James Squire Porter

[johnno]

After reading a lot about how good this beer tastes on forums and websites I decided I must try it.
Well as it turns out I have been working around the corner from the James Squire Brewhouse for the last year and i didn't even bloodywell know.
So in I go and order one. Well, I'm in love now. That really is all everybody has said it is.
And there is a nice variety of other brews there as well that I will be trying.
From what I gather they brew 3 or 4 different styles there on site.
Dont suppose you could get anywhere near a beer like that out of kit and kilo jobs. Maybe I will be looking to upgrade to some new equipment for Chrissy.
Now,,I wonder how much longer my lunches can get.
B)

 

[Gough]

Welcome to the MSB appreciation club Johnno . The only one of their beers I'm only partially in love with is the India Pale Ale, and even it gets the thumbs up. The others, especially the Pilsner and the Australian Strong Ale are big faves of mine. Maybe you can do a 'review' of the Melbourne brewhouse only beers for us northerners who can't get to taste them? Just a (hopeful) thought.

Shawn.

 

[deebee]

Maybe not kit and kilo but you could do it with steeping some grains and adding hops and extracts. Or even using a kit with some steeped grains and some extract. Not much more difficult than kit and kilo. Just need a recipe.

 

[johnno]

Gough,
I will do my best to "review" the house brews.

deebee,
Do you have a recipe using steeped grains and extract?
If you do, can you not tease me anymore.

 

[Andrew Clark]

Hi Gough
Funny how tastes differ I REALLY love there IPA, It is probably the only IPA i've ever tasted that is true to style with a :blink: BIG hop bite. The first time I tried it I bought a six pack, opened the first bottle, tasted, and said to my wife "nice beer but too much :blink: flavor, you could only drink one of these a night". Well the next night I cracked another, then another and so on, six pack gone. It just grabs me with the flavor. :chug:

Regards
Andrew

 

[deebee]

sorry johnno, I thought you might say that. But you might be able to twiddle with jayse's famous recipe, replace the mash with extract and come up with something decent. Jayse might even offer an equivalent extract version.

There are a few good recipe sites.

Otherwise chuck a google. Something'll come up.

 

[johnno]

ah well,

back to the research and experimenting for me hey deebee
in the meantime It is a great pub with a lot of different styles served.

The research shall begin there!!
B)

 

[deebee]

One easy suggestion might be to ring up grumpys or browse their site and see what porter recipes they will sell you. Not sure if they have a masterbrew (designed to be made with a kit) but certain they will have an extrabrew (all-extract recipe with full instructions). I reckon the extrabrews are better anyway. An easy way to make really good beer.

If you ring them up they will probably have a go at putting together a JS clone, if not they will certainly sell you a good porter recipe.

They will freight for free if you spend $100. A quick browse on their brewshop and you will find it very easy to spend $100. Such fun opening up your box when it arrives!!

Cheers

 

[jayse]

i have a extract recipe.
it may be a little more complex than what your after johnno.it requires steeping grain and boiling wort with hops etc.so its a full extract recipe and requires a 10 litre boil for one hour so not really a kit extract recipe.you'll need a big pot.

i beleive that msb may actually use a lager yeast and from memory also use wheat anyway this extract recipe is based on the guidelines for porter.

for 20 litres (for 23litre or whatever just increase the dry malt.)
2 x 1.5 cans coopers unhopped malt extract.
250 g dry malt extract
450 g 80L crystal malt (or 350g 120L crystal such as cara aroma)
120 g black malt for a robust version or 230 g of choc malt for a standard brown.

50g kent goldings 60 minute boil

14-28g kent goldings added ten minutes before the end of the boil.

i guess you could get away with using safale or notingham dry yeast but i would use london ale 1028.


soak all grain in 3 litres of 66c water for 30 mins.strain out the grain and had another 5 litres of water then bring to the boil.
once boiling add all the extract and return to the boil then add the 50 g of goldings and boil for 50 minutes.then add the other 28g goldings and boil for another 10 mins.
remove from heat and place pot in a sink of cold water keep replacing the cold water untill the wort has cooled reasonably. then chuck it in the fermentor and top up to 20 litres.

sorry i know you properly haven't done such a time consuming brew johnno.
but don't be affraid to give it a crack it is really fairly simple.

 

[Gough]

Andrew,

I agree with you that it is a very good beer, just not quite as good IMO as the others in the range. Mind you that is hardly any great criticism as the range is so strong overall. If I could brew a beer as good as there Pilsner consistently I'd be a happy man!

Here's to MSB, subjectivity and homebrewing,

Shawn.

 

[deebee]

Jayse, Onya Mate! I knew all I had to do was hint and you'd come through. I've never made a porter but it's cut and pasted to my recipes folder and destined for a brew soon, hopefully before the summer break. Will let you know how she goes.

Only one question: would you put all the extracts in for the whole boil or will that impede bitterness extraction from the hops? Save a tin for the end of the boil, maybe?

Oh and one more, you say 50g of EKG. What IBU are you pitching at?

 

[jayse]

deebee
yep you can leave out however much extract as you want and put it in when it comes of the heat or whatever.
so you could make it a much smaller boil as well or the same size boil but closer to a 1.050 gravity boil.two cans in 11 litres would be 1.090 so yes for better hop extraction only boil one can which would be about 1.056 in 11 litres.

the ibu from the sixty minute boil should be around 35.
its actually 46g of 6.1%a.a ekg plugs in a 1.050+ boil using 25% extraction effiency.

 

[GMK]

Johno,

The JSPorter actually fits into the Dark Lager Category.
It resembles a Dark Lager much more than a Porter.

This comes from the Canberra Brewers judges.
We dont use the JSPorter as a commercial example for judging the Porter style.

Hope this helps you....

 

[johnno]

jayse,

your right , I havent done anything like this before. i only started this brewing caper in May this year. This recipe looks easy enough even for someone like me.
Jus a couple of confirmations
The grain that I would seep would be the

450 g 80L crystal malt (or 350g 120L crystal such as cara aroma)
120 g black malt for a robust version or 230 g of choc malt for a standard brown.
right?
Sorry to be so ignorant but I havent done any shopping for stuff like this yet.

Anyway the rest seems to be easy enough.
I have been eyeing out the big cheap stainless steel pots at woolies and I was going to get one sooner or later.
I'm going to give this one a crack as soon as possible probably around 4 weeks from now.

Thank you very much for the recipe jayse.

And thanks to evryone else that contributed.
Oh and Gough, hopefully i will let you know what those house brews taste.
B)

 

[jayse]

good info gmk.
it seems very common to use lager yeast for porters in micro breweries.
another aussie dark lager is dogbolter from matilda bay although it doesn't seem to be as good as the original dogbolter from the sail and anchor.
i guess the idea behind using lager yeast is because with porter you want to get a extremely clean ferment.

deebee
for your porter i'd go has high as 170g black malt.i know you are a big dark beer drinker.

also for a awesome part mash version swap one can for 1 kg imc munich malt and 1.1 kg imc pale ale malt.( another 500g of pale ale malt if you want to replace the d.m.e aswell)

you could just swap one can for a couple kilos of any pale malt but the munich and pale ale malt rocks.

 

[deebee]

Johnno,

I'll make the same recipe. It'll be interesting to compare notes.

db

 

[jayse]

sorry i missed your post when i posted.
(see post two above for part mash ideas for anyone wanting to do a part mash)

yep steep all the grain.ie 350 cara aroma and 120-170g black malt.

get yourself a 20 litre pot their only $20.and a strainer.

i tried to write the recipe in such a way that wouldn't scare you of.
glad to hear your gunna give it a go.

its not a cheap home brew recipe thats for sure but its still less than 1/3 the price of any commercial availible product the same.
i suppose it would come to around $35-$40 for the ingriedients.

also some home brew store have london ale in a dry yeast.to make it easy for you.

 

[jayse]

the o.g should be 1.056-1.058 roughly in this brew.
finish at 1.015.

 

[johnno]

jayse ,

Ive priced the yeast for this recipe and its quite expensive. Is there anyway of using a propagated Coopers yeast out of the bottle for this like say a Stout or Pale ale yeast.
If not I will stick to the london ale 1028.
Just hope the weather doesnt get too hot otherwise will have to wait till autumn and thats way too far away.
I only have a small place with a small shed and it get damn hot in the summer. Suppose I'd rather wait than having something go wrong.

cheers

 

[jayse]

johnno
actually i would go as far as too say london ale is a must for this beer.
the really clean ferment and clean taste is what really sets this beer of.
if you can get london ale dry yeast by danstar thats about $5 for 25 g.

so basically i would say it is absolutely a must to use london ale.
the only other yeast would be british ale 1098.