Holy Grail Porter (#12)

I hope this one comes close to what I like.

Walker's Holy Grail
(my ideal porter, attempt #12)

Grains (steeped at 160°F for 45 minutes)
1.0 # brown malt
1.0 # chocolate malt
0.5 # 40L crystal

Extract
6.0 # extra light DME

Hops
@ 60 minutes
- 1.5 oz Kent Goldings
- 1.0 oz Fuggles
@ 30 minutes
- 0.5 oz Fuggles
@ 15 minutes
- 0.5 oz Fuggles
Dry
- 0.5 oz Kent Goldings

Yeast
have not decided yet. one of these, most likely:
1084 Irish Ale
1318 London Ale III

Specs (approximations)
OG 1.055
FG 1.013
5.4% ABV
35 IBUs
31 SRM / 84 HCU

why the extra light DME....will the brown & chocolate make it dark enough?...and just using the EL DME for fermentables?...

I use extra light DME as much as possible, and darken the beer with roasted grains or darker crystal when I want to have a dark beer. extra light DME is the most versatile malt extract in terms of achieving the color you want, becase you can make a REALLY light colored beer with it alone, or make a dark colored beer with the use of some specialty grains.

As for this recipe, the color comes in at about 31 SRM, and that's plenty dark enough for a brown porter.

With regards to the fermentables: what is your concern that I get all of my fermentables from the extract? if you are an extract brewer, that's simply where your fermentables come from. steeping a pound or two of grains doesn't add a lot of sugar to your wort.

As far as using extra light DME, as Walker mentioned, it just lets you make the widest range of beers. Once you start steeping specialty grains, there's not much point in using darker varieties of DME.

There's also been some congecture whether lighter DME's have higher protein content (better head retention and such), but I haven't seen anything solid on that.

also, it's important to note that DME is DME is DME in terms of fermentablilty (as long as you are comparing DMEs from teh same manufacturer). The color of that DME does not affect anything other than the color.

I mention this in case you were thinking that the ligher the DME, the less fermentable sugar it has in it. It doesn't.



-walker

Does brown malt have another name, I am not familiar?

It's basically pale malt that has been toasted a little bit.

-walker

yummy! let us know sounds like my type of porter.

I've been enjoying this one...tasty as well FWIW positively porter recipe

6 lbs. Light Malt Extract
1.75 lbs. Special B Malt
1.25 lbs. Roasted Barley, 300 L
0.5 lbs. Chocolate Malt
0.33 lbs. Black Patent Malt

1.25 oz. Nugget, 13.0% Alpha Acid, 60 min.
1.0 oz. Chinook, 13.0% Alpha Acid, 30 min.
1.0 oz. Chinook, 13.0% Alpha Acid, 0 min.

Wyeast 1056 pitched on a SNPA primary yeast cake

jldesign said:

yummy! let us know sounds like my type of porter.

I've been enjoying this one...tasty as well FWIW positively porter recipe

6 lbs. Light Malt Extract
1.75 lbs. Special B Malt
1.25 lbs. Roasted Barley, 300 L
0.5 lbs. Chocolate Malt
0.33 lbs. Black Patent Malt

1.25 oz. Nugget, 13.0% Alpha Acid, 60 min.
1.0 oz. Chinook, 13.0% Alpha Acid, 30 min.
1.0 oz. Chinook, 13.0% Alpha Acid, 0 min.

Wyeast 1056 pitched on a SNPA primary yeast cake

Click to expand...

Damn, that's a LOT of special B and roasted barley. Doesn't this come out tasting like charcoal and raisens? (I hate raisens.)

I've got no problem with roasted barley, but I find that I only use it when making a stout.

That definately looks like a big-@ss roastey and bitter beer, for sure.

-walker

Doesn't making darker extract involve using roasted grains? And then you wouldn't know exactly what the makeup is (or could vary from brand to brand) and it could be counter to your recipe? Just askin'.

Yeah, I think that they throw in some darker grains and/or boil it longer before spraying it to make it darker.

I've used dark extracts before and never really noticed the presence of any roasted grain flavor, so I assume that they use a very small amount of it when they make the malt extract.

-walker

Walker said:

Damn, that's a LOT of special B and roasted barley. Doesn't this come out tasting like charcoal and raisens? (I hate raisens.)

I've got no problem with roasted barley, but I find that I only use it when making a stout.

That definately looks like a big-@ss roastey and bitter beer, for sure.

-walker

Click to expand...

it is still a little young but I couldn't wait. actually it isn't bad and it is real smooth not harsh nor heavy. it has an intersting taste with the 1056 like a dark coffee, roasty pale ale of sorts. it was the big brew 2005 recipe. it's good.
http://www.beertown.org/events/bigbrew/recipes.html

Noticed this in your sig when reading the IPA thread and was wondering how things have gone with it since. It looks like a superb recipe and one I'd like to try since I've become quite fond of a solid Porter. I'm hoping it has lived up to your expectations.



Ize

I actually changed the recipe completely before brewing it. The one linked to in my sig is what I have right now. I'm more happy with this porter than the others I have made, but I'm not 100% satisfied (I wonder if I ever will be.)

I'm interested in what some others think of it since I might be too critical of the recipe. I've given samples to The Kaiser, BOSTONBREWIN', Baron von BeeGee, Dude, sailman, and BeerLuvnGrl. I think Dude is going to share with SwAMi75, and I hope to get an analysis from both of them.

-walker

I saw your changes in this thread. I'm assuming the link in your sig was the final recipe? It looks awfully good, so I hope the reviews from the crew are good... of course with Dude's dancin' homies in the thread all bets are OFF


Ize