malt extract choice in Porter

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redjameskidd

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Howdy. I'm an intermediate homebrewer, looking to brew a porter next, and I have been noticing an interesting phenomena in porter recipes. Curiously, the great majority seems to call for amber or dark malt extract in addition to chocolate and black patent, as opposed to just using light malt extract and darkening with grain.

Why is this? As far as I know, there's no benefit to be had from using darker malt extracts when you could have more fresh grain flavor/color from your specialty grains. Why use dark extract when I can just steep more chocolate malt for a more authentic experience?
 
Howdy. I'm an intermediate homebrewer, looking to brew a porter next, and I have been noticing an interesting phenomena in porter recipes. Curiously, the great majority seems to call for amber or dark malt extract in addition to chocolate and black patent, as opposed to just using light malt extract and darkening with grain.

Why is this? As far as I know, there's no benefit to be had from using darker malt extracts when you could have more fresh grain flavor/color from your specialty grains. Why use dark extract when I can just steep more chocolate malt for a more authentic experience?

I would use pale and then use the specialty grains as well. Just seems like painting a canvas to me.

I think that recipes vary so greatly, you'll be able to find some that go either way.
 
The problem with dark extracts are that you don't really know what's in them. Even pale extract has some caramel malt in it. With the dark malt you would likely need less specialty grains.
 
Stick with a lighter extract as the base. FWIW, I just listened to Jamil's show on Brown Porter, and he recommended a British Pale Malt extract as the base. (Maris Otter for AG brewers.) He added some Brown Malt, Crystal 40, and Chocolate Malt. No black patent in his recipe

This for for a Brown Porter (Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter was his example) though. Might be different for a Robust Porter.
 
hmmm. OP I see your point. In a typical AG porter recipe you have a light basemalt but in extract recipes I usually used amber. However, the amber base malt will give a nice flavor whereas steeping more of the chocolate could overbitter or over astringent the final product. All I know is that a little bit of choc goes a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way. In fact, I made a pretty decent porter that is essentially the same as a typical pale ale recipe with 3/4 pound (in 5 gallons) chocolate malt and it in no way resembled the pale ale.
 
I try to only use light extract- the beers I made that used dark extract all tasted the same. Check out Jamil's Robust Porter- either in Brewing Classic Styles or on his podcast. I've made it twice, and it's a winner.
 
I was thinking the same thing that you said, "check out Jamil's podcast".
 
I use extralight, or light dme as the base of my beers, that way you can get some more complexity in from your steeping grains. By varying the composition you can get different layers of flavors. you can use a small amount of patent, or chocolate for color, but use a combination of crystal malts for flavor. You could use a little 60 and some 20 or 40 and will get different flavors from each, and as long as the chocolate or the patent doesn't overwhelm the palate, you will get a nicer beer.
 
I heard the darker the extract, the sweeter the beer as the yeast does not convert as much as the lighter extract. Maybe they are looking for a sweeter Porter(?)

I just got the Porter kit from Midwest for my next batch and it has 6 lb.s of dark extract and only 2 oz. of hops (1 oz bittering, 1 oz aroma). I will give it a try "as-is" the first time around since they formulated this recipe. But, I have a feeling there will be more hops going in the next batch...

Dan
 
I always used extra light. I think it's better to get color/flavor from grains and it forces Noobs to at least steep if not PM, also converting pm to AG or vice versa is easy when extra light is used, just convert the extract to base malt and everything else should stay about the same.
 
How about a combination of different extracts along with the combination of specialty grains? Would that create a more complex beer or just be pointless?
 
How about a combination of different extracts along with the combination of specialty grains? Would that create a more complex beer or just be pointless?

I think it might be pointless, I'm not sure...I believe it is in the Norther Brewer Catalog that they describe the extract they sell, and it pretty much they say IS a combination of 2-row with additional grains as opposed to just taking 2-row and cooking the wort down and down until it carmalizes.

Now if all the maltsers did that it would be pointless...they've done the job for us already...already created a blended extract "grainbill."

BUT if the maltsers are just boiling a wort made only of 2-row down to create several grades of lovibond extracts...then it might be worth a try...you might get some of that complexity you would with using one grade of extract with some steeping grains...

interesting idea to look into.

:mug:
 
Why dont you put some 2 Row, chocolate malt, crystal (40 or 60) and black patent in a container at 150*F for 60 minutes then drain and sparge the goodness out! :ban:

J/k...I'm also an advocate of extra light malt extract w/ steeping grains for color.
 
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