Brown Porter Recipe Critiques

Hey guys, working on my first Porter recipe. Let me know what you think:

70% Marris Otter
10% Munich
5% Caramel 40L
5% Chocolate Malt
5% Victory malt
5% Flaked Oats

Fuggles at 60 min and 5 min, bittered to 30 IBU

Denny's Favorite 50 Wyeast 1450

Expected OG at 1.056.

It's just over the OG limit for being a Brown Porter, but that's not a big deal to me.

I'm going to make a one gallon test batch, and if it turns out well, I'm going to make it a 2nd time with peanut butter and cocoa. Just want to make sure I have a good base recipe first though.

Thanks!

IMO a true Brown Porter really needs 8-10% English brown malt but the rest looks good ..... except for the peanut butter...seriously!!!!

I should qualify this by saying I am Australian and struggle to be in the same room as my kids when they eat peanut butter because just the smell disgusts me but still I cannot see any good reason for putting it in a perfectly good beer.

My porter is very simple: Maris Otter, a little chocolate, and a decent amount of brown. It's under my recipe list. I like to keep porters very simple and agree that brown malt is a must. Yours is too complicated for me, and unnecessarily so.

Airborneguy said:

My porter is very simple: Maris Otter, a little chocolate, and a decent amount of brown. It's under my recipe list. I like to keep porters very simple and agree that brown malt is a must. Yours is too complicated for me, and unnecessarily so.

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I agree- English brown malt is a requirement for a real porter!

I do like crystal/caramel malt in mind, though. Up to 1 pound of crystal 40 or 60 is really nice. It's like a slightly roasty/toasty English brown.

I've seriously been considering some experimentation with that recipe, something that hurts my heart.

Every competition I get rave reviews for that beer, but it's consistently judged as not to style. That doesn't really bother me much because I'm not much of a competition person anyway, but I'd like to see if getting it closer to the guidelines works for my tastes.

Hahaha, Beachy, peanut butter is delicious!!! Toast some nice bread, slather some peanut butter and honey on it, and enjoy with a tall, cold glass of milk!

Thanks for the input everybody. My reason for the victory malt was to give it a little bit of "breadyness" to go with the eventual addition of peanut butter and chocolate. The flaked oats were there for the mouthfeel. However, I'll remove them and go simple for the first recipe and add them in if I feel I need to on the 2nd go around.

So now I'll just do:

Maris Otter
English Brown Malt
Chocolate

How much of each would you guys use? (Percentages, please, because I'm not doing a 5 gallon batch).

Thanks!

MO 75%
Brown 22%
Chocolate 3%

(off the top of my head)

My Brown Porter which I have made a few times and really enjoy is

76% Marris Otter
12% English Brown malt
8% Dark English crystal 120L
4% choc malt

Sorry, your description of peanut butter on toast still doesn't make me want to put it in beer.

beachy said:

My Brown Porter which I have made a few times and really enjoy is

76% Marris Otter
12% English Brown malt
8% Dark English crystal 120L
4% choc malt

Sorry, your description of peanut butter on toast still doesn't make me want to put it in beer.

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That's much like my favorite!

72% MO
11% English brown malt
11% medium crystal (40L)
6% chocolate malt

(But ick with the peanut butter!)

Thanks for the input. I'll be trying this in the next few weeks.

I'll tweak it as necessary for the peanut butter/cocoa batch - I want that beer to drink like a Reese's cup. YUMMY!

62% MO
19% Brown Malt
9.5% Flaked Wheat
4.8% C-60
4.8% chocolate

I recently brewed up this recipe for a Brown Porter and it turned out great. very nice and drinkable and I added the flaked wheat on a whim and think it could do with or without.

I never updated this. But I ended up doing:
70% MO
12% Brown
12% 45L
6% Chocolate

Wyeast 1968

Fuggle @ 60 min
EKG @ 10 min
for 28 IBU

It was delicious, and I'm looking forward to brewing up another batch for fall.

Thanks for the the suggestions everyone.