Robust Porter Help

[Flash_DG]

Robust Porter

1.7kg Dark Malt Extract
2.0kg Amber Malt Extract

700g Crystal Malt
400g Chocolate Malt

48g NORTHERN BREWER (60 min)
28g Fuggles (30 min)
FINISHING HOPS
14g Fuggles (5 min)

Now my questions are

1: which Crystal Malt should I use?

2:does it look like a good extract RP?

3: What Yeast should I use?

Thanks

 

[manticle]

Robust Porter

1.7kg Dark Malt Extract
2.0kg Amber Malt Extract

700g Crystal Malt
400g Chocolate Malt

48g NORTHERN BREWER (60 min)
28g Fuggles (30 min)
FINISHING HOPS
14g Fuggles (5 min)

Now my questions are

1: which Crystal Malt should I use?

2:does it look like a good extract RP?

3: What Yeast should I use?

Thanks

1. Light crystal would be fine
2. Choc looks way overdone. My recent AG porter used 50 each of black and choc and 100 of roast barley. For porter you want a dark brown/reddish colour rather than black.
3.If you're into liquids use London ale, Thames valley or whitbread wyeasts. Irish ale would also work (as might a few others). If you're using dried try s04 or even US05 (american yeast but very neutral).

 

[Flash_DG]

What should the Choc malt be then? the orginal recipe I found was for 19L and I used Beersmith to increase it to 23L, it said to use 350g, should I just leave it at that or maybe less?

 

[manticle]

Personally I would make up a mixture of choc, roast barley and either black or cara-red or carafa special. Make the total grain bill 300-350. All are dark malts but all will add complexity whereas too much of one will just be too much of one.

If you want to up the specialty malt to above 350 then maybe sub the dark malt extract for a lighter coloured one. Happy to pass on my robust porter recipe which is drinking well at this point. It's all grain so you'll need to adjust and it's to my tastes so you'll also need to adjust.

All of this is how I see it - I am not the foremost expert on porters. Mine is tasty and the colour and flavour I hoped for (coffee, nuts and chocolate) so I'm basing my response on that.

 

[Flash_DG]

I am still not sure how to convert an all grain to extract
but I would like to have a look at your recipe please

Getting a 40L pot for Christmas so this will likely be my last non AG beer.
Thanks for the help Manticle

 

[manticle]

The notes from the Vic Xmas case swap will tell you what others think of it.

There is supposedly an article on converting AG to extract: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=97 but I can't get it to load. I googled the author and found this page: http://www.tedbrews.com/2009/02/all-grain-...conversion.html
and this one http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/06/03/c...o-malt-extract/

My way of doing it would be as follows: sub out the base malts with extract using the same proportions (eg '1/3' or 45% etc as appropriate). Use pale malt extract rather than dark as the colour will come from the spec malts. Use brewing software to tweak your amounts to get the abv and IBU profile you're after. Where it says caramelise first runnings in my recipe, you might have some luck reducing some dark malt extract and water in a saucepan until it's thick and syrupy (close to being burned but just shy). if you can steep all the secialty grains then conversion is easy enough.

The biscuit malt needs to be mashed but if you can steep it in hot water at 65-70 degrees and maintain that for 30 - 60 mins I reckon you'll be fine (which is close to what you'd do for the spec grains anyway).

Style: Robust Porter
Type: All grain
Size: 22 liters
Color: 52 HCU (~22 SRM)
Bitterness: 28 IBU
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.015
Alcohol: 6.1% v/v (4.8% w/w)

Grain: 6kg JW Ale
100g Dingemans biscuit
100g JW light crystal
50gJW chocolate
50g JW black patent
100g Roasted Barley

Mash: 60 mins 70% efficiency 67 degrees
Boil: 60 minutes SG 1.040 34 liters

Hops: 20g Fuggles (4.75% AA, 45 min.)
30g Kent Goldings (5% AA, 45 min.)

Yeast: Wyeast 1099 Whitbread

Notes: Caramelise approx 6-8 L first runnings until thick syrup.

Primary: 7 days
Secondary 7 days
Cold condition @ 2 deg 5 days
Fine with gelatine
Primed to 2.4 vol.

 

[Flash_DG]

ok so what I got now based on what you have recommended

4kg LDME
100g Dingeman’s biscuit
100g JW light crystal
50gJW chocolate
50g JW black patent
100g Roasted Barley

48g Northern Brewers (60mins)
28g Fuggles (30 min)
14g Fuggles (5 min)

beersmith says:

Est OG 1064 sg
Est FG 1017 sg
Est A/V 6.09%
IBU 49.0
Est Colour 23.8 SRM

If you think it will be too bitter I will go with your Hop schedule instead.

 

[manticle]

The bitterness is entirely up to you and is dependent on your tastes. Myself I prefer the malty side of things but you may love the bitterness.

I reckon the recipe looks pretty good. The thing to remember is that the caramelisation of part of my wort added to the final colour so either try reducing a bit of malt extract to a dark colour or adding a touch of the darker extract you mention earlier.

I think it's a mistake (one that I made quite a bit in my extract days) to use dark malt extract as the base. Most AG recipes use a pale base malt or two and build a profile with the specialties. I think the same principle applies to extract and I reckon you'll get a better beer now. You'll have to tweak the hops schedule according to your tastes though.

 

[Flash_DG]

Thanks very much for your help much appreciated.
I will leave the hop schedule as is and if it is too bitter I can always try again later with less

 

[Flash_DG]

4kg LDME
100g Dingeman’s biscuit
100g JW light crystal
50gJW chocolate
50g JW black patent
100g Roasted Barley

40g Northern Brewers (60mins)
25g Fuggles (30 min)
14g Fuggles (5 min)

beersmith says:

Est OG 1064 sg act. OG 1072
Est FG 1017 sg
Est A/V 6.09%
IBU 49.0
Est Colour 23.8 SRM


Brewed this up yesterday, steeped the grains in 66c for an hour, strained and got ready for the boil.

Boiled for an hour with 1kg of LDME and the hop schedule.

Cooled in laundry sink with a few frozen bottles of water and then added 13L of pre cooled water up to the actual 23L mark which dropped temp down to 17c.

Pitched my yeast, S-04, as it was getting late (and was damn hot) and put it in my new (2nd hand) fermenter fridge, currently at 19c with plenty of activity.Looking forward to tasting this later

 

[manticle]

Interested to know how it goes. Just had a glass of mine and still happy.

 

[Flash_DG]

I'll keep you posted for sure.
We were drinking Coopers Extra Stout while waiting for the boil so we are very excited now.

 

[marksfish]

dont drink all your porter early, put some aside for a few months to let it mature :beer:

 

[Flash_DG]

dont drink all your porter early, put some aside for a few months to let it mature :beer:

Well you see my birthday is the 17th March and since I was 18 I have been shouting myself an Irish beer. So I have planned until then for the majority of it to condition.


But then we all know how plans go

 

[Flash_DG]

Update: Seems the S-04 got stuck at 1.024 so I swirled it, it dropped to 1.022 and stayed there and doesn't want to go any further.
I racked it to secondary after 14 days and am now crash chilling ready to bottle on Monday.

Too me it still has a little bit of sweetness not much but more then most other beers I have tried.
Very bitter like a stout.

 

[manticle]

Bitterness dissipates/rounds out with time so if it does end up being too much, the bottles you age will reward you.

 

[Flash_DG]

looking forward to trying it again after it has been in the bottle for a month.

 

[Flash_DG]

Well this beer turned out pretty good Manticle
recipe as post #10
I racked to secondary after 14days and bottled it after 5 days at 18c and 4 more at 3c.
Bitterness isn't as apparent and the sweetness has also dissipated
Taste is very much coffee and the rest is hard to describe since I'm only learning tastes and the such.
turned out at 6.8% and I only need 1 glass to feel it's kick.
got a few hidden away to try down the track.

Btw only ever tasted a Porter once and that was half a pot of Ross' Robust Porter so I have no idea what they are meant to taste like

 

[manticle]

They are meant to taste good and I'm glad yours is.

 

[Flash_DG]

Ok to describe it,
it tastes like a stronger Coopers Dark Ale but more even, the flavours are on par with one another, similar but not so much that you can pick out each one like I can with a Dark Ale, if that makes sense.
The sort of beer I can drink and say HOLY CRAP I made this! :lol: