Porter Justice - Imperial Porter - HBT BJCP #3 BOS

usurpers26 · 10-04-2009, 04:45 PM

I know we didn't win BOS in the HBT comp but I figured why not share this tasty recipe! We did enter it as 23 - but I feel placing it in the Porter section is more fitting.

This beer is extremely layered, when had young, the dried fruit/raisin from the Special B is prominent. Over time, the B blends very well and you are left with a nice roasty, coffee flavor that ends with dried fruit. Don't fear the ~100 IBUs, they are needed to support this malt bill.

Recipe Type: All Grain @ 70% BHE
Yeast: SLURRY! ~1 cup of S05 or Notty per 5.5gallons
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.088
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 92
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 39.9 SRM

Amount Item Type % or IBU
12 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 63.16 %
4 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 21.05 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
1 lbs Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
0.50 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 20.4 IBU
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 34.7 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 17.4 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 11.3 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 8.2 IBU

Mash Profile
Mash @ 152* for 75 minutes

Notes
We turned this around rather quickly for such a big beer. Bottled at 8 weeks. For the sake of comparison, the competition entries were aged ~6 months. Personal opinion is this peaked around month 5.

usurpers26 · 11-04-2009, 01:43 PM

Very gracious judges comments that are very much appreciated:

PJ (3rd Best of Show and 2nd Place Ribbon for Category #23)

Josh Ames
BJCP #C0709

Aroma: (9/12) - Roasty, Chocolate, Sweet Malt, medium to faint spicy

Appearance: (3/3) - Brilliantly clear black with a brown head of large bubbles that lasts

Flavor: (16/20)
- Roast, chocolate, spicy/earthy
- Hop Flavors, lingering hop bitterness that is not harsh
- Alcohol is the but not huge
- Vanilla, well balanced

Mouthfeel: (4/5) - Medium bodied and carbed – slight astringency from roast malts

Overall Impression: (8/10) - Recipe is sound, there seems to be some age on this due to the vanilla
Total: (40/50)

Stylistic Accuracy: 4 out of 5
Technical Merit:4 out of 5
Intangibles:4 out of 5
__________________________________________________ _______________________________

David Oenbring
BJCP #C0708

Aroma: (9/12) - Sweet malt, soft spicy hop aroma, chocolate with hints of roast

Appearance: (3/3) - Dense light tan head and garnet, nearly opaque

Flavor: (16/20) - Rich chocolate flavor not as bitter or as much hop flavor as I’d expect from 100 IBUs – well balanced for a big beer

Mouthfeel: (4/5) - Body is light for a beer of such strength, alcohol evident but restrained for the size of the beer

Overall Impression: (8/10) - Balance is good, flavors are well married, I would guess there is some age on this
Total: (40/50)

Stylistic Accuracy: 4 out of 5
Technical Merit: 4 out of 5
Intangibles: 4 out of 5

ericdaryl · 12-14-2010, 01:36 AM

Thought I'd let you know that I used your recipe as the base for a partial mash version. Turned out to be quite a bit lower gravity, so I imagine that the hops are going to be more prominent. But the wort smells fantastic (just tucked the primary away in the closet last night) and I'm looking forward to seeing if I did "justice" to the recipe sometime in February.

Here's my version (and I'd love comments/feedback):

Recipe Type: Partial Mash
Yeast: Wyeast 1028 London Ale
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.060
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90

Amount Item Type %
6.6 lbs Northwestern Amber LME
2 lbs Munich Malt
.5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs Special B Malt
1 oz Nugget [12.2 % AA] (90 min)
1 oz Nugget [12.2 % AA] (60 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [7.2 % AA] (20 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [7.2 % AA] (10 min)

I mashed the grain at a target of 150*F for 75 min (4.6 quarts H20)
Sparged with 7qts. H20

After the boil, I was able to cool the wort down to 70* in ten minutes using my proleptic Christmas gift, a new copper immersion wort chiller. So cool! So much better than stirring ice cubes around the bath tub!

This is my first go at a partial mash, so I'm learning quite a bit as I go. If I make this recipe again, I'd probably either add another 3.3 lbs of amber LME or a couple pounds of the pale malt to raise the original gravity up closer to the first recipe. Other than that, I'm quite happy with how this has turned out.

usurpers26 · 12-15-2010, 01:38 PM

I wish I could lend a hand with your OG being lower but we've never done partial mashes so I'm not too familiar with the conversions. etc.

Would love to know how it turns out though, this is one of our hallmark brews

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericdaryl

Thought I'd let you know that I used your recipe as the base for a partial mash version. Turned out to be quite a bit lower gravity, so I imagine that the hops are going to be more prominent. But the wort smells fantastic (just tucked the primary away in the closet last night) and I'm looking forward to seeing if I did "justice" to the recipe sometime in February.

Here's my version (and I'd love comments/feedback):

Recipe Type: Partial Mash
Yeast: Wyeast 1028 London Ale
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.060
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90

Amount Item Type %
6.6 lbs Northwestern Amber LME
2 lbs Munich Malt
.5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs Special B Malt
1 oz Nugget [12.2 % AA] (90 min)
1 oz Nugget [12.2 % AA] (60 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [7.2 % AA] (20 min)
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [7.2 % AA] (10 min)

I mashed the grain at a target of 150*F for 75 min (4.6 quarts H20)
Sparged with 7qts. H20

After the boil, I was able to cool the wort down to 70* in ten minutes using my proleptic Christmas gift, a new copper immersion wort chiller. So cool! So much better than stirring ice cubes around the bath tub!

This is my first go at a partial mash, so I'm learning quite a bit as I go. If I make this recipe again, I'd probably either add another 3.3 lbs of amber LME or a couple pounds of the pale malt to raise the original gravity up closer to the first recipe. Other than that, I'm quite happy with how this has turned out.

ericdaryl · 12-15-2010, 04:44 PM

I'll definitely let you know how it turns out once I get the chance to crack open a bottle.

Not having much experience with partial mash either, I'm not sure if the lower OG is a result of something that I botched, or if it's about right for the amount of grain/LME that I used. I imagine that some of that recipe software would be able to answer that question for me, but I haven't gotten in that deep just yet.

ericdaryl · 04-10-2011, 02:03 AM

So, I've been drinking these now for about two or three weeks and meaning to get back to you with the results!

The beer turned out really nicely, and I'm very proud. The lower gravity did make the hops a bit more prominent than a typical Porter, but the result is more "crisp" than "bitter."

I'd be really happy to make this one again. Thanks for providing the original recipe so that I could bastardize it.

burglar · 06-28-2011, 01:40 AM

This is looking good for our first high gravity AG attempt.

usurpers26 · 06-28-2011, 12:49 PM

Wait until you taste it...

Quote:

Originally Posted by burglar

This is looking good for our first high gravity AG attempt.

burglar · 07-03-2011, 10:58 PM

It's in the chill phase right now. Our LHBS let us down a little - they were out of Special B, so they recommended Caramunich as the best substitute out of what they had. They were also out of Amarillos, so we're using Cascades (@6.3% AA) instead.

We used nearly 9 gallons to mash - our BIAB has a lot of deadspace, and that's the only way we could get all the malt submerged. We could only use maybe a half gallon sparge to get to 8 gallons pre-boil.

burglar · 09-05-2011, 11:53 PM

Bottled today - 8 weeks plus two days.

Holy cow, did it taste good. The vanilla was very prominent, where did it come from? The hops were not, however. We'll see how this comes around after conditioning.

Thanks for a great recipe, at this point we're wishing we did a 10 gallon batch.