American Porter Imperial Honey Porter

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Saccharomyces

Be good to your yeast...
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
5,438
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Location
Pflugerville, Texas
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
2pkg US-05
Yeast Starter
No
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.092
Final Gravity
1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes)
90
IBU
75
Color
28
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
21 @62
Tasting Notes
A barleywine-strength honey porter
Version #1 (Inebriation Ale 2008)


Brewhouse Efficiency 75%

Grain Bill
10.0 lb Maris Otter
4.0 lb German Munich
1.0 lb Crystal 60
0.5 lb Special B
0.5 lb Chocolate
2.0 lb Honey (last 10 min of boil)

Hop Schedule
1.0 oz Horizon 60 min
1.5 oz Cascade 45 min
0.5 oz Cascade 20 min
1.0 oz Cascade 15 min

Mash Schedule
131 1.0 qt/lb 30 min
152 1.5 qt/lb 75 min
168 1.5 qt/lb mashout (decoction)
Hybrid fly sparge for maximum efficiency

US-05 yeast, 62*F.


Version #3 (Inebriation Ale 2010 - planned)


Brewhouse Efficiency 75%

Grain Bill
55% Maris Otter
20% Munich
5% Flaked Wheat
5% Crystal 60
4% Special B
3% Chocolate (UK)
1% Black Patent
7% Honey (flameout)

Hop Schedule (for 5 gal)
2.0 oz Horizon 60 min
1.5 oz Willamette 15 min

Mash Schedule
154 1.5 qt/lb 60 min
168 1.5 qt/lb mashout (decoction)
Hybrid fly sparge for maximum efficiency

WLP007 yeast, 66*F.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Broke this bad boy out on Thanksgiving. This beer is absolutely :rockin:.

Toffee, plum, and mild Cascade hop aroma gives way to toffee, plum, cherry, raisin, chocolate, and honey notes. Well balanced with a full body and smooth hop bitterness you would expect from a porter. A dense, milk chocolate head quickly falls but leaves a ring all the way to the bottom of the glass. Finishes with a nice alcohol warmth which is the first hint of the 10.5% ABV in this beer. Somewhat chewy but dangerously drinkable, it finishes dry enough you keep wanting to go back for another (half) pint.

This beer would be utterly fantastic to serve on Nitro (a project for when I do it again for next winter!).

I like this beer so much I will be scaling down the recipe to make a normal strength porter.

I would not change a thing with this recipe, it accomplishes everything I wanted. Those of you who are fans of English hops could certainly use them. I prefer the American hops myself, in the style of the porter produced by the west coast breweries.
 
This is the best beer I have made yet. It will be a Christmastime staple for sure.

I was thinking the other day when I do this again, I may bump up the chocolate to a full pound for a little more chocolate-y flavor. Otherwise I like my beers dry so I won't mess with it.

Adding 1/2# of C120, 1/2# of extra Chocolate, and 1/2# of Patent malt while dropping the munich malt by half would make this into a wonderful imperial stout, too.
 
I started at 1qt/# and stepped to 1.5qt/# adding a pint per pound near boiling.

Per my comments next year I will do this with an extra 1/2# of chocolate (British) since I want more chocolate and a little more roast character. As it is now it is pretty split between plum/raisin and chocolate character. FWIW.
 
This does sound absolutely amazing...

Is there anyway this could be done as an extract?

Also if you have the time could you explain how you did this mashing schedule. I have never done an all grain but I am interested. I understand fly sparging but the changes in temp i don't know how they were achieved and exactly how much water was added at what temp and when. Sorry if this is a dumb question...
 
Step mash infusions were calculated from BeerSmith. I don't have my notes handy so I don't know the exact numbers, but you start with 0.9 to 1.0 qt/lb strike water around 139*F to hit 131*F, then add enough near boiling water to hit your sacc. rest temp which happens to bring the mash to 1.4 qt/lb or so. Doing step mashing in a cooler is a bit tricky because you need to know how much heat your cooler will absorb and adjust the infusion temps accordingly. Since about 75% of the temp difference between room temp and 152*F is 131*F, and I know my cooler absorption causes a 7*F drop with 20# of grain for a single infusion mash, I heat my water 5*F over what BeerSmith calls for for the first step and 2*F over what it calls for in the second step.

Here's a late extract addition with steeping grains:

1# Crystal 60L
.5# Special B
.5# Chocolate
6# Light DME
4# Munich LME

Steep chocolate, crystal, and special-B at 160*F for 20-30 minutes in a gallon of carbon filtered tap water. Teabag grain bag, and discard grain. Top up to 2-3 gallons depending on pot size using RO water and add 4# of Munich LME stirring well to prevent scorching. Bring to a boil and add the bittering hops (warrior or nugget are good subs if you can't find horizon). Continue boiling and add the rest of the hops per the hop schedule up to the 15 minutes left addition; then turn off the heat. Add 1.5 tsp of yeast nutrient and the 6# of light DME. Stir well, and after the DME is fully integrated bring back to a boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat again, add the 2# of honey, stir well until it is integrated, bring back to a boil, and then turn off the heat and cool the pot in a water bath. Top up to 5.25 gallons in the fermenter with bottled water. Aerate well and pitch 2 packages of rehydrated US-05 dry yeast. Pouring your top-off water back and forth between two sanitized buckets is a good way to aerate an extract batch. Be prepared with a blow-off rig, mine blew off even fermenting at 66*F!
 
Thanks so much for the prompt reply... This is going to be my next brew! One question how does it compare with like a seirra nevada or samuel smiths porters as far as color, alcohol content and mouth feel if you don't mind me asking.
 
ah... Nice so it should turn out to be about 8.5% Alc, very nice. I have a rather mixed bag of friends and some really don't like the high IBU. If i dropped it to say 36-42 would it still be respectable to me and my friends that enjoy the big beers or would it for lack of a better word suck?
 
I can do the following (thank God for computers!) I find that I lose about 1F for each degree of differential between my MLT and Strike water temp. Meaning that if I have a rest at 130F and want to step it up to 149F (to dry it out) I will have a 19F differential, so my second step 190F infusion will actually be 192F.

When I mash in at 155F, I need to strike at 164F, so I heat my strike to 179F. The differential will be about 120F, so I lose 12F to my MLT within a few minutes, then I mash in when I hit 164F

IMPPorterWater.bmp
 
Nice pol... But i am still concerned about bottle conditioning and aging times. You got any recommendations? Also, i was thinking about busting the IBU down to 40 what do you think?
 
Nice pol... But i am still concerned about bottle conditioning and aging times. You got any recommendations? Also, i was thinking about busting the IBU down to 40 what do you think?

I keg... but I am not sure what would be wrong with bottle aging it? I guess getting it to carb when it is already at 10% may be tough.

I dont know about turning down the IBUs... I think that this is such a big beer (read alcohol) that you would be safe with the IBUs... why? Well, there is going to be ALOT of flavor in this beer, and plenty of alcohol, I think the hops and bitterness will be less noticeable than you think. I am going on the tasting notes only, so I am just going to brew it as it is.
 
I keg... but I am not sure what would be wrong with bottle aging it? I guess getting it to carb when it is already at 10% may be tough.

I dont know about turning down the IBUs... I think that this is such a big beer (read alcohol) that you would be safe with the IBUs... why? Well, there is going to be ALOT of flavor in this beer, and plenty of alcohol, I think the hops and bitterness will be less noticeable than you think. I am going on the tasting notes only, so I am just going to brew it as it is.

good call on the IBUs... You did make me a little concerned about the bottle conditioning. I was planning on entering this in my first competition. I think it is going to be a completely open comp just one winner no classes but it is several months away (7-8) to be exact. Any suggestions on getting a decent carb up? More sugar maybe?
 
I would not use MORE priming sugar... the normal ammount would be enough. The question is, will the yeast be too tired to eat it up and fart?
 
I have not had a problem carbonating the 5 batches of "big beer" I have made so far. When I say Big, I mean OG > 1.090. I have never gone more than 8 weeks in primary+secondary. I have used US05, Nottingham, Wyeast 1762 and 3787 which are all tolerant of higher alcohol though. If your strain poops out at 9%, or if you plan on bulk aging, you may consider pitching more yeast.
 
Actually Saccharomyces told me to low carb at 3.5 oz priming sugar and go at least 1 month in primary... Please correct me if I am wrong Saccharomyces I just emptied my folders and I am a lil drunk ( Damn I gotta upgrade my account, love this place). I mean I really don't want much head on this thing just enough to know it has some carb if that makes any sense at all... Thanks Saccharomyces and Pol for your input. Especially, Saccharomyces!
 
Korben, you are correct, most barleywine (and similar) style beers are not highly carbonated. I am not sure an Imperial honey porter is exactly in line with any particular style ;) but it will not hurt to be on the low side of the carbonation scale. My point was just that you should not have difficulty bottle conditioning or carbonating if your yeast can handle it.
 
I have this carbed up in a keg to about 2.0 volumes which is about right I think so for bottle conditioning I'd stay in the 3.5-4oz range. It will carb, it may take awhile since the yeast will be stressed but this should condition a few months in the bottle anyway so I think you'll be fine.

The IBUs are very balanced in this beer. While I may mess with some of the specialty malts when I rebrew, I don't plan to change the hops. A porter by style is close to 1:1 IBU to SG and most barleywines are as well. There is a lot of malt backbone to stand up to.
 
I have the ingredients for this in my bulk grain/hops buy for 2009... cant wait to try it
 
I bought my horizon hops from North Country. I don't know if they have any left.

Nugget or warrior are good substitutes. Failing that just use any high alpha hop and adjust for the alphas. Horizons are usually 11-12%.
 
I bought my horizon hops from North Country. I don't know if they have any left.

Nugget or warrior are good substitutes. Failing that just use any high alpha hop and adjust for the alphas. Horizons are usually 11-12%.

I THINK my sub is Magnum... got that from a substitution chart...
 
I dont plan to add the spices, unless it appears that it will be on tap over the holidays.
 
I am actually going with nugget.. I think it may bring a little deeper character to the brew. Mine are 14.6 AA so I think they will be fine... what do you think Pol
 
I dont think, I do... my Magnums are 14.2 and were listed as a sub for Horizon. I say use what you like, I am no pro... bro. :D
 
hahaha... Just one last question about the extract version will this get me up to your starting og?

It should be close.

I also just did a quick PM conversion and that one came up as follows:

5.5# Light DME (boil 15 minutes)
3.75# Munich
2.25# Maris Otter
1# C60
.5# Chocolate
.5# Special B
2# Honey (boil 10 minutes)

Same hop schedule. Assuming 70% efficiency yields 5.25-5.5 gallons ~1.092.

Nugget is closer to Horizon as far as the flavor you get from the hops. Horizon has a bit of an 'edge' to it. Magnum is also a fine bittering hop though it's a bit cleaner.

As this has aged the spices are pretty much gone now. It's more like a barleywine now whereas when it was younger it made a good Christmas ale. The citrus hop flavor of the Cascades is coming through now more than it was when it was young, too, which is nice. For next year I think I will dry hop it with a bit of Goldings for aroma.
 
HEY! Sacc..

I thought about this mash schedule. It is a 10-15 minute REST at 135 and 15 minute ramp to 150F for the sacc. rest. How do you feel about such a rest in your recipe?

ImpHonPort2.jpg
 
What yeast are you planning on pitching into this beast? With a slow ramp like that I would add a few degrees to sacc temp if using a dry strain so it doesn't overattenuate. Although mine finished at 1.012 I think 1.016-ish would be ideal.
 
I am going to use an S-05 starter... I can ramp it up to 154F, maybe start at 140F...
 
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