Cascade Mahogany Porter

[quachy]

Hello all, starting to break out and start to try harder things. Went to homebrew shop in Geelong (was down that way today) and got three hops tea bags, Brewiser CL80, CLUSTER & FUNGGLES. The hbs owner said that these would be good all rounders as a start. Also got a 500g bag of Brewcraft Malted Grain - Chocolate Malt. I asked for a bit of a chocolatey taste for my porter and this is what he suggested. Was hoping to put the porter down tonight, but was after some advise on type of hops and yeast, lager or ale yeast? Was going to use 250g of the malted grain and 1kg of BE2 and only fill up to 20 lts. What do you guys think?

Quachy

 

[Dave86]

G'day Quachy

One of the best kits I did was the cascade choc porter, a lot of people have had bad results but mine turned out great. What you suggested sounds good. I did mine with a kilo of dark DME and minimashed 250g of choc malt to 20L with about 10g fuggles into the secondary. The BE2 should be fine instead of the dark DME with 250g grains steeped. I'd suggest using an ale yeast, anything english or use US-56 (thats what I used). Ferment at 20. Whatever you do DO NOT USE CASCADE KIT YEAST! Its bloody terrible. I'd just chuck the hops in secondary (or after the ferment has settled)

Hope that helps

Dave

Edit: Use the fuggles for hops, I've no idea what CL80 are but I'd recommend getting some fresh hops next time rather than the teabags, much nicer...

 

[quachy]

G'day Quachy

One of the best kits I did was the cascade choc porter, a lot of people have had bad results but mine turned out great. What you suggested sounds good. I did mine with a kilo of dark DME and minimashed 250g of choc malt to 20L with about 10g fuggles into the secondary. The BE2 should be fine instead of the dark DME with 250g grains steeped. I'd suggest using an ale yeast, anything english or use US-56 (thats what I used). Ferment at 20. Whatever you do DO NOT USE CASCADE KIT YEAST! Its bloody terrible. I'd just chuck the hops in secondary (or after the ferment has settled)

Hope that helps

Dave

Edit: Use the fuggles for hops, I've no idea what CL80 are but I'd recommend getting some fresh hops next time rather than the teabags, much nicer...

Thanks Dave86, lhbs owner suggested the bags for a green boy like myself. He said the CL80 was a mixed hops(?) not sure what that means - maybe the dregs of all the rest . With the choc grains, he mentioned to put 250g into a rolling boil, didn't mention how much water but did say for 10 mins. I have completely NFI with using these grains and was hopping for a little bit of help on this. With the tea bag, I'm just going to follow the instructions on the packet which say basically to make it like tea, leave for 10 mins and then chuck the whole lot into the fermenter. I have a US-05 left so i'll use that. Any other thoughts/advise?

Quachy

 

[Dave86]

No worries quachy, you don't want to boil the grain though. I'd say what your local bloke meant was soak the grains in a fine colander/strainer/mesh bag etc for about an hour in 60 to 70 degree water. You can just do this in a saucepan and then rinse some more hot water through the grains after to collect some wort. Boil the resultant wort. If you boil the grains themselves, you'll extract a lot of tannins and astringencies. Other than that, you sound like you've got it under control

Cheers

Dave

 

[Interloper]

I tried my Cascade choc porter on the weekend. I added 100gms of Lindt 85% chocolate and 100gms of cocoa powder as well and whilst it is bright and clear after only 2 weeks in the bottle it is a long way from what I thought a porter would be.

I was looking for something a lot thicker and, oh I don't know, maybe a hint of chocolate? Zero choc flavours even after adding a sh!tload of choc.

Reading the wikipedia entry on Porters I thought this would be closer to a stout.

I pitched onto a yeastcake from my coopers export Irish stout (nottingham) so I was pretty sure this would be a gutsier beer.

I also used finings but there is a LOT of sediment/floaties in my bottles. Clear enough if you pour carefully but I wouldn't do this kit again.

Nice enough, but just not what I was looking for or expecting. I'd do a decent stout before this again.

 

[solidghost]

Nottinghams should create a very compact sediment layer at the bottom. Well, that's what has happened to all of my brews done with Nottinghams.

 

[Interloper]

Nottinghams should create a very compact sediment layer at the bottom. Well, that's what has happened to all of my brews done with Nottinghams.

Yes that's my experience of the Nottingham too - usually. I wonder if it is all the chocolate that never dissolved properly that I heaped in. Surprising there is no choc undertones... I think it is more to do with the Cascade kit myself.

It is very clumpy, nothing like normal style sediment. Still, a careful pour into a nice glass and it goes down well.

 

[brettprevans]

theres a few threads on adding Choc to beer and on this particular kit (here for example) I have made a great Choc Stout Mahog Porter.

Choc Stout Mahogony
1 x coopers Stout,
1 x Cascade Choc Mahag Porter,
500g DDME,
0.25kg Choc Malt Grain
28g. EKG @ 15min.
12g Fuggle @ 15 min.
22L
pitched 0.6L of yeastcake (Wyeast 1098) from a PA
OG 1.060, FG 1.022, 5.6% (6.1% after bottling)
Stout flavours took over a bit whilst young.


Heres a modification for just a porter
1 x mahogony porter
0.4kg DDME
0.5kg morgans masterblend dark crystal LME (or similar)
0.3kg Choc Malt Grain
0.150kg Roasted Barley
0.2kg Crystal
28g. EKG @ 60 min.
12g Fuggle @ 15 min.
should give OG1.043, FG 1.012, 4.6%


Anyways, using Choc grain is a great way to get some lasting choc flavour into your beer. Im fairly sure that a lot of the guys use Lint 85% because of the lesser oil content and more choc flavour. i trhink thyey also add to secondary (or once primary has finished).