Your thoughts on "How to Brew" extract recipes

What has your experience been brewing the recipes from John Palmer's "how to brew"? Any favorites? Are they good recipes or are there better ones out there?

I just finished brewing the Shay steam number 4 beer, Anchor Steam clone, and it smells and looks pretty good after 4 days in the fermenter. This is my 1st brew on my own; I assisted on a brew last month, and have been reading ever since.

I am leaning towards Palmer's Porter recipe next. Anyone brewed that one?
The recipe is 6.6 pounds light malt extract, 0.5 pounds crystal 60 malt, 0.5 pounds chocolate malt, and 0.25 pounds black patent malt. The hops are Horizon and Willamette with American ale yeast.

Thanks everyone!

I just brewed the mill run stout. Today is two weeks since I bottled.

I followed his recipe to a T, except that I used Extra light DME, so I don't know if it was this alone, or just the recipe but it was big fail for color. Its more of an irish red. And you can barely taste the roasted barely.

Keep in mind this was only my 4th brew, so I may have done things wrong along the way, but I still can't understand what went wrong on color.

One in the pint is after 2 weeks and carbed, the little cup pic was prior to bottling.

Too bad about the color. The pint glass looks pretty good though. I hope it tastes good.

I also had to make a substitution for my steam beer clone. The LHBS only had Pilsner LME, instead of pale LME but said it should be fine. After running it through Beer Smith tools last night it looks like my color is also going to be a little lighter. We will see when it's finished, but I'm not too concerned.

I was looking at the stout recipe and was surprised out at how simple it looked, which is why I was leaning a little more towards the Porter recipe as it has more specialty grains. I don't know if more specialty grains exactly equals more flavor though. I'm only on my 2nd batch.

On the plus side, I wonder if it is beneficial to brew these simpler recipes in order to really get a taste for all the ingredients. I mean, they say even a different yeast can drastically change the flavor. At the moment, I am looking at a fairly complex recipe for a founders Porter and comparing it to the Palm O Porter. Maybe I would be doing myself a favor by starting with the simpler one.

If it is only your second batch, I'd stick to simple. There are a lot of variables that can go wrong. Then again, it'll also help you learn. The call is yours!

Too much roasted barley, which has a lovi of what, 350 or so for the Breiss version?

aiptasia said:

Too much roasted barley, which has a lovi of what, 350 or so for the Breiss version?

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Roasted Barley ranges from about 300 to 600ish for Black Barley according to the maltsters. Another reason why giving the name of the maltster is important when posting a recipe, especially for specialty grains.

Sorry, are the roasted barley comments directed towards me, or the OP?

When you guys say roasted barley, are you talking about the black patent in the Palmer recipe?

I'm thinking about upping the rest of the recipe slightly for more alcohol and flavor but will keep the black patent relatively lower. I used Brewer's friend to calculate everything for my 2.5 gallon recipe to be within the upper limits of robust Porter style guidelines. Going to the brew shop tomorrow. It should be a fun brew!

Tomorrow will be week 4 in bottles for the Mill Run Stout. As it is conditioning in the fridge the color is getting darker and to more of an acceptable stout color. Still a little light, but darker none the less... The roasted Barely flavor is starting to come through more as the hops are mellowing and taking more of a backseat. Nice brew all in all.

Thanks for the update. Interesting about the color changing over time. That's not something I would have expected, but it seems I have read that several times now.

I went ahead with Palmer's Porter recipe, just modifying it a little bit to make it a bit bigger. It has been in primary for over a week and the smell coming out of the airlock is very nice. Very sweet and malty. I have high hopes for this one.

Good deal. Keep us posted, I'm interested in more of those recipes.

To me though, they seem very basic. I can't image them coming out as award winning brews, but good and drinkable at least.



I like Jamil's approach at recipes, and they're much more interesting in Brewing Classic styles... I've done 3 so far, but only tasted 1, and it is excellent. You should check out that book.

BeerKillLogic said:

I like Jamil's approach at recipes, and they're much more interesting in Brewing Classic styles... I've done 3 so far, but only tasted 1, and it is excellent. You should check out that book.

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Agree that all the beers I've made from Brewing Classic Styles have been excellent. Can't go wrong there. Having met both Palmer and Jamil at GABF last weekend (they were sitting together signing books) they also both seem like very pleasant guys!