English Porter Black Pearl Porter (AG)

CornyKegs 728
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Mine hit final gravity 1.018 after about for days. Think I can keg it after two weeks? I'm looking to free up the fermenter for a brown ale. Samples taste fantastic!
 
BierMuncher, this looks great, going to brew Saturday. I'm glad a low 60's fermentation is good for this beer since a Wisconsin basement is pretty chilly this time of year. Only question I had was on your mash temp 158 seemed high to me. I've only done a couple darker beers (2 AG stouts and 1 PM stout) and they were at 154. Given the similar style what's the thought with the 158?

Feel free to smack me if that's a dumb question, I just haven't seen any mashes that high.

Can't wait for this one, love your recipes.
 
Slowfro said:
BierMuncher, this looks great, going to brew Saturday. I'm glad a low 60's fermentation is good for this beer since a Wisconsin basement is pretty chilly this time of year. Only question I had was on your mash temp 158 seemed high to me. I've only done a couple darker beers (2 AG stouts and 1 PM stout) and they were at 154. Given the similar style what's the thought with the 158?

Feel free to smack me if that's a dumb question, I just haven't seen any mashes that high.

Can't wait for this one, love your recipes.
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The 156-158 range will give you a bigger malt profile. More residual sweetness. This is definitely a luscious, rich beer. Filling and satisfying.
 
im going to try to do a 2.5 gallon batch of this for my first AG brew. just a quick question, you mash with 4 gallons of water and then add 2.5 gallons for the mash out which leaves 6.5 gallons of water which seems like plenty for the boil. do you not sparge?
 
poopyhead said:
im going to try to do a 2.5 gallon batch of this for my first AG brew. just a quick question, you mash with 4 gallons of water and then add 2.5 gallons for the mash out which leaves 6.5 gallons of water which seems like plenty for the boil. do you not sparge?
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You will probably want to half those numbers if you are doing a 2.5 gallon batch! Mash at 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain.
 
exactly i just scaled his numbers down so ill be using 2 gallons for 6.5 lbs of grain then mashout/sparge with 2.5/2 gallons. ill be mashing with a grain bag so after the first 45 min of the mash ill take the grains out and put it in a different pot and soak the grains in that water for 15 min then combine the wort.
 
poopyhead said:
exactly i just scaled his numbers down so ill be using 2 gallons for 6.5 lbs of grain then mashout/sparge with 2.5/2 gallons. ill be mashing with a grain bag so after the first 45 min of the mash ill take the grains out and put it in a different pot and soak the grains in that water for 15 min then combine the wort.
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right! I just read 6.5 gallons of water at the end of your post, and that is a little to much for a half batch! But the 4.5 total gallons will probably put you around 3.5 or so for the boil (grain absorbtion) and you should be right on
 
For everyone saying how sweet this beer is, let me tell you that I brewed this 11.14.10 and cracked the first one open 12.25.10. It was definately a full body, sweet beer. It is a great brew for someone who isn't particularly fond of dark beers. Since then however, it has aged well since xmas day, mellowing out and decreasing the sweet notes. I know it's hard to age beer (especially your own homebrew), but this beer is worth aging.

Great recipe!
 
just brewed this and waiting for it to cool. (NEED A CHILLER BAD) went pretty smoothly for my first all grain. I did the 2.5 gallon stove top brew with a grain bag. only problem i had was that my temperature snuck up on me when i poured the grains in and i mashed way to high, so i put the pot in a cool water bath to get it down as fast as possible. i got it to around 56 F and it stayed there for the most part for the remaining 45 min. i ended up with a 1.075ish OG which was a little high. my final volume was only about 2 gallons which was off my 2.5 gallon goal which is probably why my OG was so high. next time i would sparge with more water maybe a half to three quarter gallons more. cant wait to try this.
 
poopyhead said:
just brewed this and waiting for it to cool. (NEED A CHILLER BAD) went pretty smoothly for my first all grain. I did the 2.5 gallon stove top brew with a grain bag. only problem i had was that my temperature snuck up on me when i poured the grains in and i mashed way to high, so i put the pot in a cool water bath to get it down as fast as possible. i got it to around 56 F and it stayed there for the most part for the remaining 45 min. i ended up with a 1.075ish OG which was a little high. my final volume was only about 2 gallons which was off my 2.5 gallon goal which is probably why my OG was so high. next time i would sparge with more water maybe a half to three quarter gallons more. cant wait to try this.
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If you can find some sort of "marker" stick that you could accurately determine your starting volume you can better aim for your final volume. I have a foodsafe long plastic spoon with sharpie markings for the gallon marks in my pot. I sparge until I hit the 3.75 mark for 2.5 Gallon batches and when Im outside on the propane burner for 5 gallon batches I need to collect 7 gallons! You just need to know you system! Congrats on the first AG!
 
brettwasbtd said:
If you can find some sort of "marker" stick that you could accurately determine your starting volume you can better aim for your final volume. I have a foodsafe long plastic spoon with sharpie markings for the gallon marks in my pot. I sparge until I hit the 3.75 mark for 2.5 Gallon batches and when Im outside on the propane burner for 5 gallon batches I need to collect 7 gallons! You just need to know you system! Congrats on the first AG!
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thanks! that is definately a good idea. im not so aware of my system yet and that is the first time i have done a 2.5 gallon batch so next time ill definately use some type of measuring stick.
 
Hey guys, had a bit of a dilemma here. I was going to brew this today but Brewmaster's Warehouse forgot to include the 1 lb. flaked oats in my order. Not going to get it until Tuesday now. What would this beer taste like without oats in it? A lot worse? Could I just use something like Quaker oats for this? If so, what would I need to do to them to make then usable in the mash?

Thanks for your help!
 
jcsweat, if you leave the oats out you'll lose some mouthfeel. I've used Quaker before...its pretty much the same thing just less expensive. Mash them just as you would the flaked oats from the homebrew store.
 
Thanks! I did indeed use "quick" Quaker oats. Everything went well, although I changed part of my procedure and my efficiency went from 60% to 80%! I used about a pound more grain than the recipe calls for because I was expecting low efficiency again. My OG was 1.071, haha.

Wow, you know you've brewed 2 batches of beer when your clothes smell like malt.
 
BierMuncher - another great recipe so thanks! Drank the first bottles of the batch last night and was very happy with them even after just 2 weeks in the bottle. Can't wait to see how they are after a little more conditioning time. I added coffee to 1/2 the batch at bottling as an experiment and it turned out great.
 
Slowfro said:
BierMuncher - another great recipe so thanks! Drank the first bottles of the batch last night and was very happy with them even after just 2 weeks in the bottle. Can't wait to see how they are after a little more conditioning time. I added coffee to 1/2 the batch at bottling as an experiment and it turned out great.
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jcsweat said:
Thanks! I did indeed use "quick" Quaker oats. Everything went well, although I changed part of my procedure and my efficiency went from 60% to 80%! I used about a pound more grain than the recipe calls for because I was expecting low efficiency again. My OG was 1.071, haha.

Wow, you know you've brewed 2 batches of beer when your clothes smell like malt.
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Glad to hear the recipes turned out well. Porters are great for adding your own personal adaptations. :mug:
 
Since you replied, I'll give an update. Small concern tasting it coming out of the fermenter at 3 weeks since brewing. It was very sweet. I may have added a bit too much lactose as I just dumped some in, as much as I thought 4 oz. was. Obviously it's a sweet beer anyway but it was really quite sweet. My FG was 1.019. Do you think this sweetness might diminish after aging a few weeks? Obviously carbonation will counteract it a little bit. Could this sweetness be because I ended up using too much grain? I feel like more hop bitterness wouldn't hurt it either. We'll see how it tastes in a few weeks I guess. I hate the waiting!
 
Any thoughts on adding some brown malt or subbing brown malt for some of the chocolate malt? Would it be out of character?
 
porter.jpg


You must brew this beer! So good!
 
My batch was bottled October 11th, and I'm down to about two six-packs. Since it was a month in the bottle, it's always tasted great. The carbonation was fine, but not much of any head retention.....until about a month ago, when it started to increase and last longer. I'm now to the point where I'm getting so much head I'm thinking about pouring it into a pint glass. It still tastes great, one of the best porters I've ever had, but I'm wondering if something couldn't have gotten in there besides yeast that's now working on the Malto-dextrine or lactose.....
 
rico567 said:
My batch was bottled October 11th, and I'm down to about two six-packs. Since it was a month in the bottle, it's always tasted great. The carbonation was fine, but not much of any head retention.....until about a month ago, when it started to increase and last longer. I'm now to the point where I'm getting so much head I'm thinking about pouring it into a pint glass. It still tastes great, one of the best porters I've ever had, but I'm wondering if something couldn't have gotten in there besides yeast that's now working on the Malto-dextrine or lactose.....
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Depending on you sanitation, you could have a bug. But You would probably taste a bit of difference. It could be the fine dust particles of your roasted malts have fallen to the bottom. These particles can affect head retention and carbonation feel.
 
ChemE said:
SWMBO has declared this beer "better than every other porter or stout except Barney Flats". The bottles are disappearing rapidly. Thanks for the killer recipe BierMuncher!
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Where is the link to this Barney Flats you speak of? Is there a link to the recipe?

Also, after reading all 15 pages of this post the Black Pearl will be my next brew. I don't even care that we are rolling into the summer months.
 
Biermuncher, do you make a starter with the wyeast smack pack on this one? It's not mentioned either way in the OP.

Just curious :)
 
brettwasbtd said:
Depending on you sanitation, you could have a bug. But You would probably taste a bit of difference. It could be the fine dust particles of your roasted malts have fallen to the bottom. These particles can affect head retention and carbonation feel.
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I'm now down to the last six-pack, and, pouring into a pint glass, I can't get the last 1/4 of the beer poured, there's so much head, most of which only lasts a few minutes. By the time the beer's half poured, the yeast is starting to come out in little chunks that go straight to the bottom of the glass. However, the porter still taste fine. Curious.....
 
My LHBS was out of Chocolate malt, so I got Carafa II and they don't carry Crystal 30L, so I was told to sub it with CaraAmber. What do you all think, should be alright, right?
 
Oh. Lawd.

I brewed this yesterday as my first ever homebrew. A couple differences: Canadian 2-row, 40L caramel instead of 30L, Willamette instead of Fuggles, 2 packs of S-04 and no lactose (I can't have it)

The wort tasted.... AMAZING.

I forgot to take a gravity reading before I pitched the yeast - oops. But after pitching the yeast the hydrometer read 1.080 :confused: Not sure how much the yeast would effect the gravity.

Regardless, airlock was bubbling less than 12 hours after pitching, so...

aww_yeah_resurrection-s250x196-170627-535.png


I'll let you know how it turns out :D
 
I think I'll leave out the lactose myself for my next batch. This is sure some great-tasting porter, but about the time I was down to my last dozen bottles, it had started to foam out the minute it was uncapped, and the problem has only worsened. I'm down to my last two bottles, and they will have to be poured over the sink. I'll lose about a fourth of each bottle. Strange, and I can only attribute it to the lactose. I've used malto-dextrin in other beers, to no ill effect, but this is something new.
 
Im brewing this tomorrow. This got the guy at my LHBS all excited, thanks for sharing the recipe BM.

Cheers!
 
rico567 said:
I think I'll leave out the lactose myself for my next batch. This is sure some great-tasting porter, but about the time I was down to my last dozen bottles, it had started to foam out the minute it was uncapped, and the problem has only worsened. I'm down to my last two bottles, and they will have to be poured over the sink. I'll lose about a fourth of each bottle. Strange, and I can only attribute it to the lactose. I've used malto-dextrin in other beers, to no ill effect, but this is something new.
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I had the same thing happen to my batch. The only gushers i've ever had.
 
Just bottled last night after 3 weeks and tasted great. Question is, my SG was 1.055 but after 3 weeks my FG is 1.034. I seem to have this problem alot of not hitting FG. I did a 18hr 1.5L starter and used wlp013. So I have a session Porter?
 
kapbrew13 said:
Just bottled last night after 3 weeks and tasted great. Question is, my SG was 1.055 but after 3 weeks my FG is 1.034. I seem to have this problem alot of not hitting FG. I did a 18hr 1.5L starter and used wlp013. So I have a session Porter?
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Did you use the lactose and maltodextrin? If so that can account for a higher FG in this case since they are non fermentable.
 
FastAndy said:
Did you use the lactose and maltodextrin? If so that can account for a higher FG in this case since they are non fermentable.
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Thanks. I did. Not really worried now because I can drink more in one sitting. Lol.
 
Thanks Biermuncher!! Great beer!! Had a party today with 6 other brews and everyone loved this beer. Even the, I don't like dark beer drinkers. Fermented for 3 weeks and was bottled for 1.5 weeks. Lets see how it ages. Kept a bunch for myself.
Finally figured out my issue with the FG. Refractometer is not accurate for FG. I thought all my beers were coming out low abv, but guess not.
 
Is the 4 oz of Lactose by weight or by volume? I noticed that someone posted that 1 cup of maltodxtrine weighs 4 oz.

Thanks!
 
Tried one 3 weeks after bottling. Still not fully carbed, but we had to do a taste test.

Delicious. Absolutely delicious. Both myself and my father agree this is one of the best porters we have had. I'll definitely be brewing this again when we start to run low. I can't wait to come back to it in a few more weeks. Gonna be adding a few more miles to my weekly run to compensate :D
 

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