Recipe Help -> Porter: Nuts, Plums, Molasses

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arathustra

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Long time listener, first time caller. My plan is to do a series of porters: Smoke Porter, Breakfast Porter w/ Oats & Honey, Rasberry Porter, Vanilla Porter, a Porter with Nutty, Plums, and Molasses character, etc...

Question: Looking for any feedback on the Nuts, Plums, and Molasses porter recipe design. Here is what I came up with? Does this look like it could produce the Nuts, Plums, and Molasses character? Any thoughts if adding darker black patent malts would detract or enhance the flavor?

Thanks,
Nathan

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 66.67 %
1.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 9.26 % [80L = Plums?]
0.75 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 % [Nutty?]
0.75 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.56 % [Nutty?]
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 % [Nutty?]
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1.85 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 42.1 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 12.7 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 7.41 %
8.68 gal Chicago, IL (New) Water
1 Pkgs Reused American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.067 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.059 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.62 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.05 %
Bitterness: 58.3 IBU Calories: 258 cal/pint
Est Color: 32.9 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body Total Grain Weight: 12.50 lb
Sparge Water: 2.42 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Medium Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 15.63 qt of water at 166.1 F 153.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 8.75 qt of water at 199.3 F 168.0 F
 
Are you trying to get the nut/plum character from the base beer?

I might split the crsytal between 80 and something darker, special B, 120, cararoma, simpson's dark etc... those darker ones tend to give more dark fruit character.

I don't think you need black patent, the molasses and other malts will boost the dark character (but I might boost the chocolate malt to 1 lb or go with .25 lbs of black patent to make sure it didn't taste like a big brown ale). You might want to start with just .5 lbs of molasses, you can always add more to secondary if it needs it.

I would drop the .25 lbs of carapils, with all that crystal malt I don't think you need a head/body boost. I might also tone down the late hopping if you want those malt flavors to shine.
 
Yep. I was hoping to get the nutty and plum/raisiny charater from the specialty malts. I've been reading that the Crystal 80 - 120 gives a dark fruit flavor as you mentioned and I wanted to try that out.

I like all of your ideas about splitting the crystal 80, only starting with 1/2lb molasses and upping if necessary in the secondary. I also agree with your assessment of dropping the carapils and upping the chocolate. I had the same thought that this might be more brown than porter.

As far as the hops, this was another source of internal debate. I definitely don't want it to be cloyingly sweet, so I wanted to have a good base of IBUs for balance. Your thoughts about minimizing the flavor hops make a lot of sense. I'm going for a malt forward type of thing, so overhopping aroma hops would probably hide some of the malty characteristics I am going for.

I think the challenge for this recipe is getting the right malts to produce those three distinct flavors and make sure they are balanced. I don't want so much nuttyness that the dark fruit and molasses can't be found or vise versa.

Thanks a ton those were excellent suggestions that I think will improve the recipe. Probably brew it in the next week or two. I'll have to post the final recipe and results when I get some in a glass.
 
Good luck brewing. It is hard to hit something really complex and layered on the first shot, so take good notes and brew it again if it needs to be tweaked.
 
I am actually researching a for a beer recipe with plums in it. I've found that special B has alot of plum character, so I would add that. Also, the black patent malt is used in Baltic Porters and they has dark fruit flavors in them, so maybe thats a way to go. I have decided my recipe will be a Baltic Porter but am not sure how to integrate the plums. Good luck brewing!
 
Yea I had just heard that too about Special B, so I decided to through some in. The ingredients have been purchased, just waiting to reuse yeast from a smoked porter. In the next week or two it should get brewed up. It looks like this is what I am going with...

9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 70.59 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.75 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.50 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 3.92 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 1.96 %
0.25 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 1.96 %
1.00 oz Magnum [10.50 %] (60 min) Hops 33.6 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [5.00 %] (20 min) Hops 9.7 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
0.50 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 3.92 %
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale
 
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