Porter advice

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sww35

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I recently had Left Hand Brewing's Black Jack Porter and really like it. I am looking to make a extract similar to their Black Jack Porter. Does anyone have an advice where to find a kit or seek out the proper ingredients for making a similar porter?
 
I have not had that beer yet. What characteristics did you want to try to reproduce? Is the balance more on the hoppy side orcis it more malt focused?
 
It is more malt focused and very light on the hops. I am not really much into being a hophead myself.
 
Ill take a stab at it. I have never had this so I really do not know what the taste is but from going on information on their website I came up with this.

8 lb LME
1 lb Wheat Extract

Steep:
1lb Chocolate
.5 lb 120L
.5 lb Munich

Hops
.5 oz Magnum 60 min.
1 oz US Golding 15 min.
.5 oz US Golding 5 min.

Ferment with English yeast maybe S-04.

Sorry if this looks funny for extract as I do not extract brew.
 
I can't help with recipe formulation, but here's the stats from left hand's site:

Style- English Style Porter
Color- Dark Brown, 40 SRM
Body- Full
ABV- 6.80%
IBU's- 35
Plato- 16°
Pkg- 6-Pack, Keg
Malts- Pale 2-row, Crystal, Chocolate, Munich and Wheat
Hops- Magnum and US Goldings


Someone here, or at your LHBS, could probably put you together a reasonably close kit.

EDIT: looks like someone beat me to it :)
 
Yeah, this will only be my second brew and my first was an extract and I intend for my second to be an extract. However, I really don't have much experience with converting malts into what to expect from an extract. However now I got somewhere to start from with the info from above.
 
If you're doing extract, throw 4oz of maltodextrin in when I you make dark beers. I've noticed a huge improvement in mouth feel and overall beerness in my stouts and porters.
 
Jeff's suggestion is pretty good, but I think his recipe will result in a slightly higher ABV and slightly lower IBU than the brew you are trying to clone. I would try this:

Method: Extract
Style: Brown Porter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Boil Size: 3 gallons
Efficiency: 75%
Original Gravity: 1.072
Final Gravity: 1.020
ABV (standard): 6.83%
IBU (tinseth): 34.37
SRM (morey): 32.63

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
6.5 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 68.4%
1 lb Dry Malt Extract - Wheat 42 3 10.5%

Steeping Grains
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
1 lb Chocolate 29 350 10.5%
0.5 lb Munich - Dark 20L 33 20 5.3%
0.5 lb Caramel / Crystal 120L 33 120 5.3%

Hops
Amount Variety Time AA Type
1 oz Magnum 60 min 15 Pellet
1 oz Goldings 10 min 4.5 Pellet
0.5 oz Goldings 5 min 4.5 Pellet

Yeast
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

This recipe has a slightly smaller grain bill (less extract) and slightly more hops than the one Jeff suggested. The hops addition schedule was also changed slightly. I think it will get you a little closer to the beer you are trying to clone, but I think either his recipe or this one would make excellent beer.

I calculated this recipe using a 3 gallon partial boil since I did not know the size of your brew kettle. If your pot is able to boil more than 3 gallons, I can recalculate the IBUs for the new boil volume and see if we need to modify the hops to keep the bitterness where you want it.
 
Jeff's suggestion is pretty good, but I think his recipe will result in a slightly higher ABV and slightly lower IBU than the brew you are trying to clone. I would try this:

Method: Extract
Style: Brown Porter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Boil Size: 3 gallons
Efficiency: 75%
Original Gravity: 1.072
Final Gravity: 1.020
ABV (standard): 6.83%
IBU (tinseth): 34.37
SRM (morey): 32.63

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
6.5 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 68.4%
1 lb Dry Malt Extract - Wheat 42 3 10.5%

Steeping Grains
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
1 lb Chocolate 29 350 10.5%
0.5 lb Munich - Dark 20L 33 20 5.3%
0.5 lb Caramel / Crystal 120L 33 120 5.3%

Hops
Amount Variety Time AA Type
1 oz Magnum 60 min 15 Pellet
1 oz Goldings 10 min 4.5 Pellet
0.5 oz Goldings 5 min 4.5 Pellet

Yeast
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

This recipe has a slightly smaller grain bill (less extract) and slightly more hops than the one Jeff suggested. The hops addition schedule was also changed slightly. I think it will get you a little closer to the beer you are trying to clone, but I think either his recipe or this one would make excellent beer.

I calculated this recipe using a 3 gallon partial boil since I did not know the size of your brew kettle. If your pot is able to boil more than 3 gallons, I can recalculate the IBUs for the new boil volume and see if we need to modify the hops to keep the bitterness where you want it.

I must of been working off poor numbers online at hopville. I do not have Beer Smith on this computer, which is what I formulate all my recipes in. The recipe I built was 1.065 OG 39.8 SRM and 34.6 IBU according to that sight if i remember correctly. I thought the extract seemed like a bit much from what I could remember but I only did a few extract batches.
 
Thanks for the efforts. I am very thankful for it. I am only capable of a partial boil of 2 gallons with the pot I currently have.
 
If you can only boil 2 gallons, then you will need to increase the bittering hops addition to get back to the right bitterness level. For a 2 gallon boil, my software says 1.75 ounces of Magnum at 60 minutes will give you 33 IBU. 2 ounces of Magnum at 60 minutes will result in about 38 IBU. Would lean toward the smaller amount, since you mentioned you are not a huge hop-head. The rest of recipe remains unchanged. The malt bill and late hops additions do not need to be adjusted for the smaller boil, only the first addition requires adjusting to maintain the desired bitterness.
 
From another forum

I appreciate your interest in brewing great beer but I am severely
limited in what I could tell you about ours. So what I can tell you is
this:
About 75% pale malt
18% crystal
3% wheat (this
helps alot with mouth feel)
4-5% dark malts
(we use chocolate)
In the kettle we use magnum for bittering and finish with Goldings.

Good luck, and if you open a brewery with my beer I would have to
kill you! Happy Holidays.
Joe
Schiraldi (LHTBC)
 
rifraf said:
If you're doing extract, throw 4oz of maltodextrin in when I you make dark beers. I've noticed a huge improvement in mouth feel and overall beerness in my stouts and porters.

Does that just go in the boil at the end? Last 5-10 min? Or do I add it some other time (priming, maybe? Sorry, new to brewing...)?
 
I add it with 10 minutes to go but you can technically add it at any point. It adds no flavor, color, etc only mouth feel. It will boost your gravity reading numbers a little bit, but it will be the same addition to OG as it will to FG so your difference should remain the same.... It does not ferment.

No problem, I'm still relatively new myself! Welcome to HBT and don't hesitate to ask questions!
 
I must of been working off poor numbers online at hopville. I do not have Beer Smith on this computer, which is what I formulate all my recipes in. The recipe I built was 1.065 OG 39.8 SRM and 34.6 IBU according to that sight if i remember correctly. I thought the extract seemed like a bit much from what I could remember but I only did a few extract batches.

Actually, I think I was the one with the "faulty" numbers. I calculated my recipe with DRY extract. You probably put LIQUID extract in your beersmith calculations, like the OP originally said. This is twice in 2 weeks I have made this same mistake when helping people calculate recipes. I must be getting old or something. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused! :drunk:
 
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