robust porter recipe: needs critique

here is a robust porter recipie I have been cobbling together and want to get some feed back on what you guys think about how it'll work out. this is my first porter so any feedback would be great I intend to brew this on sunday.

here is the recipe
http://hopville.com/recipe/600736/robust-porter-recipes/riptide-robust-porter


any thoughts?

A few thoughts:

-What's the purpose of 2 oz of flaked rye? I've made rye porters, and this small amount definitely won't get you any flavor or mouthfeel
-Malto-dextrine probably isn't necessary, especially with a pound and a half of Munich and all of the crystal malts
-You definitely definitely definitely need to add some black malt in here. Maybe even remove the C120 all together and add black malt.
-This is just me personally, but I don't like huge hop aroma in my robust porters so I'd lose the flameout addition of fuggle. If you like it, definitely keep it.

thanks,

first the 2 oz of rye is for a subtle hint of something that people might not pick up on maybe I should increase the amount a bit but I dont want a rye porter mayube a hint of rye in it. maybe up it to 6 oz?

the maltodextrine is for less fermentable sugars to keep it a sweeter flavor

I thought about black malt but its going to be pretty dark already.. hmm. I will definitely consider this. I need to ponder.

I really like the fuggles aroma and it is meant to be a surprise as well as an unusual porter. since I have never brewed a porter if you guys think I am better off without it I will scratch it.

I just don't think you need the maltodextrine with all of the other things you've got going on in there, or it's going to be VERY sweet. Also black malt is a signature of the style, so if you're worried about color I'd dial back on some of the other things. As for the rye, I'd do 5% at the minimum.

All my 2 cents, of course...

Its not a question of color, its a matter of taste. The black malt or roast barley is needed to punctuate the flavor. Not so much as to make it stout like, but a hint. I find that at least 1 % and up to 3% is appropriate.

whatsleftofyou said:

I just don't think you need the maltodextrine with all of the other things you've got going on in there, or it's going to be VERY sweet. Also black malt is a signature of the style, so if you're worried about color I'd dial back on some of the other things. As for the rye, I'd do 5% at the minimum.

All my 2 cents, of course...

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everyones 2 cents is exactly what I am looking for. thanks

From what I’ve read, malto-dextrine is mainly used for a fuller mouthfeel in the beer as opposed to added sweetness. I could be wrong though.

I recently brewed a robust porter and used a pound of malto-dextrine. It came out excellent!

You're right, I was just distracted by the hockey game when I was typing that. Adding mouthfeel to an already-sweet beer makes it perceivably sweeter though, IMO. I'm not saying there isn't a place for it, but I think this beer as-is will finish at about 1.025 already despite was hopville calculates it at.

A pound seems pretty excessive to me.

For a robust porter you are looking for a medium to medium-full body. Given that there's already over a pound and a half of crystal malts in there, in addition to the munich, I think adding a pound of maltodextrine on top of that is going to make it downright chewy.

I would also agree that you want a bit of roasted malt character in there. It doesn't have to be black patent or anything you could add maybe 4oz of carafa special II and get some nice color and roast character without much of the associated astringency.

weirdboy said:

I think adding a pound of maltodextrine on top of that is going to make it downright chewy.

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hmm, I don't know if that's bad thing or not, I think I am going to leave the malto dextrine for now and find out, if its too chewy I can drop some out the second time I brew it and re-tweak the recipe.

also I'm going to see what my local home brew store has for roasted malts (probably almost everything the farmhouse is great) and maybe swap out some of the crystal either the 80 or 120 which would you guys recomend?