Making a Porter recipe

[thisispants]

A lot of the recipes on this site seem to have a mix of about 5-6 malts....

I'm looking at making a porter BIAB style, however I'd be keen to keep it simple. Is 5-6 malts necessary to make a porter?

I found a recipe that has pale malt, crystal 120 and chocolate malt. Would this be average based purely on the number of types of grain?

Are there any other types of grain that should be included, in the event that I decide to make my own recipe....are there any rules?

 

[warra48]

In my view you need those malts to give it complexity.

Here's the malt bill from a 25 litre batch of Brown Porter which is one of my staples. The Brown Malt is a critical component in my view.

3500.0 g              Perle (5.9 EBC)                            
500.0 g               Abbey (10.0 EBC)                                
411.0 g               Brown Malt (Simpsons) (295.5 EBC)                
230.0 g               Crystal Malt - Light  (120.0 EBC)             
210.0 g               Chocolate Wheat (Weyermann) (817.5 EBC)

 

[fletcher]

i was thinking the same thing, and then bit the bullet and went ahead and made a robust porter recipe i got from a mate on this forum:

78% pale
7% crystal
6% munich
6% chocolate
3% carafa iii

just about to keg it and it is tasting fantastic. no shit.

you could probably make the above simpler, and take out the munich, giving you only 4 grains.

 

[Blind Dog]

A lot of the recipes on this site seem to have a mix of about 5-6 malts....

I'm looking at making a porter BIAB style, however I'd be keen to keep it simple. Is 5-6 malts necessary to make a porter?

I found a recipe that has pale malt, crystal 120 and chocolate malt. Would this be average based purely on the number of types of grain?

Are there any other types of grain that should be included, in the event that I decide to make my own recipe....are there any rules?

I'm with warra and reckon brown malt is essential in a porter. Not a lot, but it adds another layer of complexity. Mild malt if you can ever find it is a great base malt for a porter, then add some dark crystal, brown malt and something dark and roasty (my personal current favourite is roasted wheat, others like chocolate malt and other black patent. Keep the roast malts and brown malt in check

 

[Blind Dog]

And check out the 'brew your own' magazine's website and do a search for porter. There are heaps of recipes including one for Fullers London Porter in an article with their head brewer. It's a tasty drop

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Porter is a style that loves mixing malts.

5-6 malts :chug:

 

[Cecil Brai]

In my opinion 5-6 malts is normal. A porter is a complex malt based beer.

 

[Midnight Brew]

I really wanna try using brown malt next time I make a porter from reading a lot about it on AHB. I made a porter recently (not a style nazi so not sure where it fits in) and it was 85% ale, 10% amber malt and 5% carafa II which I think is the Guiness Single Stout Porter grain bill. It had an OG of 1060 so that made it dark enough but if I was to use the same grain bill at say 1045 it wouldnt be dark enough.