Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Chocolate Oatmeal Porter

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Thanks for all the info. I did this Saturday mashed at 154 for 60 min w 5 g of strike water... Sprayed until i got about 7.5 90 min boil ended up w 5.5 in the fermenter w an og of 1.053. Pretty furious fermentation so far and smelled real good! Ill let u know how it turned out
 
I also brewed this on Saturday as well- Also, made some water changes to a London water profile as well.

Changed I made-

9# Maris Otter Pale Malt
1.5# Flaked Oats
.75# Crystal 80 Malt
12oz Belgian Chocolate Malt
6oz Pale Chocolate Malt
6oz Black Patent Malt

I added 2 oz of Dutch Cocoa Powder to the boil still, and tossed in an old vanilla bean I cut up at 10 minutes as well.

Kept the same hop additions as well. Mashed at 152* for 70 minutes roughly, and finished up my boil with 5.5g and had an OG of 1.067 I think it was..16.4 Brix sticks out, don't remember what that is off the top of my head. It tasted fantastic as all ways, maybe a bit sweeter, and a bit.. thicker perhaps.. very slick and oily.

Fermentation took off with my starter of London ESB, within 6 hours.. Had it in a tub of water in the garage, holding steady at 60*
 
Thanks for all the info. I did this Saturday mashed at 154 for 60 min w 5 g of strike water... Sprayed until i got about 7.5 90 min boil ended up w 5.5 in the fermenter w an og of 1.053. Pretty furious fermentation so far and smelled real good! Ill let u know how it turned out

Thats really not that far off.. A tad low OG, but will still be good at that gravity, and with that mash temp.. Nice body to it for sure.
 
Any recommendations on Cacao Nib quantity for a 2.5 gallon batch? Trying to get them with one vanilla bean into vodka tonight.

*** Nevermind...I just toasted up 2 oz. and proceeded. I think I'm going to let them and the vanilla bean soak for about a week to extract as much of the flavors as possible. I'll make corrections next time around ***
 
Any recommendations on Cacao Nib quantity for a 2.5 gallon batch? Trying to get them with one vanilla bean into vodka tonight.

*** Nevermind...I just toasted up 2 oz. and proceeded. I think I'm going to let them and the vanilla bean soak for about a week to extract as much of the flavors as possible. I'll make corrections next time around ***

I would have said try 2 oz and see how you like it.. I've never toasted them though...
 
I toasted because mine were raw. Just heated them up on a skillet (per another thread on this forum) until they were browned.
 
I had this in the primary for 21 days just racked to secondary on 3 vanilla beans the taste of my sample were amazing. I wish i would of had the ingredients on hand to brew this again and pitched right on this yeast cake. I do not think this will last long its very smooth lightly sweet with no rancid bitterness but the hops are present and balanced. Thank you again for the recipe this will be a regular here.
 
I had this in the primary for 21 days just racked to secondary on 3 vanilla beans the taste of my sample were amazing. I wish i would of had the ingredients on hand to brew this again and pitched right on this yeast cake. I do not think this will last long its very smooth lightly sweet with no rancid bitterness but the hops are present and balanced. Thank you again for the recipe this will be a regular here.


Great!!

I have mine in primary now.. been around a week, will move it next week to secondary with vanilla beans and then to the keg.. Or maybe I'll keg it, and toss the beans in the bag in the keg even..
 
I ordered a 5 gallon used whiskey barrel i had thoughts of putting this in for a week or so but not sure yet i really want to try this as is maybe the next batch. They say the first batch you put in these barrels should be a quick week or two so the flavor of the spirits dont over power the beer
 
MMmm..

Mines in primary still, added 3 vanilla beans that were soaking for a while in bourbon.

Smells fantastic, and taste really good.. Can't wait to carb it up soon.
 
Nice looking head, how did you condition this?

Primary for 1.5-2 weeks. Could probably do 2 weeks in Primary, and it's done, if you want to add something, could add to primary and skip secondary.

I added to secondary; 2 vanilla beans, I left it for a week I believe.

Then I kegged it, at 11psi for 1 week, and thats what I get. The head sticks around for almost the entire glass.

My current batch, I did 1.5 in the primary, added 3 vanilla beans, and I'll leave it a week. Will taste it, and keg it for a week before tapping it.
 
Just brewed this tonight. Bumped up the 2-row to 9 lbs. but other than that used pretty much the same recipe. I got about 5.5 gal in the primary and going to start soaking the vanilla beans after about a week. OG came out to 1.053.

image-3980352696.jpg
 
Nice!

I'm going to keg mine tonight I think... In a week I'll have another picture of the finished product!
 
Kegged mine today and the taste was amazing lol cant wait till its carbed
 
New to all grain. I'm thinking about adding strawberries to this. Anybody do that? How much would you do and when?

Pat
 
New to all grain. I'm thinking about adding strawberries to this. Anybody do that? How much would you do and when?

Pat

I think it would take too much fruit to get a flavor that you're after. If you're new to all grai stick with some simple recipes to fail.in the process first. Once you have 5 or so brews under your belt (try a simple IPA, wheat, red stout, etc.... Whatever you're into) then start messing with the recipes. Just my $0.02. I think you'll get more out of the hobby this way.
 
This is what I'm soaking my vanilla beans in with some vodka. How long do you all soak the beans? I did this yesterday and it is getting pretty dark already.

image-999601030.jpg
 
Dropped my vodka soaked vanilla beans in the 2ndary last night, going to bottle on the 13th and enjoy a few on Christmas day. So ready for this porter to be done!
 
I just soaked mine for about 3-4 hours in a shot of warm, sanitized H20 & a shot of vodka. looked about the same. :ban: toss it in and let er ride~
 
I do the same, minus the water.

I have a glass dish that seals up nicely. I sanitize it and the lid. I spray my cutting board and knife with starsan, and my hands. I spritz the beans and then I cut them open. I'll split long ways, and then do 1-2 inch cuts to make them smaller. I'll scrap the insides a bit, wipe the "caviar" on the beans, and toss it all in the dish with enough bourbon, or vodka to cover them. I'll let it sit from the time I brew, till the time to add the vanilla. Makes an extremely strong, and ultra flavorful vanilla extract. I'll dump the whole thing, beans, and liquid in the primary/secondary.

This last batch I did of this porter, I boiled an older hard bean in the pot all broken up for the last 15 minutes. I added one extra bean for a total of 3 in the secondary.

My porter so far, uncarbed in the keg, is very tasty with a great vanilla finish to it. Very balanced with the roasty chocolate notes.
 
Well i am brewing this again this week. I tried one today and it still needs to carbonate more but wow the taste is fantastic just what i was looking for. This will be on tap here year round.

image-599288410.jpg
 
Man, that looks pretty good!!

I also took a pull from the keg tonight. Been in there a week now, it taste really good with the changes I made to my original recipe.

I used Maris Otter for the base, as I wanted to see more malty biscuit come through, and I added another half pound of oats I think it was, as well as half a pound of pale chocolate malt. Kept everything the same.

It's pretty much carbed, and can't wait for it to settle in, as I know with time the head will become even creamier!

720315D9-F43D-416A-8045-E04FFC1EEBDA-12880-000017C6DD6FF13D.jpg
 
FYI,

I cleaned up the original recipe a bit, and added the BS profile I have for the recipe of the most current one. Very, very tasty beer, I think! Should be easier to follow in this format.

It has a slightly, slightly higher OG, due to rounding off the base malt, but is the same recipe pretty much.

Smooth!
 
Thanks. This is the tastiest brew i ever done and the only one that I ever brewed again so soon. I have a couple brews I brew often but this has earned a designated tap.
 
Thanks. This is the tastiest brew i ever done and the only one that I ever brewed again so soon. I have a couple brews I brew often but this has earned a designated tap.

I'm flattered, for sure.

I love a good porter, and this is one that my wife will drink from time to time. I like a roasty bitter beer, and she likes the sweeter ones.. I think this blends it well enough to fit both wants perfectly.
 
I'm going to be bottling this in a couple days, what would be better for priming...corn sugar or DME? I have both so neither is a bother. Just curious.
 
Brewing this again tomorrow so I have one ready when this keg goes. I love this beer.

Nice lacing too.

image-363637611.jpg


image-1970310856.jpg
 
Man, that looks good.. The lacing and head get insane after it's aged a bit.

Good looking beer!
 
This beer is a GREAT base Porter. Has a very, very balanced profile to it. Very drinkable, even among people who are afraid of dark beers!


Recipe: ALL GRAIN

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.68 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.061 SG
Estimated Color: 42.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 67.6 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 11.3 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.6 %
11.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.2 %
8.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt Grain 6 3.8 %
6.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 7 2.8 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 21.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 11.4 IBUs
2.00 oz Dutch Cocoa Powder
1.10 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 5.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 18.64 qt of water at 163.5 F 153.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.02gal, 4.09gal) of 168.0 F water




I fermented mine out, and added 2 vanilla beans to secondary. Added a great finish to the beer. If you want more chocolate flavor, up the addition, but I think 2 oz is enough to give a hint to it, but not overpower it.

This is a great beer, not extremely chewy, but has plenty of smoothness to it that it slide down easy.. Very easy drinker.


I get compliments on this all the time, and have converted plenty of people who aren't craft drinkers and who think dark beers are scary.. They tell me that are indeed scary.. but scary good!!

1352BE9D-E936-42B9-95F1-147677CC2C46-5131-000009D6226D3F6A.jpg

I am new to AG, this sounds like a great recipe and i want to try it but i have one question about the sparge, can you tell me what you mean but a 2 step sparge

thanks
Jim
 
I am new to AG, this sounds like a great recipe and i want to try it but i have one question about the sparge, can you tell me what you mean but a 2 step sparge

thanks
Jim

Certainly.

The easiest way, and you'll have to experiment as you go for efficiency reasons, but generally you can do as follows. Also, I'd suggest finding out how much you boil off in an hour in your pot. Plain water is fine. Boil up a known amount.. say, 5 gallons of water, time it and measure it out what you have left.

Get your mash water to the correct temp. If you want to mash at 153, you'd be looking at around 164 or so to hit that temp in a cooler roughly.. Add water, check temp, then add your grains while stirring. Mash it for 60-70 minutes, stir it once or twice in that time, quickly, and covering it back up so as to not lose any heat.

When you are ready to sparge, drain into a pitcher until the runnings clear up, meaning it's not as cloudy, and no grain coming through. Empty the cooler into your boil kettle.

Some people mash out, where they raise the temp of the bed to help make the sugars more fluid. I rarely if ever mash out, and find little to no difference when I do, as I'm generally heating my first runnings while I'm sparging. They will add enough water to their mash tun and stir before draining to get the temp of the grain right up to 168-170.

So, back to draining the mash tun.. By now you should have already heated your sparge water, to 175-180. Don't worry about tannin extraction, as your grain bed won't get that hot, and hot that long. You can add ALL the water at once, bring the temp up to the desired 168-170, stir it well. I like to give it 5 minutes to settle, and then vorlauf and drain the whole thing.


So recap:

Find out your boil off rate. I have a 12g pot, and use a strong outdoor gas burner. I generally shoot in most recipes, to have roughly 7.25 g PRE BOIL for a 60 minute boil. So like half a gallon an hour burn off. So this is a 90 minute boil, so figure to lose 1.25/1.50 gallons. Start with more, and you boil it down to hit your numbers right.

You'll heat your water to the right temp, add the grain and mash.

Heat your sparge water, drain your tun after 60 minutes, and then you'll need roughly 5 more gallons of water to sparge with. Heat that to 170-180, and I'd say for the sake of easy, just toss it all in the cooler after it's drained, stir and drain.

Your done.. Proceed with your 90 min boil as you would during extract and add the hops when you are suppose to!

Goodluck- post back if you need some more help.
 
Certainly.

The easiest way, and you'll have to experiment as you go for efficiency reasons, but generally you can do as follows. Also, I'd suggest finding out how much you boil off in an hour in your pot. Plain water is fine. Boil up a known amount.. say, 5 gallons of water, time it and measure it out what you have left.

Get your mash water to the correct temp. If you want to mash at 153, you'd be looking at around 164 or so to hit that temp in a cooler roughly.. Add water, check temp, then add your grains while stirring. Mash it for 60-70 minutes, stir it once or twice in that time, quickly, and covering it back up so as to not lose any heat.

When you are ready to sparge, drain into a pitcher until the runnings clear up, meaning it's not as cloudy, and no grain coming through. Empty the cooler into your boil kettle.

Some people mash out, where they raise the temp of the bed to help make the sugars more fluid. I rarely if ever mash out, and find little to no difference when I do, as I'm generally heating my first runnings while I'm sparging. They will add enough water to their mash tun and stir before draining to get the temp of the grain right up to 168-170.

So, back to draining the mash tun.. By now you should have already heated your sparge water, to 175-180. Don't worry about tannin extraction, as your grain bed won't get that hot, and hot that long. You can add ALL the water at once, bring the temp up to the desired 168-170, stir it well. I like to give it 5 minutes to settle, and then vorlauf and drain the whole thing.


So recap:

Find out your boil off rate. I have a 12g pot, and use a strong outdoor gas burner. I generally shoot in most recipes, to have roughly 7.25 g PRE BOIL for a 60 minute boil. So like half a gallon an hour burn off. So this is a 90 minute boil, so figure to lose 1.25/1.50 gallons. Start with more, and you boil it down to hit your numbers right.

You'll heat your water to the right temp, add the grain and mash.

Heat your sparge water, drain your tun after 60 minutes, and then you'll need roughly 5 more gallons of water to sparge with. Heat that to 170-180, and I'd say for the sake of easy, just toss it all in the cooler after it's drained, stir and drain.

Your done.. Proceed with your 90 min boil as you would during extract and add the hops when you are suppose to!

Goodluck- post back if you need some more help.

Thanks this has helped alot

Jim
 
Bottled my batch after ten days of dry hopping w/ the vanilla beans and it was a holiday success. Gave 2-3 bottles each to friends, family and co-workers. Everyone LOVED the brew. Turned out a little bit more transparent than the pics you guys have posted, and a slightly bubblier head (not as thick and creamy) I'll post the changes I made and the picture when I get a nice shot of it.

Next time I'm just going to up the dark grains by about 1/2 lb and toss in another 1/2 lb of flaked oats. Other than that, I would drink this one all fall and winter, every year.

Great recipe
 
Bottled my batch after ten days of dry hopping w/ the vanilla beans and it was a holiday success. Gave 2-3 bottles each to friends, family and co-workers. Everyone LOVED the brew. Turned out a little bit more transparent than the pics you guys have posted, and a slightly bubblier head (not as thick and creamy) I'll post the changes I made and the picture when I get a nice shot of it.

Next time I'm just going to up the dark grains by about 1/2 lb and toss in another 1/2 lb of flaked oats. Other than that, I would drink this one all fall and winter, every year.

Great recipe

I updated the recipe to the changes that I had made myself. I upped the base a wee bit, and also the oats. I added in some pale chocolate malt as well. I believe the only change was 1/2 # more oats, and 1/2# Pale Chocolate malt. If you want a darker color, you could up the Black Patent a bit, but becareful with it. You could also maybe keep it the same and up the Chocolate malt, the 450 color a bit more if you wished.

I personally have never had a problem getting this black as night color from it as is.

Try the updated version, it sounds like what you had envisioned. It's a bit maltier, more robust if you will, with a bit more subtle milky chocolate profile.

I would also advise anyone that does water additions to shoot for a London profile as well.
 
Bottled this beer back on 12/11 using 1 cup of corn sugar. Batch size was 5.5 gallons and my carbonation is consistent but it's still rather flat with just a quarter inch head that dissipates quickly. Taste is great just wish there was a bit more carbonation. Anyone else have experience bottling this recipe? If so how long did your bottles take to carb and how much dextrose did you use? Bottles have been kept at a constant 65-70 degree
 
I don't bottle anymore, and didn't bottle but a couple of batches.. Is that enough to carb it? I carb mine to roughly 2.2 volumes in my keg, and like where it's at. Too high, and the beer will appear thin and have a bite to it. Too low, and obviously it'll feel extra thick and won't hold a good head.
 

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