Porter Recipe.

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eon

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Ok, I need everyones opinion on this. I have been messing with this recipe so much I think I should just stop with the questions and brew the damn thing! :)

Here is my recipe:

OG 1.065
FG 1.020

COLOR 55* SRM

Mash Efficiency 75%

30.4 IBUs

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

6.6 lbs. Light DME

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

Steep Grains @ 156F for 45 minutes.

I just want to know a few things:

Do all my numbers look ok? My FG, My IBUs, etc...
How does my hop schedule look?
any opinions on using this yeast in porters? (I've read nothing but awesome things).

I'm getting pretty tired of analyzing this recipe. I hope to brew this soon. Just want to double check everything before I drop all the money for these ingredients!

My favorite porters are:

Olfabrikken Porter
Bell's Porter
Founder's porter

If it helps any, I don't like super bitter porters. I would greatly appreciate any info/comments. Thanks for your time!
 
seems like a bit much on the hops end for a Porter (for me any way) but hell yea, I'd drink that.
 
I'm not running the numbers through any software but I like them at first glance. Looks like a robust porter which is something I'd like to take a stab at at some point.

You'll get many different opinions on this but I'm not a big fan of the grain bill. I much prefer simple over something like what you have. You have nine specialty malts there in addition to your base malt so maybe cut back a bit.

The heavy malt bill may also be contributing to your higher FG. I think something less than 1.020 would be more in line, maybe mid teens?

All that said, yes, stop thinking and start brewing! LOL

If you like the recipe when all is said and done than our advice is for naught.
 
Let me explain my grain bill. My favorite porter is Olfabrikken Porter. It can be found here:

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

Here is the description:

A dark and rich porter inspired by the Baltic porters traditionally made in Scandinavia. Roasted without being burned or bitter, with the flavor dominated by dried fruits and vinous notes. High amounts of residual sugars and a fruity aroma makes this beer the perfect companion for chocolate desserts, if served lightly chilled. Brewed on Maris Otter ale malt, British Brown Malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, two types of caramel malt and brown sugar.

As you can see, in my porter recipe I have British Brown, Chocolate malt, and two types of caramel malt. I substituted Black Patent for the roasted barley. The only ingredient I'm not using is brown sugar.

Somebody on this forum looked at my grain bill and said "Well, personally, I'd back off the chocolate and brown. Choc and brown can get dry and bitter. Ideally, brown malt should be mashed, so adding in some base malt would be a good move."

Then somebody else responded:

"Personally, I don't have any issue with the Brown and Chocolate malts, or the Black Patent.

I'd add

.25# Victory
.25# Special B
.25# Biscuit Malt

To the grain Bill"

See my dilemma?! Some people tell me my grain bill sounds delicious. Other's think it's strange. I know it's all subjective. I'm probably going to keep the grains as they are. Must move forward! :)

Now the hops:

I'm not sure what the IBUs should be in a porter. I cannot really find an Olfabrikken clone except for this:

ABV 7.5
F.G. 1.029
S.G. 1.085-1.086
A.A. 64%- 65%
IBU 45


80% Eff
7.25 Boil
5.25 final volume
rager

10# Maris otter 2.5L
1.25 British Brown 70L
1.25 honey malt 15L
1.25 Carastan 37 37L
.75 british chocolate 500L
.75 british roast barley 500L

6oz. black strap molasses @ 5 minutes

150 mash

.75oz chinook @ 12% AA -@- 60min
.25oz Cascade@ 6% AA -@- 15min

3 packs Wyeast 1318 @ 66-69 degrees

Everyone told me that I should use East Kent Goldings in my recipe. So that's what I'm doing now. Just not sure how much to use or when.

I don't want to clone Olfabrikken but I do want to make something similar. Or atleast head in that direction.

In the end I'll be happy if I can just make either a porter that is a bit sweet or a porter that is nicely balanced. Trying to stay away from something too bitter.

I'm really confused by all the comments. eelpout says my porter recipe seems too hoppy, but if you look at the olfabrikken clone, his recipe is for 45 IBUs. I thought 30 seemed like a good balance. Not really sure. This is my first time brewing a porter.

I apologize for this super long post. I would greatly appreciate any more help. Thanks gain for everyones time!
 
Super long post? No problem.

Ask 10 homebrewers a question and get 15 different answers.

So much of this is personal preference. I brewed a porter a little while ago of my own recipe and it looked like this:

7 lbs LME
3/4 lb chocolate malt
1/2 lb crystal 110
60g roasted barley
1 oz Willamette 60 min
3/4 oz Willamette 5 min

Turned out just fine but I would have liked a little more chocolate in the finished product so maybe I'll tip the balance a little toward that flavour. Maybe just a little less alcohol as well as it had a tiny bit of the alcohol heat to it.

I just tend to lean towards simpler recipes but that's me. I think I am in the minority of homebrewers in that regard.

Some of the advice you're getting is based on style guidelines, e.g., if you're brewing a porter these are the types of hops you should use. You don't have to because you may not have them available or you want to try something else.

I think one thing that is evident is that you have decent recipe. People are chiming in with mostly preferences and not really any right or wrong advice. I posted a recipe for an IPA a while back and got solid advice on my specialty grains with several people saying the same thing. That made it obvious to me that I had to change that aspect. With this recipe you're not really getting that.

I would say just go ahead and brew it. Let us know how it turns out and then you will be able to make adjustments then.

Enjoy!
 
Sometimes, you just got to give a recipe a try, and take good notes about what you liked & didn't like .. and fine tune on the next batch. And with so many opinions, it can be difficult to choose which way to go.

I heard some advice on this board that: "For each ingredient, answer WHY is it there?"

So even though Brown malt, Victory malt & Biscuit malt have seperate listings, they are all there to contribute dry biscuity flavors. So add up the sum amounts and consider that your biscuit addition.

Special B and Crystal 120 are both dark, sweet, raisen/prune type crystals. Count them as the same malt.

For myself, I am starting to see the wisdom of simplfing initial recipes and adding to them over time. I would take that grain bill, and simplfy it and check my % contributions.

Also, if you end up adding a lot of non-fermentables like crystal malts, you can mash lower (like 148-150 degrees) and still have a complex malt flavor, and avoid the cloying sweetness. Remember, crystals add to body & mouthfeel too, so the higher mash temp is not really needed when you have so much going on.

Just my 2 cents.... let us know what you end up with and how it turns out! :)
--LexusChris
 
Thanks for the info LexusChris! I just bought all the ingredients today. Going to brew this one soon.

Do you think this beer will turn out cloying sweet? I am certainly aiming for more sweet than bitter but I don't want it disgustingly sweet!

Let me know what you think. Thanks again.
 
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