eon

Recipes 

Hey all, I will be brewing a porter tomorrow. I am wondering If I need a starter? I am using wyeast 1968. Here is my recipe and Gravity numbers according to Beer Calculus:

OG 1.065
FG 1.020

COLOR 55* SRM

Mash Efficiency 75%

30.4 IBUs

6.0% ABV
----------------------------------------

6.6 lbs. Light DME
2.00 lbs. 2-row malt
1.25 lbs. British Brown 70L
1.25 lbs. Chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. Black Patent
0.25 lbs. Crystal 120L
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 80L
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 40L
0.25 lbs. Victory
0.25 lbs. Special B
0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt

1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 minutes
1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 15 minutes
2 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5 minutes
1 oz. Willamette @ 1 minute

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Mash @ 156F for 45 minutes.

Mr. Malty says I need 2000 ml of liquid but that's the size of my flask! I am so confused. I need to make this starter RIGHT now seeing as I plan on brewing tomorrow around 5 pm. I think it has to sit for 24 hours right?

If I can get by without a starter please let me know. That would make things much easier at this point.

P.S.-should I mash longer? This is the first time I'm doing a mini mash. Thanks!

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.

eon

Recipes 

My yeast smack pack is in the fridge. Can I still brew tomorrow? According to John Palmer, You need to take the yeast out of the fridge 2 days before you brew.

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.

indigi

Recipes 

A starter would be ideal. Once you get over 1.050 it's a good idea, and over 1.060 it's usually necessary. I'd brew up a 1l starter tonight and just pitch the whole thing into the beer tomorrow. Make sure to give it a good shake as often as you can between now and just prior to pitching, and aerate the wort really well, too.

If you can't get it together, you'll still brew a good beer, although it might have more yeast character than you planned. Ferment it on the low end if you can.

eon

Recipes 

Thanks indigi! Dumb question but what is the DME to water ratio? Should I boil 1/2 cup of DME in 1 liter of water? Thanks again!

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.

indigi

Recipes 

I go by weight - 4 oz of DME in a liter is what I use. I'm not sure how that converts to volume.

eon

Recipes 

sorry, one last question. Do I need to smack the yeast pack and let it swell (takes hours right?) or can i just cut it open and dump it into my starter? Thanks for all your help!

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.

indigi

Recipes 

Smack it and put it on top of your fridge, or some other nice, warm area (but not hot!), and let it sit while you get the starter ready. It doesn't always take hours, so it might be fully swelled up by the time you're ready to pitch, but even if it did, the smack pack has lots of helpful nutrients and such to get the yeast ready to ferment, which can only be helpful if you need a quick start.


edit: One last thing - looking at your grain bill, have you already purchased all the ingredients? Either way, though, you may want to think about dropping some and eating the 5 or 6 bucks - you've got a real kitchen sink recipe there. Victory and biscuit, 80L and 70L crystal, 120L and Special B, and I think the 40 is worthless altogether. Maybe take it over to another forum and get some more direct input, but you've got a bunch of ingredients that do essentially the same things.

eon

Recipes 

Yes, I already bought the ingredients. What do you think I should do? I was gonna just go for it and brew it as is. What should I drop?

If it means anything, My favorite porter of all time is Olfabrikken Porter.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/olfabrikken-porter/52649/

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.

eon

Recipes 

Yes, I already bought the ingredients. What do you think I should do? I was gonna just go for it and brew it as is. What should I drop?

If it means anything, My favorite porter of all time is Olfabrikken Porter.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/olfabrikken-porter/52649/

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.

eon

Recipes 

If you are curious you can check out the threads below. My porter recipe has gotten a ton of response and has caused me MAJOR confusion. Some people have said it looks delicious while others say it looks stupid!

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/question-about-extract-porter-recipe-191823/

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/porter-recipe-195366/

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/wyeast-1968-porter-195438/

If you read through these threads you can see the progression of the recipe and you'll see where I'm at with this thing! haha!

__________________
You must brew the beer you want to see in this world.