Chocolate Porter

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BNVince

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Here is the recipe I'm going to be using for a chocolate porter that I plan to brew this weekend:

3 Gallon Boil

6lb Extra Light DME
1lb Light DME
1lb Crystal 60L
.5lb Chocolate Malt 300L
.5lb Chocolate Malt 450L
.25lb Carapils
3oz Fuggles Pellets (60 Minutes)
1tsp Irish Moss (15 Minutes)
.5lb Cocoa Powder (Flameout)
Nottingham Dry Yeast


The numbers in beer smith come out to around this:

1.062 OG
1.015 FG
28 IBU
35 SRM


So I have a few questions. First off, I've never used a dry yeast before. From what I've read here, simply aerating the wort and pitching the packet of dry yeast will do the trick. Right?

In terms of steeping the grains, what would you suggest for water volume? Obviously this will be a steep with 2.25lb of grains. Should I use 3 gallons of water for the steep and then sparge/rinse the grains afterwards to get back to 3 gallons from all the water the grains sucked up?

Now I've seen a lot of porter recipes with a very small amount (1 or 2 oz) of roasted barley added. Would you suggest using some in this recipe? Will it really give any significant flavor using such a small amount or simply add to the SRM?

Finally, and this may be an extremely dumb question, would straining the wort take away from the cocoa powder at all? For some reason, I'm nervous that the cocoa powder may attach itself to the hops and be filtered out during the straining. Should I even worry about this?

Thanks in advance.
 
Nottingham works better if you rehydrate first, but you can just pitch it.
2 pounds of grain won't absorb much water.
The roasted barley will give you a flavor note besides chocolate.
The cocoa power may settle out, but the particles are too small for a strainer.
 
I just brewed this tonight. The O.G. was 1.080! I'm sitting here wondering what the hell happened. All I can think of is that the Munton's DME has a better yield than beersmith says. Either way, I'm kind of bummed.

Either that or my hydrometer is busted.
 
Beersmith called for a 1.062 and you got 1.080 so you got more then was expected. If you are typically getting an OG higher then 1.080 you must be making some very big brews.
 
rod said:
until the cocoa powder settles out it will skew your hydrometer reading

That's interesting. I was under the impression that cocoa powder contained no fermentable sugars.
 
Can someone tell me the difference with Porter's and Stout's? I've noticed both in 'Chocolate'. I tend to pick stout over anything.. Wondering what the difference in style is.... :D
 
It's a topic of great debate and if you search you will find a whole thread dedicated to it. I think the general consensus is that stouts must have roasted barley. Porters do not have to.
 
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but in his recipe he has a quarter pound of carapils that was going to be steeped. Seems to me there is no purpose of having this if you're not mashing with some base malt (enzymes) in order to get the dextrines I'm assuming he's looking for to get the desired mouthfeel???
 
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