porter recipe is not in style, any advice?

Hello, I'm going to make a brown sugar molasses porter, a recipe from the "homebrewer's recipe guide" book. If it goes well, I'm going to enter it in my first beer competition. I put the recipe into Beer Alchemy and it came up with some things being out of style for porters, I was wondering if anyone had advice:

First - color:
the color originally came up too dark, 36.6 SRM (style range is 20-30). The main culprits are 1/2 pound chocolate malt and 1/4 pound black malt (steeped, this is an extract recipe) (there is also 1lb crystal). In order to get back to around 26 SRM, it changed to about .2lbs chocolate and .1lbs black... but I'm worried about doing this because I really like chocolate flavors in porters, and I'm also wondering if the .1lbs black becomes almost meaningless at that small amount... any thoughts on this? I'm still a beginner and am not really comfortable adjusting the recipes much.

Second - OG. When I put the recipe into Beer Alchemy, I get an OG of 1.055 and ABV of 6.1%. Max Style for OG is 1.052, ABV is 5.4%. I'm not too worried about the OG, since I almost always end up light, I'll probably end up right around 1.052 (I might use a little less malt extract). But I'll still end up a little strong on the ABV at around 5.7%... I'm fine with the beer being this strong, but I'm wondering if it will be an issue if I enter the beer in a competition?

Thanks for your advice.

What are your IBU's? If they are high enough, just drop the black.
What's the lovibond on the crystal? You can always go lighter there.

FWIW, be careful with molasses. The flavor can be overpowering.

Enter it as a Stout?

You really will not know until it is fermented and bottled (or kegged).

beerkrump said:

What are your IBU's? If they are high enough, just drop the black.
What's the lovibond on the crystal? You can always go lighter there.

Click to expand...

I'm showing 27IBU in Beer Alchemy. Why do ask? Does black also serve as a bittering? The 27IBU is with a late extract addition (I can only do a 3.5 gallon partial boil).

For crystal, I'm using 15L.

Black malt and chocolate are both common in porters. The black is there for color and to contrast the sweetness, so you could eliminate it without a problem, since the chocolate can do the same.

jigidyjim said:

Does black also serve as a bittering?

For crystal, I'm using 15L.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it is. The bitterness is along the lines of a charred, ashy flavor and can be over powering if over used. You will also be introducing some burnt tone through the use of molasses. The combination of the two may be too much. IMHO, porters should be distinctively sweeter than stouts, leave the black out.

Thanks for all your info!

One last question - got a favorite yeast? The recipe calls for an "american ale yeast". I was gunna roll with wlp001 and follow the recipe, but then thought I'd choose a yeast more common in porters, like wlp002. It would leave the beer a little sweeter with a slightly higher FG since the attenuation is lower.

Any recommendations?

You'll have a winner with either one. I mostly use dry yeast and have had great porters with S-04 and US-05. I brewed my Yule Log Porter last weekend and used a packet of each.