Porter Grainbill

[warrenlw63]

Need a little help folks

I'm in the process of working out a grainbill for a Porter (robust). It's one style I never seem to be able to get that right flavour I'm looking for.

Any chance there's a Porterphile out there that can have a look at this;

Grainbill for 45 litres.

5kg Fawcett's Marris Otter 52.6%
3kg Joe White Dark Munich 31.6%
500g Fawcett's Crystal 120-140EBC 5.3%
500g Fawcett's Choc 5.3%
500g Fawcett's Amber 5.3%

Any comments/alterations, criticisms welcome.

TIA Warren -

 

[neonmeate]

looks tasty to me. I like a bit of black malt or roast barley in mine for some bite but that will be good i'm sure. amber malt is great in porters.

for something to compare with, last porter i made was this recipe with like 10 specialty malts and it was beautiful:
http://www.beertools.com/html/articles.php?view=205

i just subbed munich for the mild ale malt, amber for the biscuit, cara-aroma for the special B, melanoidin for the aromatic but kept all the amounts the same, OG, yeast, hops, everything. it was amazingly smooth and deep. maybe more of a stout than a porter though (but who cares).

another thing i think goes well in porters is dark brown sugar. i've used "muscavado" before which you can get from delis - it's from morocco or something. gives it a beautiful, rich rummy flavour.

 

[warrenlw63]

Cheers Neonmeate :super:

Was looking for something a little along the lines of Fullers London Porter. I've tried several times to replicate it thus far and haven't come that close.

Warren -

 

[jayse]

Hi warren,
For 45l of robust porter you could nearly double all the specialty malts there, you would actually have to really.
Go a whole kg of of 120-140ebc crystal, can even use much darker crystal if you want.
You would have to have at the very least 650g of choc in there.
Also doubling the amber malt would be great too.
Really every thing is looking good just a bit light on in the 'robust' department.
I think it should be dry, malty and clean but deffintly not thin, i aim for a FG of 1.015. wyeast London ale as been the best so far, wyeast 1098 i thought lent it to be a bit thinner in quite a few aspects and extra extra clean. It was great but i think london ale was exeptional.
The hops have too be fuggles no two ways about that!

Enjoy, its looking good just needs more robusting up a bit.

Jayse

 

[jayse]

snipped>
looks tasty to me. I like a bit of black malt or roast barley in mine for some bite but that will be good i'm sure. amber malt is great in porters.

snipped>
http://www.beertools.com/html/articles.php?view=205

i just subbed munich for the mild ale malt, amber for the biscuit, cara-aroma for the special B, melanoidin for the aromatic but kept all the amounts the same, OG, yeast, hops, everything. it was amazingly smooth and deep. maybe more of a stout than a porter though (but who cares).

[post="51617"][/post]​

I agree the black malt does give it the edge over just chocolate, I love it, the amber malt to.

that recipe looks great neon. I like the bit he says here...

quote>
'Flavor, color and hop character have to be close. But I've found that sticking to the original gravity as directed by the guidelines can hurt your chances. I typically overshoot the OG by 4 to 8 gravity points. Not sure why, it's just what I do.'

End quote>

I have always thought the same thing.

Jayse

 

[neonmeate]

Cheers Neonmeate :super:

Was looking for something a little along the lines of Fullers London Porter. I've tried several times to replicate it thus far and haven't come that close.

Warren -

[post="51621"][/post]​

in my huge pile of recipes i havent made yet ive got a recipe that claims to clone fullers:
cant remember where i got it from but judging from the measurements it's a US recipe! (for 5 gallons i guess). brown malt would be an interesting way to go. i guess this is pretty close to what youve got anyway with all that amber. (ie a "brown porter" not a robust one)

8.25# British 2-rwo Pale Malt
1# British Crystal Malt (55degree L)
10oz British Brown Malt
10oz British Chocolate Malt
mash @ 154 for 90 mins
6.5HBU of Fuggles for 60 min
1/4oz of Fuggles for 15 min
Wyeast 1968 London ESB

 

[warrenlw63]

Enjoy, its looking good just needs more robusting up a bit.

Jayse

[post="51622"][/post]​

Geez Jayse, you've got a bit of a sweetooth methinks :blink:

Might up the spec. malts a tad more and pull back the Dark Munich.

Time to start "robusting" up a bit. Stay tuned.

Warren -

 

[warrenlw63]

How's this look?

Amended "robusted up" grainbill

5kg Marris Otter 53.2%
2kg JW Dark Munich 21.3%
700g TF Crystal 120-140EBC 7.4%
700g TF Choc 7.4%
700g TF Amber 7.4%
300g TF Brown 3.2%

Warren -

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

I think it looks great, but I too would go for a darker crystal. IMHO anywhere from 500-750g is a good amount, depends on tastes. I usually do 45L batches, and the roastier malts will get overpowering if you put more than 750g in. Perhaps you'd benefit from a tablepoon or two of roast or black as well.

 

[warrenlw63]

Thanks for the tip DB,

Would have most probably used a darker crystal unfortunately 140 EBC is the darkest Fawcett's crystal my local HB store stocks. Don't really feel like using Joe White's.

I've sent the order off. Think this should work OK.

Going to eventually get a Porter that works for me.

Warren -

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

Good to hear.
What are you going to bitter this bad-boy with? Yeast?

 

[warrenlw63]

DB, Going to be a bit of an Anglo-American hybrid. :beerbang:

Going to use Wyeast 1056, probably will use the dregs from a batch of APA I've got on the go at the moment, plan to ferment on the cool side to keep the flavours clean and fairly malt-driven. Really want the spec. grains to stand out a little in this one.

Hmmm Hops? Hops? Hops? :huh:

Haven't given them a great deal of thought yet. Generally have a bit of a think once I turn up to the HB store. I've got some Amarillo left which I'll probably use about 15-20mins from flameout with probably minimal aroma editions.

Was thinking of a mixture of Northern Brewer and Target for the rest. That said I'll could still change my mind.

Not hard to see I'm going to be winging it a bit on this one. B)

Warren -

 

[big d]

northern brewer for bittering followed by ekg for flavour and arome.mmmmm very nice.

 

[Tim]

If you want to keep with the american theme, go for some Willamette. hmm
I have made the Porter from the Palmer book which uses Willamette and it is very tasty.
Also try and use Cararoma as the dark crystal, it gives a nice plummy, raisony taste. (Thanks Jayse for that tip! it was a beauty.)

 

[warrenlw63]

Thanks Tim & Big D,

Now you've really got me tossing a coin.

Maybe a combo of EKG & Willamette or Fuggles. Even contemplating Styrian Goldings.

Decisions, decisions. B)

Warren -

 

[jgriffin]

I did a pseudo choc porter on the weekend - pseudo because when i got to the brew shop, i discovered they had no choc malt!
I ended up using something like
150g roast barley
250g amber malt
250g cararoma
and (for the hell of it) 250g of Melanoidin
used fuggles and US Goldings.
Just tasted it out of the hydro tube, quite interesting an very nice, not sure what to call it though.

 

[Gough]

Warren,

I've made a porter with Target and Willamette that I was very happy with. Gives the Anglo/Yankee hybrid flavour you were after. It was also a bastardised version of a Palmer recipe (not that close in the end, more 'inspired by') and mixed Choc and Black patent malt. Very tasty. Your grain bill does sound mighty fine though

I'll put in a vote for the Target Willamette combo though if you are going for a 'trans-atlantic porter'.

Shawn.

 

[warrenlw63]

Starting to sound like a winner thanks Gough, :super:

As you well know, I'm a bit of a Target fan. A high AAU hop that gives good bitterness and pretty good aroma can't be argued with IMO.

Think Target (bittering), Willamette or Fuggles (aroma) wins.

Just got to try and not change my mind before I wander over to the HB store on Sat. and buy my stuff.

Warren -

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

How could I forget cara-aroma?
That's right on.

Funny, I was going to ask if you were going to use northern brewer and fuggles, so I wasn't too far off. Target and Fuggles would be hard to beat, although I like Williamette more, Fuggles is probably a more appropriate hop.

EDIT: Just saw again you're going for the American-Anglo beer... I guess it's Target and Williamette.

 

[SJW]

For what it's worth I am doing a Porter next week and this thread inspired the following:

Jayse or anyone else, I would like to know your thoughts, as i have never used Munich in anything other that Bocks & Oktoberfest's.

View attachment porter.htm