My First Porter

[Jens-Kristian]

Hey all,

I'm about to brew my first porter, and I thought I'd hear if my grain bill sounds about right for it. I reckon it can't be all off, but hey - wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

I'm also doing this one to clear out a bit in my stock.

25 litres - counting on 85% efficiency.

Pale Malt: 2kg (one kg being Maris Otter)
Munich: 1kg
Cara Red: 1kg
Chocolate (dehusked) 500 grammes
Smoked Malt: 100 grammes
Dark Brown Sugar: 200 grammes

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.

My calculator clocks it at OG 1052. I'm OK with a little up or down - it's not the ABV that rocks my boat.

Not sure about the hops yet though. Any suggestions?


Cheers,

Jens-Kristian

 

[peas_and_corn]

I'd probably suggest some german hops, maybe something like hallertauer... or something different.

 

[n00ch]

I personally wouldn't be using German hops. I would be more inclined to use Goldings or Fuggle if you can.

 

[bindi]

What hops have you got? <_<

EK Goldings would be my first choice

 

[Jazman]

challenger i would use and or couse either fuggles,goldings,willemette ect english types hops but not german nobles in a porter

 

[warrenlw63]

Call it a Lite Baltic Porter? h34r:

Warren -

 

[jimmyjack]

That grain bill looks pretty good, i like the fact that you are expermenting with different flavours. My only suggestion and take this with a grain of salt is to add a tiny bit of Roast or black patent about 40g or so. Also for your hops i find Chinook an unbelieveable bittering hop and cascade for flav and aroma in porters.

Cheers, JJ

 

[Duff]

Wow, never thought of Chinook and Cascade for a Porter. I can't seem to move away from Target to bitter and EKG to flavour.

Cheers.

 

[Jens-Kristian]

Thanks for all your great comments.

I don't have any roast or black patent, but I was considering taking about 50 grammes of the pale malt and just giving it a little singe in the oven before brewing to make up for that.

As for the hops. Well, I thought I had Fuggles and East Kent Goldings, but somehow I managed to leave those two out of the freezer. They've been sitting in a plastic bag that was not very well closed for at least a month, so I'm not going to use them.

What I do have, is Saaz, Hallertau Aroma, Pacific Gem and Challenger. Not the greatest choice and my home brew store is closed until tuesday next week. Sucks a bit.

I might use a little bit of Pacific Gem. I know it's pretty high on the alpha, but it could perhaps add nicely with its berry flavours. Maybe Hallertau.

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian

 

[Jens-Kristian]

So, I finally got around to brewing my porter sunday and I have a question, as I'm unsure about the taste of it.

Now, I do realise that tasting it at this point (been fermenting since monday morning and is nicely down from 1056 to 1028) simply doesn't say all that much about the finished product. However, the taste seems to be very roasted indeed. There are a couple of little changes to the grainbill above, but not much. Basically it's 600 grammes of dehusked chocolate malt.

I added some pure cocoa powder towards the end of the mash. I decided to do this because I figured that the lautering would keep the powder out of the finished product while still giving it a hint of the taste. There's also some licorice in there; Something that's called 'English Licorice' here in Denmark, but I don't know if you have the same thing there. It's pure licorice root, as in the juice from the root that has been reduced to a black, almost crystal state. Tastes wonderful and a bit bitter.

In short, being my first porter, I don't know if it is supposed to taste as roasted as it does at this stage. Basically, it's a little bit like eating very burnt toast!

Obviously I'm not giving up on it - it'll be left to ferment out and will be bottled, but it'd be nice to hear if the very roasted taste is common/right/wrong?

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian