photo of my sheet with all my numbers on it but so far so good!
 

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