Opinion On Porter Partial

[tintin]

Okay...

The Grains:
500g traditional ale
500g dark Munich
250g crystal
150g roasted malt
250g flaked barley

All mashed at 66 deg for 1 hour in 4l water
Rinse grains with another 3-4l 66 deg water

Adding 1kg amber LME and 500g dark DME to boil

50g goldings in at 50 min, then 25g at 10 min before end

Final volume 22l

Whitelabs Irish Ale yeast

This be o.k. all you knowledgable drunks out there?

 

[jayse]

for the most part it looks real good but the gravity is only around 1.039, a half kilo of light dry malt extract added and you'll be up to 1.047 and it will be a nice brew.

Jayse

 

[Trough Lolly]

Nice recipe Tintin - plenty of flavour and complexity. I agree with Jayse re the extra half kilo bag of light DME - it should be a good brew.

Cheers,
TL

 

[Guest Lurker]

Ask 3 brewers, get two answers. I personally wouldnt put dark DME in a porter, would much prefer to use light DME, and some more dark grains, so that you choose the dark grain flavour, rather than the factory that made the DME deciding. I'd use about 50 g of black malt and 200g of chocolate.

 

[tintin]

Fair enough...When you say 'black malt', do you mean roasted barley. I'll certainly chuck in some chocolate malt though. There's gonna be a lot o'crushing going on. I've only got a rolling pin, when I can wrestle it out of the missus' clenched fist. It's pioneering days for this brewing monkey...

 

[Tony]

yep. ill second that.

Drop the DME and use LME and use chocolate and a bit of black malt.

cheers

 

[Guest Lurker]

Fair enough...When you say 'black malt', do you mean roasted barley. I'll certainly chuck in some chocolate malt though. There's gonna be a lot o'crushing going on. I've only got a rolling pin, when I can wrestle it out of the missus' clenched fist. It's pioneering days for this brewing monkey...

[post="118925"][/post]​

By black I mean black malt, or black patent, which is malted, and is different from roast barley which isnt. You have to be careful with it as too much adds a charcoal ashy taste, but a small amount adds a nice crisp taste to a porter. You could leave it out though with all the other stuff you have, you will get enough flavour from the roast barley probably.

 

[mika]

TinTin - if you need crushed grains your local HBS might be able to do that for you... at least some of them offer the service.

I've heard a lot about this Porter style lately, what's a commercial version I can try. If I like it I might give this a bash to :chug:

 

[BeerMat]

TinTin
I did a partial mash porter not so long ago which turned out really well -

1.7kg extra light liquid malt
1kg Vienna
200g amber crystal malt (55L)
200g chocolate
80g black patent
38 IBUs (pearle hops)
Made to 15 liters
OG: 1055
FG: 1014

Tastes very nice after just 3 weeks in the bottle but should improve considerable in the next few months. Quite dark in colour; would probably reduce the black patent to 50g next time.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Ask 3 brewers, get two answers. I personally wouldnt put dark DME in a porter, would much prefer to use light DME, and some more dark grains, so that you choose the dark grain flavour, rather than the factory that made the DME deciding. I'd use about 50 g of black malt and 200g of chocolate.

[post="118923"][/post]​

Yeah good point re the grain notes, GL...I suppose it all comes down to how much mash capacity Tintin has in the brewshed. When I did partials, I was limited to a 6 pack esky that was chockers at around the 2.4kg mark. Anything more had to be either steeped or malt extract.

With the relatively small grain bill (under 2kg) dropping the 500g of Dark DME and replacing with light DME and 50g black and 200g choc malt, he'd need to be careful that he doesn't overdo the black and choc malt flavour profile in his efforts to sufficiently darken the colour of the porter. When I first started using patent and choc malt, I overdid both and made some rather ugly, astringent brews - it wasn't until I used them in moderation, separately, that I got to know the contributions that these grains made to my beer. And he's already got 150g of roasted barley in there to begin with...

Regardless, if the equipment permits, it's better to eliminate all the malt extract in theory and go all grain!!

 

[Guest Lurker]

Beermat. I reckon that would be a fine tasting version of what I consider a porter to be. And you will indeed find that 50 g of black malt is a big difference compared to 80 g.

TL Yeah, I would avoid the black malt if I was adding roast barley (which I dont in porters)

Tintin You are definitely on the right track. The thing about porter is it covers a huge range so you can make it the style you personally like. So you wont get much agreement on this site. But the good news is its quite hard to make a bad porter. It is also quite hard to make a spectacular porter. Brew it once, and you will immediately get an idea of what you want to add or remove on the second go.

For reference, in my opinion:
The toasty roasty flavours are coming from the roast barley
The ashy charcoal flavours are coming from the black malt
The chocolate (go figure) flavours are coming from the charcoal malt
The bready rich malty flavours are coming from the munich
The sweet flavours are coming from the crystal.

So... taste the first one really carefully, thinking about those flavours, and your second attenmpt will be real close to the flavour you seek.

 

[warrenlw63]

So Tintin

Do all the spot fires have you more confused than when you started? :lol:

Probably a good thing would be to back up to post 2 and just contemplate what Jayse said I'm sure your beer will be very good.

Warren -

 

[tintin]

Thanks for all the suggestions...I think I'll stick to the original recipe (it's something I've cobbled together after combing over this site the past week or so), but I might substitute the 150g r/malt for 100g choc malt and and up the crystal a tad.
For this first partial I had a hard time deciding between this and an oatmeal stout. My little bloke has porridge for breakfast every morning and gets into my homebrew stout with an enthuseasm that buggers even me.. and he's only 2 and a half. An oatmeal stout and he'll be at the brewery door with a piece of four by two.

Simple :
1 kg trad. malt
300g oats
250g crystal

1.7kg esb stout kit
1.5kg lme dark
golding hops fore n' aft, you know the drill

I measured my biggest pot tonight...only 8l plus boilover. No good. Ok for this simple little oatmeal stout, not enough for the porter. Feck! Smaller soak required... Stronger lock on the brewery required. Larger pot required. Mate with mill required. Another swig of homebrew required........

Thanks for help...this site is great. The liitle bloke will be thanking me for making him his first breakfast oatmeal stout (instead of the porter).

 

[Trough Lolly]

On the stout at 2 and a half?

The kid's got style...!

Get thee to a chinese grocer - they have kick ass stock pots, or better still, have a chat with the local HBS re keg shaped kettles!

Cheers,
TL

 

[Trough Lolly]

[snip]
For reference, in my opinion:
The toasty roasty flavours are coming from the roast barley
The ashy charcoal flavours are coming from the black malt
The chocolate (go figure) flavours are coming from the charcoal malt
The bready rich malty flavours are coming from the munich
The sweet flavours are coming from the crystal.

So... taste the first one really carefully, thinking about those flavours, and your second attenmpt will be real close to the flavour you seek.

[post="118985"][/post]​

Further to GL's good guide, you might want to have a read of an article on the MBAA regarding the flavour contributions of kilned and roasted products to finished beer styles - it's a bit techo in places, but a good read if you want to get more info on grains and their contributions.

Here's the link:
http://www.mbaa.com/TechQuarterly/Articles/2001/38_4_227.pdf

Cheers,
TL (woohoo - 1000 posts!! :beer: )

 

[tintin]

Thanks. Good article. Gotta love Dr. Morten Meilgaard's Beer Flavour Wheel! Yes, the young fella has got style...I'll have to watch the stock levels as he gets older.
Did the oatmeal stout on the w/end. Messy affair, but she's fermenting merrily with no off-smells, so we're happy.

 

[apd]

I've heard a lot about this Porter style lately, what's a commercial version I can try. If I like it I might give this a bash to :chug:

[post="118942"][/post]​

James Squire does a Porter.

Also, Hargreaves Hill in Victoria.

 

[warrenlw63]

If you can hunt around a few of the more specialised bottlos Fullers London Porter is an absolute gem. Think it may have written the book on flavour.

Warren -

 

[Trough Lolly]

Yep, FLP is a beauty - if you can clone it, you're laughing (and I want your recipe)!!!!

TL

 

[warrenlw63]

No laughter here TL.

Don't reckon I could even come close.

This is swiped from the Fuller's website... It's a start I guess;

Tasting Notes
Fuller's London Porter captures the flavours of those brews perfectly, although you won't find a cloudy pint these days! Smooth, rich, and strong (5.4% a.b.v.), our London Porter is brewed from a blend of brown, crystal and chocolate malts for a creamy delivery balanced by traditional Fuggles hops.

Warren -