Blackberry porter?

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NyPDFustercluck

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Hello all, I'm looking to put a specialty brew together for a wedding this fall that I have the honor of being the best man at. I really want to knock it out of the park with a blackberry porter. The style will have special meaning for the bride and groom and I really want to nail it with a good recipe. Anyone out there have proven recipe for a blackberry porter? Much thanks in advance

Ps- I'm comfortable doing extract with specialty grains and partial mash brewing, don't quite have the hardware yet for an all-grain batch yet
 
I have worked with blackberries in a few different types of ale. The blackberry porter I had was good but the strong grains used in a porter seamed to overtake the blackberry flavors. If you like wheat beers, I brew a honey wheat blackberry that has the punch of a porter if you're interested.
 
From Brew Your Own... http://***********/stories/recipeindex/article/recipes/108-porter/1843-blackberry-porter

Blackberry Porter

5 gallons; O.G. = 1.045 (plus a bit)

Ingredients:

* 6 lbs. Amber malt extract syrup
* 1 lb. British caramel malt
* 1/2 lb. Chocolate malt
* 5 lbs. Crushed blackberries
* 1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hop pellets

Step-by-Step:

In this case the crushed caramel and chocolate malts are steeped for one hour in one gallon of 150°F water. Then they are rinsed with hot water (about 170°F) and the liquid collected. Enough water is added to bring the volume to 2.5 gallons and the whole shebang is boiled for 90 minutes. The hops are added at the 15 minute mark.

The hot wort is poured over the blackberries in an open fermenter, then 2.5 gallons of pre-boiled, cooled water is added. The blackberries are held in a coarse mesh bag designed for making wines. While not absolutely necessary, it does help keep down the mess. As always, the wort is vigorously aerated and a starter culture of good ale yeast is pitched.

Everything else follows normal fermentation and bottling procedures. The open fermenter is really essential for this process, using whole fruit. After the primary fermentation is completed, the beer is racked into a carboy for clearing and then bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar.

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That seems really solid for letting the blackberries shine. By going with a more of a brown porter recipe, the flavors of caramel and chocolate will still be there, but the fruit notes from the blackberries should be able to come through nicely. Note that it is longer steep and boil.

YMMV of course. :) Sounds awesome to me.
 
How did the recipe come out?
I'm planning on doing a Marionberry & Raspberry Porter tonight, using 2 lbs of each instead of the 5 lbs of blackberries. I wanted to do an all marionberry porter, but don't have enough.
Figured since both marionberries and raspberries are tart, it wouldn't be a bad combo.
 
I don't know about the porter, but this brewery near me once a year makes this Blackberry Mead and it is the best thing that I have ever tasted.
 
Has anyone brewed that Blackberry Porter recipe from BYO mentioned above? How is it? I'm probably going to give it a try soon. Stupid question though - are the hops added 15 min into the boil, or with 15 min remaining? IBUs seem way to low if they're only boiled 15 min, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
 

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