John Bull London Porter

I plan on brewing this John Bull London Porter extract kit when my 'experiment' beer finishes in the secondary. My question is whether I should try to recycle the yeast from the experiment beer or use the mystery yeast packaged with the kit.
I'm not thrilled about the fact that it's a pre-hopped no-boil kit already and would like to say that I contributed to the beer somehow.
The yeast used in the experiment beer was Doric Dry Ale Yeast.
Any thoughts?

You know the yeast you've got in your 'experimental beer' is already working well and you know what type it is compared to your 'mystery' kit one. Give it a try!
As it's a Porter you're probably going darker from your experiment which is what most people recommend with recycling yeast

The 'experimental beer' is a medium brown ale so the porter would definitely be darker. I've also given thought to steeping some specialty grains to use with the extract. I expect the liquid extract to be very dark so I don't necessarily want to use too many darkening grains, but maybe some chocolate malt?

Just made an extract/ spec. grains porter yesterday. black patent malt, choclat malt, roasted barley (not malted) and 40-50 Lovi. crystal. Go light on the black patent, about 0.25 pound or less. This is the recipie: From BYO's archive
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif]
Tom Fuller:
Maple Porter
(5 gallons)

"Being from Michigan, I really enjoy trying to use as much of the Michigan resources as I can.
Lots of great produce is grown in Michigan, and so are maple trees. Maple syrup is a Michigan
staple, and it seems only natural that it end up in Michigan beer. The best part of this beer is
that not only is the maple quite evident in the flavor but in the aroma also."

Ingredients:

6.6 lbs. unhopped light malt extract syrup
2 lbs. light dry malt extract
0.25 lbs. black malt
0.5 lbs. roasted malt
10 oz. chocolate malt
0.75 lb. caramel (crystal) malt, 50° Lovibond
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hops
16 oz. maple syrup
Wyeast 1098

Step by Step:
Add the crushed grain in a grain bag to 1.5 gallons of water in the kettle. Bring to a boil.
Remove the grain just before boil begins. Add the extract and bring to a rolling boil. Add
hops, and boil for one hour. Pour in maple syrup two minutes before the end of boil. Strain
the wort into a fermenter containing 3.5 gallons of cold water. Top up the fermenter to 5
gallons. Pitch the yeast and wait for the goodness.

OG = 1.070
FG = 1.016 [/FONT]

I did a John bull amber kit recently and tweaked it a bit by adding 2 lbs of xtra lite DME and some brown sugar and finishing hops. I won't add the brown sugar again, as it has a cidery note to it (which I hope will mellow?), but it definately has some body and doesn't taste too bad! The kit is bitter enough for 5 gal with one can of extract, and finishing hops were a good idea for this one. Should be ready for Paddys day! Good luck and happy tweaking if that's what you decide to do!

WhatsOnTap said:

I did a John bull amber kit recently and tweaked it a bit by adding 2 lbs of xtra lite DME and some brown sugar and finishing hops. I won't add the brown sugar again, as it has a cidery note to it (which I hope will mellow?), but it definately has some body and doesn't taste too bad! The kit is bitter enough for 5 gal with one can of extract, and finishing hops were a good idea for this one. Should be ready for Paddys day! Good luck and happy tweaking if that's what you decide to do!

Click to expand...

Did you boil the extract for 60 mins? The kit is intended to be a no-boil kit so I wonder what effect boiling would have (more or less hop flavor?).
My plan is to steep some chocolate and possibly some roasted malt, boil some x-lite dme, then with about 15 mins left add the prehopped extract.
I just got a turkey fryer and built an immersion chiller so I'm excited to try it all out! I can finally move out of the kitchen!

UNOmar said:

Did you boil the extract for 60 mins? The kit is intended to be a no-boil kit so I wonder what effect boiling would have (more or less hop flavor?).
My plan is to steep some chocolate and possibly some roasted malt, boil some x-lite dme, then with about 15 mins left add the prehopped extract.
I just got a turkey fryer and built an immersion chiller so I'm excited to try it all out! I can finally move out of the kitchen!

Click to expand...

Sorry about the lag in response time UNO...if you haven't already brewed here's what I did and you can go from there. I steeped the grains, sparged and added the LME (John bull hopped amber). It slightly boiled when I read it was a no boil kit and I threw in the DME (extra light) and some finishing hops and boiled for 5 addiditonal min's. That's it. I cooled and pitched. Nice bitterness and slight hop aroma. I hope this helps. The JB pre hopped kits are quality, they just take away some control from the brewer. Good luck!

Only thing I don't like is a cidery note from the .6 lbs brown sugar which I menntioned earlier . Does anybody know if this will mellow out or am I stuck with some Woodchuck Killian's Red cross?? Anyway it's still drinkable and aging in the secondary/keg...

WhatsOnTap - Good timing actually. I plan to brew Saturday. I'll probably follow your example by steeping and adding finishing hops. I'll probably just use 3# DME to give it some extra body and avoid your Woodchuck (can't stand that stuff) mistake.
Speaking of which whether intentional or not, "Woodchuck Killians's Red Cross" is an excellent name. A little cut and paste job would yield a cool label. I'm thinking dead woodchuck carried away on a stretcher...

Glad to hear I caught you in time. Good luck on your brew this weekend. Don't be afraid to boil it a little with your DME, like I said before, I boiled it for only about 5 minutes and it turned out alright, despite the name!

I'm enjoying one of my Dead Woodchuck's right now, and I gotta tell you, I put the keg outside to chill/clarify and when this stuff is chilled a little it's not half bad! The cidery note is mellowed and there is a good maltiness and carmely aftertaste from the pound of crystal malt I used. Good hop bitterness from the JB too. You should do just fine with yours, let me know how it ends up!

WOT