Critique My Recipe Please!

Hey everyone, this is my first time creating a recipe. I know its not going to be all that original, but I promise I didn't steal the recipe from any other source. If it closely resembles someone else's recipe, please let me know. Here it is:


Style: Robust Porter

3.75lbs Coopers Dark Malt Extract
2.00lbs Brewery Grade Corn Syrup
0.50lbs Black Patent Malt
0.50lbs Chocolate Malt
1.00oz Willamettes Hops (5.5% AA)
1.50oz Brewer's Gold Hops (8% AA)
11.5g Safale S-04 Ale Yeast

Steep grains
Add malt extract and corn syrup
Add 1.00oz Brewer's Gold for 60min
Add 0.50oz Brewer's gold for 30min
Add 1.00oz Willamettes for 5min

Estimated IBU: 26.5
Estimated SRM: 34.7


Recipe created with Beersmith Trial v1.40

How does this sound? Be brutally honest, since this is my first attempt and I want to see where I am lacking in brewing knowledge.

sounds good, I would add Willamette at 60 because of the higher AA, but other than that everything looks good

Whoops, the Willamettes and Brewer's Gold AA need to be switched lol. Will go ahead and edit the previous post.

First, don't worry about your recipe being too similar to anyone else's. There is a finite amount of ingredients, and the number of combinations that will make a good example of a given style is even smaller. There is no ethical or moral requirement that your recipes be exclusively yours! Now, if you do use someone else's recipe, it's always nice to give credit where it's due.

Looks like it'd be a good beer as written. I'll offer you a few possible tweaks, though:

Dark malt extract is made with Pale, Crystal and Black malts. If you use Light or Pale malt extract, you have much greater control over the color and flavor of the beer, because you use specialty grains to impact the color and flavor(s).

Think of Pale Malt and Pale/Light extract as a chicken breast. Right out of the package, a chicken breast is pretty bland. But when you start adding spices - cajun spices, garam masala, jerk seasoning - you end up with a completely different flavor, the levels of which you control. Now, think of Dark extract as a chicken breast you buy pre-packaged in "Italian Marinade". Do you have control over the flavor of that chicken breast? Nope.

[/lecture]



I'd advise replacing your corn syrup with the same amount of Pale/Light malt extract. Pure corn sugar will thin the beer's body; sometimes that's desireable, but in this case I think it's excessive. Tell you what - here's something that's worked for me. Replace one pound of your sugar with a pound of Dry Malt Extract, and the other pound with a 454-gram tin of Lyle's Black Treacle or 16 oz bottle of molasses. That'd be an interesting flavor!

Now, I also think you have too much Black Patent malt. That stuff is pretty potent, and a half-pound can easily overpower a beer with burnt, ashy, phenolic flavors. I recommend using a quarter pound in Robust Porter (half your listed amount of Chocolate).

Cheers!

Bob

Bob,

This is EXACTLY what I wanted! Someone with the experience I lack to point me in the right direction. So .25lbs black patent, and .5lbs chocolate is ok? Can I just dump the dark extract and sub out pale extract without any other changes?

LumberjackJohn said:

Bob,

This is EXACTLY what I wanted! Someone with the experience I lack to point me in the right direction.

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Glad I can help. Here's another source for you: Porter, by Terry Foster, is a great resource. In fact, all the books in the Classic Styles series are worth adding to your library.

So .25lbs black patent, and .5lbs chocolate is ok?

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Yup! That will give you a deep, brownish-red color and plenty of roasted-malt character, without overpowering the beer with any one flavor.

Can I just dump the dark extract and sub out pale extract without any other changes?

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Also yes. In fact, sub pale extract for the corn sugar as well, like I wrote before. I think you'll be more satisfied with an all-malt beer. Next time you brew this beer, sub a tin of treacle for a pound of extract as an experiment.

Cheers!

Bob

Sounds goods, hopefully I will have the money to buy these ingredients soon. I have an interview for a new job on Monday, and it pays more than double what I am getting now!

I know this post has been dead for a little while, but I decided to post the amended recipe here. I haven't brewed it yet because I've been low on cash. Should be brewing it in February though!


Style: Robust Porter

6.0lbs Light Dry Extract
0.25lbs (4oz.) Black Patent Malt
0.50lbs (8oz.) Chocolate Malt
1.00oz Willamettes Hop Pellets (5.5% AA)
1.50oz Brewer's Gold Hop Pellets (8% AA)
11.5g Safale S-04 Ale Yeast

Steep grains
Add malt extract
Add 1.00oz Brewer's Gold for 60min
Add 0.50oz Brewer's gold for 30min
Add 1.00oz Willamettes for 5min

The following figures may be a little different now, but since my trial of BeerSmith has expired and I don't feel like doing the math right now, they will have to suffice:

Estimated IBU: 26.5
Estimated SRM: 34.7

Looks good to me! I think you'll have good success with it. Have you chosen a yeast yet? I suggest Nottingham or US-05.

Bob

Yeah, I thought about US-05. I used Nottingham on my mystery ale, and it worked well, but I want to try the US-05 because I have heard lots of good things about it.