Coffeehouse Porter help

The SWMBO loves Berkshire Brewing Coffeehouse Porter. I'm trying to make something similar. I get lots of coffee flavor and a wee bit of chocolate. Not really chewy or sweet but I'm gonna go in that direction anyway. It looks busy but I want to use up some malts (de-bittered black, CSIII). Not really married to the hops. I have tons of others that I could use. I'm thinking the RB, Coffee Malt and Pale Chocolate will give plenty of coffee/mocha flavor on it's own. Don't want a lot of harsh bitterness from the roasted/black malts. Would like the coffee bitterness to come through. Since I'm only at 3.3% dark malts, I'm using some C150 to get color and a bit more roastiness. Milk sugar is for a little sweetness. I've never used coffee or cocoa nibs before. I plan on adding 1# of coarse ground coffee after flameout and steep for 2-3 minutes (before chilling). I'll put the nibs in secondary. Anyway your thoughts:

Coffeehouse Coffee Porter (15 gal)
28 lbs Pale Ale Malt (1.8 SRM) 81.2 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Chocolate Malt, Pale (225.0 SRM) 4.3 %
1 lbs 2.0 oz Kiln Coffee Malt (165.0 SRM) 3.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 2.9 %
1 lbs Crystal, Extra Dark (150.0 SRM) 2.9 %
6.0 oz Roasted Barley_300L (300.0 SRM) 1.1 %
6.0 oz Carafa Special III (470.0 SRM) 1.1 %
3.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) 0.5 %
3.0 oz Black Malt, De-Bittered (550.0 SRM) 0.5 %
12.0 oz Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) 2.2 %
1.00 lb Coffee (Boil 0.0 mins)

3.00 oz Challenger [5.60 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 22.1 IBUs
1.50 oz Perle-2012 [10.30 %] - Boil 30.0 min 11.5 IBUs
1.50 oz Willamette [5.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
3.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (Fermentis #S-04)

6.00 oz Cocoa Nibs (Ghana) (Secondary 7.0 days)

Original Gravity: 1.064
Final Gravity: 1.016
Bitterness: 33.6 IBUs
Color: 31.3 SRM

I had a feeling it was perfect...

Not sure if it helps but my friend did a Coffee porter recently and did 1lb in secondary (keg) for 48 hours in 5 gallon batch and it pretty much tasted like bitter day old coffee. I'm not sure if it was his method or the amount but for mine I'm only doing about 2.5 oz for 48 hours and you seem in line with that. You're going into the boil so it's a totally different ballgame.

Is that 5 lbs 12 ozs of crystal/dark malts. That's about 17%. Seems pretty high to me.

I'm not a fan of highly roasted malts, but really love a great Porter (seems like a conflict). If it were me I'd drop the Roasted, Carafa, and the Blacks.

I'd drop the Crystal by half, and up the Chocolate and/or Coffee malts to compensate for them.

I'm not sure you need the Lactose, with that amount of specialty malt, I think the yeast is going to have a hard time getting down to 1.016 as it is. But 12 ozs in 15 gallons is only about .002 on the gravity.

15 gallons seems like a big batch for a 'test' recipe. I wish I could brew that big; I'm currently limited to 7 gallons.

Good luck with the beer.

Using 1 lb of coffee will absolutely ruin it. That's just disgusting. 1 oz steeped after flameout is more than enough. I recently made a Southern Tier Mokah clone (see my recipes) and 1 oz matched the coffee level of Mokah perfectly, although it still took several weeks for the coffee flavor to mellow enough. And thats a 1.092 choc stout with lots of other stuff going on. I recommend letting the wort cool to 180-190F, basically the same temp you'd brew coffee (never 212f).

EDIT: my comments are for a 3-gal batch.

SpeedYellow said:

Using 1 lb of coffee will absolutely ruin it. That's just disgusting. 1 oz steeped after flameout is more than enough. I recently made a Southern Tier Mokah clone (see my recipes) and 1 oz matched the coffee level of Mokah perfectly, although it still took several weeks for the coffee flavor to mellow enough. And thats a 1.092 choc stout with lots of other stuff going on. I recommend letting the wort cool to 180-190F, basically the same temp you'd brew coffee (never 212f).

Click to expand...

Did you use whole beans in the steep or maybe a very coarse grind?

thanks

jgagne said:

Did you use whole beans in the steep or maybe a very coarse grind?

thanks

Click to expand...

LOL, no. I use a Rancilio Rocky grinder, at my typical setting for daily filtered coffee, which is 38 out of 55. I'm a bit of a coffee nerd.

As another data point, several years back I made a stout with 0.2 lbs coffee (1 cup) and the overpowering coffee made the batch a dumper.

Some homebrewers cold-steep the coffee, which is a totally different process. There you may need to use more, dunno, never done it that way.

You have too much dark grain going on there. I know you want to use it up but I think all those dark grains together will give you a muddled burnt-roast-raisin flavor that will be detrimental to the coffee and chocolate flavors. I'd take out the C150 (it could work in some porters but I wouldn't use it with coffee and chocolate), roasted barley, black barley and carafa III. Just use enough black malt to get the color right. It's my preferred coloring grain for porters if you aren't getting enough from crystal, coffee and chocolate malt in the recipe. I'd probably bump up the chocolate malt a little myself and maybe ditch the black malt entirely.

I'm also not a fan of hoppy porters, especially when other flavors are added in like chocolate or coffee. I'd just do a bittering addition and call it good.

Thanks all. I may have to adjust this. Sent an email to Berkshire a week ago. Still no response. Need to gather more info in the next week or so...

ReverseApacheMaster said:

You have too much dark grain going on there. ...

Click to expand...

+1. 7 types of dark grains alone! Simple is better. I'd cut it down to 2-3 dark grains.

COFFEEHOUSE PORTER
Batch Size: 15.00 gal
Boil Size: 17.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

26 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) GW (2.7 SRM) 74.6 %
3 lbs 8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) 10.0 %
2 lbs 4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 6.5 %
1 lbs 2.0 oz Kiln Coffee Malt (165.0 SRM) 3.2 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt, Pale (225.0 SRM) 2.2 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) 2.2 %
4.0 oz Black (Barley) Malt, (500.0 SRM) 0.7 %
4.0 oz Black Malt, De-Bittered (550.0 SRM) 0.7 %
1.00 oz Magnum [16.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min 24.1 IBUs
0.75 oz Brewer's Gold-2011 [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 8.8 IBUs
1.50 oz Willamette [7.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min 3.4 IBUs
6.00 oz Coffee (Steep for 2 minutes) (Wort <180°F)
6.00 oz Cocao Nibs (Ghana) (Secondary 7.0 days)
6.00 oz Coffee, Cold Steeped (Bottling)
3 Pkg SafAle American Ale (Fermentis #S-05)

Est Original Gravity: 1.062
Est Final Gravity: 1.015
Bitterness: 36.3 IBUs
Est Color: 30.0 SRM
Mash: 60 min @ 154°F


*** Brewed recipe. ***

Great brew day. Came in at 1.061...

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I must know, how did this turn out??

It's fantastic. Just did it again this year and will tap XMAS eve! Coffee is definitely there but not too strong. I'll wait until I taste the carbed product but I may add a bit more nibs next year...

So comparing it to the BBC coffee house porter, how close is that recipe?

Mine has a bit more body and maybe a tad more robust. Coffee flavor is similar. Mine has a bit more chocolate flavor.