BNVince

Recipes 

Here is the recipe I'm going to be using for a chocolate porter that I plan to brew this weekend:

3 Gallon Boil

6lb Extra Light DME
1lb Light DME
1lb Crystal 60L
.5lb Chocolate Malt 300L
.5lb Chocolate Malt 450L
.25lb Carapils
3oz Fuggles Pellets (60 Minutes)
1tsp Irish Moss (15 Minutes)
.5lb Cocoa Powder (Flameout)
Nottingham Dry Yeast

The numbers in beer smith come out to around this:

1.062 OG
1.015 FG
28 IBU
35 SRM

So I have a few questions. First off, I've never used a dry yeast before. From what I've read here, simply aerating the wort and pitching the packet of dry yeast will do the trick. Right?

In terms of steeping the grains, what would you suggest for water volume? Obviously this will be a steep with 2.25lb of grains. Should I use 3 gallons of water for the steep and then sparge/rinse the grains afterwards to get back to 3 gallons from all the water the grains sucked up?

Now I've seen a lot of porter recipes with a very small amount (1 or 2 oz) of roasted barley added. Would you suggest using some in this recipe? Will it really give any significant flavor using such a small amount or simply add to the SRM?

Finally, and this may be an extremely dumb question, would straining the wort take away from the cocoa powder at all? For some reason, I'm nervous that the cocoa powder may attach itself to the hops and be filtered out during the straining. Should I even worry about this?

Thanks in advance.

david_42

Recipes 

Nottingham works better if you rehydrate first, but you can just pitch it.
2 pounds of grain won't absorb much water.
The roasted barley will give you a flavor note besides chocolate.
The cocoa power may settle out, but the particles are too small for a strainer.

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BNVince

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I just brewed this tonight. The O.G. was 1.080! I'm sitting here wondering what the hell happened. All I can think of is that the Munton's DME has a better yield than beersmith says. Either way, I'm kind of bummed.

Either that or my hydrometer is busted.

Joker

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Why are you bummed?

What temp did you take the reading at?

BNVince

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It was at 73 I believe. I've been getting a consistently higher OG on my last three batches.

rod

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until the cocoa powder settles out it will skew your hydrometer reading

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Joker

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Beersmith called for a 1.062 and you got 1.080 so you got more then was expected. If you are typically getting an OG higher then 1.080 you must be making some very big brews.

BNVince

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That's interesting. I was under the impression that cocoa powder contained no fermentable sugars.

rod

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no fermentable sugars but it "thickens" up the liquid which skews the reading

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BNVince

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Hmmm...well is there any way to figure out what the correct OG would be?