Baltic Porter

Hey all, I'm not a regular poster, but I have gleaned tons of information about brewing from the forum. For that, I thank you.

I was hoping to get some feedback on potential recipe for a Baltic Porter. As this will be my first lager, I was would also appreciate some guidance on fermentation and lagering temperatures.

Some background... A while back, I tasted the Devil's Backbone Danzig Baltic Porter and really enjoyed the style. I've had the opportunity to meet the brewer, and randomly ran into him a couple weeks ago. He was kind enough to write out general guidelines for me on the style.

Here's what he wrote down for me:


So here's what I was thinking for my own recipe (basically trying to hit the middle of the given guidelines for a starting point):

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Predicted Original Gravity: 1.081
Predicted Final Gravity: 1.023
IBU: 25
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Primary Fermentation @ 54F
Additional Fermentation: Diacetyl Rest 48 hrs @ 70
Lager at 38 for 10-12 weeks

(assuming 75% efficiency from a single-infusion mash and batch sparge)

8# Pilsner Malt
3# Vienna Malt
1.5# Munich Malt
12oz Carafa II
8oz Caramunich
8oz Dextrose

2oz Lublin (3.8%) @ 60 mins
.5oz Lublin (3.8%) @ 15 mins

Any feedback or personal experiences would be great. Thanks!

General guidelines is understating things; he pretty much wrote out the recipe. I don't think you need any 15 minute hops, as .5oz would be overwhelmed by everything else. I would bitter with something high-alpha to the high end of the range because this is a beer built for aging, which diminishes hop bittering. I'd also use plain table sugar instead of dextrose, both because I don't think it makes any difference and because I'm cheap.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll make some tweaks to the hop schedule and use regular sugar. I plan to brew it in two weeks.