Brown Porter - Victory Malt Question

[dark_brew]

Hi Guys,

I am looking for some recipe help with a brown porter, perhaps more specifically the % of victory malt I should be looking at - I am aiming for nutty / biscuity flavours.

...A little bit of background, I now have a dozen or so extract brews under my belt, almost exclusively APA’s and IPA’s (which have included a few special malts) – to which I have enjoyed playing around with different hops and hopping schedules. I have decided to make the leap to all grain and will be picking up a bag and 40 ltr crown boiler next week. I thought for the first AG brew I’d get something show casing a nuty’n’malty flavour – and thus going into slightly new territory with different grains rather than pondering hops and hop schedules.

After a fair bit of research, I had plumped for the below recipe – I have gone with 10 % Victory in an attempt to highlight it and its biscuit flavours. However there are some posts suggesting you shouldn’t go over 5 %, while others have been pleased with 12 or 13 %. Any help would be much appreciated.


80 % Pale Malt (Maris otter)
10 % Victory Malt
5 % Chocolate Malt
5 % Caraaroma

45 g Fuggles @ 60 m (23 IBU’s)

 

[manticle]

I keep my toasty, melanoiden type malts to a max of 300g in average gravity, 20-22 L. More usually, I stick to 200-250. This can be biscuit, victory or aromatic or a blend. They are powerful malts and a judicious hand is needed.

I don't work with percentages, sorry but I reckon that will be well below 10%.
I've not used brown malt myself but it's widely considered an essential ingredient in a Brown Porter and I believe that may also provide a bit of nutty character.

 

[dark_brew]

Thanks Manticle,

For a 23 L brew it would be:

4.00 kg Pale Malt
0.50 kg Victory
0.25 kg Caraaroma
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt

Yes I do want to avoid something that is going to be too powerful. Perhaps I should be dropping the Victory down to 250 g with the others and look at adding some brown malt.

 

[manticle]

That would be the direction I would head in. Bump it up next time if you think it's too subtle.

 

[Nizmoose]

Thanks Manticle,

For a 23 L brew it would be:

4.00 kg Pale Malt
0.50 kg Victory
0.25 kg Caraaroma
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt

Yes I do want to avoid something that is going to be too powerful. Perhaps I should be dropping the Victory down to 250 g with the others and look at adding some brown malt.

I tried a two week old bottle of a brown porter last night I brewed a month ago and its already tasting great. My recipe was very similar to what you have here and I think it looks like a great start. I did a 10L batch so smaller quantities but the %'s look very similar:

1.8kg Pale Ale (80%)
0.15kg Brown Malt (6%)
0.15kg CaraAroma (6%)
0.15kg Pale Chocolate (6%)

As manticle said above almost purely for a purists sake I'd definitely include some brown malt for a brown porter. You could sub the Vienna for it or add it either way I think it would be a good addition

 

[dark_brew]

As manticle said above almost purely for a purists sake I'd definitely include some brown malt for a brown porter. You could sub the Vienna for it or add it either way I think it would be a good addition

Yup sold.

I'll bump down the Victory to 250 g ...and add 250 g of brown malt to the mix.