First go at a custom recipe - oaked porter. Feedback please?

[gazeboar]

Hey guys,

I'm a bit of a trial and error brewer, and after having a look at what grain was available at my local store, I came up with this recipe. The percentages of the grain were just estimates for what I thought 'looked right', there was nothing empirical about it. Although I haven't used chocolate malt I read that 10% for the grist is suitable for a robust porter. My hope is to impart an espresso like flavour without using coffee extract. I also read that amber malt has an intense malt flavour, so I've paired it with the Carared to also provide a 10% caramel backbone to the beer (I'm aware this malt was developed for red ales, but I figured it can't hurt to use it). Will these malts compete or compliment each other? And is the belgian aromatic an unneccesary addition?

I'm hoping to get a nice robust flavoured porter out of this, with a nice bitterness from the Galena hops. I plan throw some toasted oak into the fermenter for a few days after fermentation is complete. I am aware that it is easy to overoak beers, so I'm going to be careful, and taste the beer every day, kegging when I'm happy with the flavours. Haven't quite sorted out how much I will use yet, but I'm going for mildly oaked characteristics, to add some complexity to the brew. I think it will work so long as I don't overdo it.

To be honest, I haven't actually tried an oaked porter before, I read that oak lends itself better to imperial stouts or darker beers (Im not using any roasted black barley. After trying a lot of Moondog's beers (Great American challenge & Perverse Sexual Amalgam in particular), I wanted to give it a go . Thought it was an interesting idea anyway.

Thanks,

Darren




Oaked
porter recipe


Batch size: 23L
Total Grain Bill: 4700g
Mash: 60 minutes @ 68 deg + mashout
Boil: 60 minutes

Grains


Total Grain bill: 4600g

3600g Pale (78.26%)

200g Amber (4.34%)

500g Chocolate (10.86%)

200g CaraRed (4.34%)

100g Belgian Aromatic (2.17%)


Hops


40g Galena @ 60

20g East Kent Goldings @ 15

Yeast

US--05

Add sanitised American toasted oak for 2-3 days after fermentation, taste each day to suit.

 

[gazeboar]

Noone has anything to say about this? I'm only looking for general feedback here,,,

 

[dicko]

Pale chocolate brings less of a coffee flavour than the darker malts,generally.

The malt bill doesn't look bad at all, i would try it as is and see what it is like.

Read this link for comments on oak chipping.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/69623-oak-chips-usage/?hl=%2Boak+%2Bchips

And you will find a heap more info on oak chips if you search back through old posts,

I think a beer like this needs to be brewed a few times with single subtle adjustments untill you get it to what you want.

Cheers

 

[gazeboar]

Thanks Dicko. Just wanted some reassurance.

 

[gazeboar]

Wow, just transferred this to the fermenter and it looked beautiful.Very dark brown with just a slight crimson tinge (from the carared)... hot break looked fantastic. Tasted the wort and there was a lovely sweetness to it with a mellowed coffee flavour. Modded the recipe a bit, added some other grains too. Almost feels like I should remove this thread because it's my own custom recipe. Mind you, shouldn't be too cocky... still has to ferment and still has to pass the actual taste test

And I shouldn't consider it to be so unique, no doubt there have been countless people who have brewed very similar recipes before. Still, feels like an organic creation as opposed to the pre-determined extract recipes. I'm not getting on any high horse here, it just feels way more authentic brewing with grain this way.

Have high hopes for this one though..