How Burnt . .

[Jens-Kristian]

. . . Should a porter taste from the fermenter?

I brewed a porter on sunday and . . well, it is really black!

Details:

25 litres - counting on 85% efficiency.

Pale Malt: 2kg (one kg being Maris Otter)
Munich: 1kg
Cara Red: 1kg
Chocolate (dehusked) 650 gr.
Smoked Malt: 100 gr.
Dark Brown Sugar: 200 .

Also a slight bit of aniseed and some licorice root. I'm considering cocoa.

I want it to be relatively sweet and malty, so I'm planning on mashing at 70C for 60 minutes and with a fairly stiff mash.

Using White Labs Burton Ale Yeast.

Now, of course it is nowhere near being done, but when I taste it from that fermenter, which I can't help doing for all new beers I brew, it really does taste very roasted/burnt. I wouldn't really say that it is unpleasant considering what stage it's at, but certainly considerably more than I would want in the finished product!

Does the burnt taste fade a bit with time?

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian

 

[Stuster]

Yes.

I've done a porter and a stout recently with that yeast and found they did taste overpowering while it was still fermenting. Both have mellowed with time, though the porter was still a bit chewy.

That's a fair bit of crystal in there. I should think it will be fairly sweet with that. What temp did you end up mashing at?

 

[AndrewQLD]

650g choc malt is quite high given you only have 1 kilo of base malt but then the choc is dehusked it should not be bitter. 1kg of carared is a lot too, I have no experience with this malt but a quick read tells me a max of 25% should be used. Maybe a little too much cararead and choc malt, and perhaps you are noticing the flavours of the brown sugar as well. And of course you could be overly sensetive to the smoked malt.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Batz]

Chocolate (dehusked) 650 gr.

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian

Your taste is coming from 650 gm of choc. malt

650 gm?? What were you thinking man?

100 gm would have been more than required.

Live'n learn hey? You'll drink it after a few months,may even be nice

Batz

 

[Trent]

J-K
I usually use 600g chocolate in my porters, and not dehusked choc, and it seemed to go over pretty well in the last xmas case swap. The rest of my beer is pretty much base malt though, so I think that using a kilo each of of Munich and Carared puts me in the same boat as Batz "what were you thinking?!?". I think that it may be a little too much on the specialty malts, but I could be wrong. I usually use around 80% pale malt, and you have used about 40%, so i am not surprised it tastes a little burnt. Where did you get the recipe from, if you dont mind me asking? It says to mash at 70C with a think mash, that would leave a pretty high gravity, at a guess somewhere up around 1018, which is probably a little sweet, IMO. It is quite possible the burnt taste will fade with age, but I am not entirely convinced this is your answer. If you are looking to attempt a new style, especially if it is a dark beer, I would suggest starting at the bottom and working your way up. Maybe try 4.5kg pale malt, 400g crystal malt, and 600g chocolate malt, and adjust to your tastes from there. I do hope this one turns out nicely for you though.
All the best
Trent

 

[Stuster]

I usually use 600g chocolate in my porters

You're in good company, Trent. Barry's porter recipe also includes 600g Chocolate malt.

 

[Jens-Kristian]

Thanks for your replies all.

Admittedly, I'm still a pretty new brewer, so I'm prone to making mistakes, but while I put together the recipe myself, I have to say I have seen many with at least as much in the region of specialty and dark malts as this one. To be honest, I'm not sure I would say Munich should be all that far off in the amount I used (but I'm ready to be proven wrong). It is a malt that can be used not only as a base malt but as the only malt in a brew and as such I assume(d?) that it'd be OK to use it to somehow take the place of part of the base malt.

The high temp and thick mash was exactly in order to make it fairly sweet, so quite intentional. And yeah, I am going for a fairly chewy brew.

I've used the Cara Red a few times before and it's one of my favourites. Of course, it could very well be that it was just too much when going together with the Chocolate malt.

So, I'm a little torn between two options - leave it to ferment out as it is and wait it out a bit and see how it goes. Alternatively there's the option of simply brewing ten litres or so on Maris Otter alone and adding that to the fermenter . . .

If you think it's going to keep tasting like burnt toast then I will most likely go for the second option.

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian

 

[stephen]

Thanks for your replies all.

"Admittedly, I'm still a pretty new brewer, so I'm prone to making mistakes,..."

Jens-Kristian

Jens-Kristian

In home brewing there are no "real mistakes." What they are, are slight detours from the intended path where we get to learn something new that wasn't on the program.

That's how I see it!

Steve

 

[Ross]

Give it time... - Porters are one beer IMO that really benefit from a bit of aging - My previous porter went from being my least favourite brew (fresh in the keg) to probably my best (1 month in) & seemed to improve until the last mouthfull. Just kegged another & it's exactly the same...

cheers Ross

 

[KoNG]

Jens,
i used 400g of Choc in my last porter (robust) which is in a cube CC'ing if anything i think it is lacking choc malt charecteristics. That said i have used much more base and munich, to get to robust levels, so i would say that 650g is quite a hit... but wil definately mellow out with some conditioning. Then again all that cara red should balance things out..
it will be fine
heres my grist .. just for the hell of it (i used MO too....)

5000.00 gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 67.6 %
800.00 gm Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC) Grain 10.8 %
500.00 gm Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) Grain 6.8 %
400.00 gm Chocolate Malt - JWM (700.0 EBC) Grain 5.4 %
400.00 gm Crystal (Joe White) (141.8 EBC) Grain 5.4 %
300.00 gm Amber Malt - JWM (45.0 EBC) Grain 4.1 %

just dont mention the oats......

 

[warrenlw63]

just dont mention the oats......

I may have mentioned it once or twice but I think I managed to get away with it. h34r:

War? What War?

Warren -