porter fermenting timeline opinions please

i just brewed a maple porter this past weekend (9/2) and i was looking for some opinions on how long to ferment it. my plan would be to leave it in the primary for roughly 10 days, maybe a few more depending on my schedule, then rack it to secondary and probably go for another 20 days, again plus a few more depending on my schedule.

this is my first porter and i recall seeing some dialogue on here in regards to timelines for porters so i thought i would open a topic for discussion, if nothing else for some education in different techniques.

What kinda OG are you looking at? To be honest, my Fullers clone tastes fantastic after "normal" fermentation/conditioning schedule.

it's up there, i don't remember exactly off hand, i'll check tonight, but i believe it was around 1.078. according to the reipce i used, it should be an 8.1% beer.

Your schedule sounds fine to me in theory, but remember, every fermentation is different, alot depends on your fermentables, yeast strain, fermentation conditions, ect... The only real way to tell how long to leave it is to take hydrometer readings to determine when fermentation is complete.

Brewer#19 said:

it's up there, i don't remember exactly off hand, i'll check tonight, but i believe it was around 1.078. according to the reipce i used, it should be an 8.1% beer.

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Well that OG and ABV takes it outside the guidelines for Porter and you could pretty much call it a Russian Imperial Stout.
Your planned fermentation schedule sounds pretty good. Its not going to hurt to leave it even longer. I have a 1.094 RIS in the fermenter. I am planning 2 to 3 weeks in the primary, and 3-4 weeks in the secondary.

Craig

Brewer#19 said:

it's up there, i don't remember exactly off hand, i'll check tonight, but i believe it was around 1.078. according to the reipce i used, it should be an 8.1% beer.

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I would roll primary 'till fermentation completes, move it to the secondary for your desired time to condition before bottling. I did a similar brew and left it in the secondary for about a month then another handful of months in the bottle before it was matured. ....yes, you kinda blew out of the porter guidelines if that matters to ya.

i agree with you guys on the categorical porter/not comments, it really is more of an imperial than a porter, but that wasn't the intent of the brew.

the story of how i got here. i went to the buffalo brewfest last year and the beer i was most enamoured with was a maple porter, dark beer with a phenomenal flavor. since then i pretty much have never seen a maple porter despite going to some excellent retailers in terms of selection. this was the number one beer i wanted to brew when i began doing so earlier this year, but all reasons/excuses aside, didn't get to it till now. i looked up "maple porter" on the recipe link and came up with three recipes. one was an AG brew and i'm not there yet so that left me with two choices and truethfully the one i'm using seemed more representative of what i'm looking for in terms of taste, and to boot it had higher apv and was a bit more simple.

again, the intent of this thread was to get some feedback on timelining the fermentation. i was looking to see if i would get any response as bold as "a porter will age/taste better if you use __ days in primary and __ in secondary." that and its fun to talk about.

Brewer#19 said:

again, the intent of this thread was to get some feedback on timelining the fermentation. i was looking to see if i would get any response as bold as "a porter will age/taste better if you use __ days in primary and __ in secondary." that and its fun to talk about.

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Hey, your planned fermentation schedule is fairly patient so no problems there. There isn't any hard fast rules about how long a beer takes to be ready. The 1,2,3 rule is just used as a guideline and most people will suggest moving a beer from the primary before a month. Any where in between should work just fine. I tend to transfer and bottle my beers when I have time and they have been in the fermenter to at least the 1,2,3 rule. My Imperial Stout I figure for at least double the minimum but I won't worry plus or minus a week or two.
RDWHAHB
Craig

Brewer#19 said:

the intent of this thread was to get some feedback on timelining the fermentation. i was looking to see if i would get any response as bold as "a porter will age/taste better if you use __ days in primary and __ in secondary." that and its fun to talk about.

Click to expand...

FWIW, I have an AG robust porter fermenting right now, and I am planning on leaving it the primary for 21 days, then secondary for 28 days, then bottling.

I have recently adopted the rule of letting all my beers stay in the primary for 21 days. This will be the second batch I've done this with.

I'll let this beer bulk age in the secondary for about 4 weeks because it is higher than usual ABV and had a complex malt bill. 21 and 28 days are arbitrary figures that seem reasonable to me. If I need a secondary for some reason before then, I'll bottle the beer a little early and won't worry about it.

Cheers!

I have a porter going right now that has been in primary for 4 weeks. I plan on getting it off the yeast cake into a secondary fairly soon and then leave it there for a while before kegging. After I keg, I plan on aging it until Christmas eve, so that's what... another few months. Should be good when I open it up!