English Porter Atonement Brown Porter (2011 HBT Gold Category 12)

The fuggles will be more authentic to the style. For bittering, you can really use anything so the columbus will be fine for the early addition. There are American IPAs made using columbus for later additions, but I don't feel that would be appropriate for a porter.

The brewing went well yesterday for this batch. I used the columbus hops early for bittering and the fuggles late for aroma like you suggested. As of this morning is it bubbling away nicely!

Awesome! Let me know how it turns out.

I went ahead and entered this beer into the Homebrew Alley 6 competition in both the Robust and Brown porter categories. All 4 bottles are from the same batch. I'm very interested to see how this plays out. The batch was brewed a few months ago also, so there's a little age on these bottles.

New York City Homebrewers Guild Presents Homebrew Alley 6

Does anyone think this would make a good base beer for a coconut porter?

Maybe cut the black malt down a little. Other than that, it would be a perfect base.

Airborneguy said:

Maybe cut the black malt down a little. Other than that, it would be a perfect base.

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Is this because you think there's too much roast flavor? How much would you cut it back?

Maybe to .25lb? I'm just guessing as I've never worked with coconut. I'd imagine you'd want it to shine over other aspects of the beer, no? This recipe is only subtly roasty, but I'd still cut it down to avoid overpowering the coconut.

maybe I'll sub half the black for chocolate. So .3lb black and .3lb chocolate. Should swap some of the "burnt" flavors for some chocolate/nutty flavors.

I just bottled this last night - thanks for the great recipe. My gravity only came to 1.045, but that was because I didn't calculate my wort volume correctly (I had something under 6 gallons at the end of the boil). I used White Labs 002 since I had a fresh yeast cake from a mild recipe. Also, I racked it onto some whiskey soaked oak cubes for five days (for just a very slight hint of oak). The sample I had at bottling tasted great and I can't wait for it to get carbed.

seven_37 said:

...I racked it onto some whiskey soaked oak cubes for five days (for just a very slight hint of oak). The sample I had at bottling tasted great and I can't wait for it to get carbed.

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This brings up something I'm going to try someday. Whiskey-barrel aged porters are getting more popular and I have had some awesome ones and some that were dreadful recently.
I'd like to know how yours ages. Will the oak and whiskey flavors mellow and blend, complimenting each other over time? Please keep us up to date.

I've aged this recipe in my barrel twice: once before and once after the barrel had been innoculated with brett. I have one of the Brett bottles in my fridge still. Both times the recipe held up well to the barrel's flavors.

I've been enjoying this for about a month now. I accidentally subbed debittered black malt (Castle) for the US black malt, but it turned out great. Despite being right around 152-153 with my mash temps, pitching a high-krausen starter, and 60 seconds of 02, it only went from 1.050 to 1.020. The result is a super-tasty full-bodied session porter, and SWMBO and I both really like it.

This will definitely be a regular in the rotation! Thanks for the recipe!

I racked this to keg this weekend. Grav reading is right on, tastes good!
Did you warm age it in keg at all or just start carbing?

I'm usually backed up about 1-2 batches so I hit it with 30psi and let it sit at room temperature until its turn comes up.

I'm not one for copying someone elses recipe but this seems pretty good and I have not brewed this style before! I have a slightly different roasted malt combination, and I'm using Goldings for flavor hops, but otherwise it is the same recipe, just milled my grains for tomorrow - my day off.

Cheers,
Steve

Thanks, good luck. I'm sure you'll like it.

This beer is being judged in the Robust Porter and Brown Porter categories on Sunday in the Homebrew Alley 6 contest. The bottles I entered have a little age on them, but I don't see why a porter wouldn't hold up for roughly 6 months, so I'm excited to see the results. I'll post them when I get them back.

I should know this by now but every time I brew a low gravity beer with not so much hops my efficiency is much higher! I ended up at 1.054 - shooting for 1.048ish - so I guess this is a robust porter. I fiddled with the hops some more - northern brewer (which I like in dark beers) + goldings. I hope this ends up dry, I am not a big fan of deserty tasting beers. Mashed at 152 f.

Cheers!
Steve da sleeve

Ok my batch has been on the gas for a week and I pulled a sample and it tastes green, or watery. More like a lighter tasting brown ale, though the color and aroma are perfect.

Major difference between the OP recipe and mine were that mine was in primary for 36 days. Other than that the numbers were really close.

I'll let it sit in the fridge to continue carbing and see what happens.

I don't know what my longest primary was with this beer, but I usually do around 21 days. I'm sure I've brewed a batch that went a little longer. I usually give it around 2-3 weeks in the keg before tapping, but one batch which was bottled I started drinking within two weeks and it was awesome.

I've been trying out different Porter recipes, and I think I will try this one next.

I am also very curious about your process for adding peppers. Did you have an amount that worked well?

I'm honored that your first post is in my recipe thread.

It's hard to answer questions regarding the amount of peppers to use because even within varieties, the heat can vary so much. I used chilis that my boss had grown in his garden and using two worked out great for me. I simply cleaned them, cut off the stem, and tossed them into the primary after fermentation had ceased.

That worked for me, but you will see wildly differring opinions on how to best use peppers in a beer.

I brewed this recipe as my first AG brew, scaled down to 2.5 gallons using Beersmith and batch sparged in my 5 gallon cooler. The mash smelled amazing when I opened the cooler for mash out. I really hope this beer turns out as good as it smelled last night. Thanks for the recipe.

I did have one question though. Why did you sparge using 153 degree water? Most other recipes I have read say to sparge using 168-170 degree water.

I batch sparge, so I pretty much start running off right away and get it onto the flame fairly quickly. Because of this, I've never seen a need to do a mash out. If you fly sparge, you should probably do it though.

I think I'm gonna try make this recipe with slight modifications. I can't do all grain.

Smokey Porter

Batch size: 6.0 gal
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
Bitterness (IBU): 32.9
Color (SRM): 26.4
ABV: 5.0%

[Grains]
Pilsener LME 3.300lb Extract 32.8%
Maris Otter Malt 3.000lb Grain 29.9%
Brown Malt (British) 2.000lb Grain 19.9%
Cane Sugar 1.000lb Sugar 10.0%
Chocolate Malt (British) 0.250lb Grain 2.5%
Peated Malt 0.250lb Grain 2.5%
Roasted Barley 0.250lb Grain 2.5%

[Hops]
Kent Golding 2.00oz 5.1% AA Pellet @ 60 min, 29.1 IBU
Tettnanger 1.00oz 3.7% AA Pellet @ 10 min, 3.8 IBU

[Yeast/Other]
Dry English Ale yeast 1.0 unit(s), Yeast

JasontheBeaver said:

Ok my batch has been on the gas for a week and I pulled a sample and it tastes green, or watery. More like a lighter tasting brown ale, though the color and aroma are perfect.

Major difference between the OP recipe and mine were that mine was in primary for 36 days. Other than that the numbers were really close.

I'll let it sit in the fridge to continue carbing and see what happens.

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Just wanted to give the OP an update on this:
Now it is 5 weeks in keg and this beer has now developed into a great porter.
Time is the newest ingredient that I've been learning about in this hobby, and in this case that's the only ingredient this beer needed. I have to admit, I'm very proud of this beer. Really appreciate the recipe.
I bottled a few a couple weeks ago and they're just as good so I entered it into a local competition, can't wait to see the results.
I suppose you're going to want royalties if I win the 1st prize SS brew pot huh?

That would be nice, but certainly not required.

You are required to tell me how it does though! Good luck!

Just cracked open my first pint and it was great. This is my first AG porter and I was very happy with the way it turned out. I will be brewing this one again.

I've brewed this three times now with one finished product so far. I made the first one for a friend and after taking a few pulls off the keg I almost didn't give it to him since I enjoyed it so much. I just did my first 10 gallon batch today with a neighbor and decided on this as our "break in the keggle" brew. I also just pulled a sample off the second brew which I moved to secondary after 3 weeks and added 20oz of Michigan maple syrup to. That was around a week and a half ago and I'm very pleased with how it is turning out. I will bottle this week and plan on entering it into the big West Michigan competition held by Siciliano's Market. Really looking forward to seeing the results.

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you.

I'm glad everyone likes it. Just be advised that it's hit or miss in competitions. This is one of those recipes that doesn't perfectly fit any of the categories of porter. I consider it a brown, but in a few comps it's been called out of style.

I brewed this on Saturday. I was growing a bit concerned today because it seemed as though my fermentation had stalled. I checked the gravity and astonishingly it was already done. The sample tasted awesome for such a green beer. I am really excited for this one! I did replace the yeast with Burton's from WLP. Everything else was a copy of your original recipe. I fermented at 68F but it still finished a lot faster than I was expecting.

I'm going to let it sit in primary for a while to clean up still.

Is the black patent de-husked or no?

Airborneguy said:

I'm glad everyone likes it. Just be advised that it's hit or miss in competitions. This is one of those recipes that doesn't perfectly fit any of the categories of porter. I consider it a brown, but in a few comps it's been called out of style.

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So what were the results of the comp way back when? And who was judging it? I'm curious.

AmandaK said:

So what were the results of the comp way back when? And who was judging it? I'm curious.

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Oops, sorry I never responded. I've pretty much been working non-stop since the day you posted this.

In the 2011 HBT competition, this recipe won the porter category. In 3 other comps, it never even placed, although it always gets good scores. The problem is it really doesn't fit the guidelines for any of the porter categories close enough to win competitions that are more strict about adhering to the guidelines.

I don't enter competitions anymore. I don't have the time to brew based on competition schedules, set up shipping, deal with all the waiting... Just not my thing any longer.

thanks for recipe, might try it when it cools down a bit here

Wow! Nice easy drinking porter! Good job and thanks for an excellent recipe!

I picked this recipe for my first all grain batch and first batch in 10 years. Everything turned out great so far, my OG was 1.054. I had to switch to a blow off tube when my air lock filled with Trub(?). Thanks for the recipe.
Mike

I hope you enjoy it. We were drinking this beer last night for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. I haven't brewed much lately but I have a recently "tapped" batch of Atonement on hand now.

Bottled this yesterday. It was really nice. I edited the recipe a bit to shrink it to 3.5 gallons and not have weird measurements. Also used Windsor yeast. Came out really nice. Mine was more stout then porter, almost true black but that's my fault for messing with the recipe. Taste fantastic though. Almost like sweetened coffee. Can't wait for it to be carved. Not sure how close it is to yours but I would like to thank you for the start. This is going into the wheelhouse if it comes out of bottles anywhere near how it went in.