Brew of the Month-November

Alright so here's the winning recipe for the first ever brew of the month! If you're just catching this give a quick read through the links below to get an idea and feel free to participate in this and all parts of December's brew of the month as well.

1. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/brew-month-142974/
2. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/official-brew-month-style-poll-1-a-143082/
3. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/brew-month-1-porter-recipe-submissions-144540/
4. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/brew-month-1-recipe-poll-145932/

And the winning recipe.....
I am brewing this beer up this weekend. It is Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Porter. I think this would be a good beer to brew because it is very popular, there is a lot of documentation on it, and there is a lot of room to experiment. The all-grain recipe is available (slight variant) from Brewmaster's Warehouse. I will post the extract version in the next post.

Recipe: Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.74 gal
Estimated OG: 1.078 SG
Estimated Color: 30.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
11.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM) Grain 64.71 %
2.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 14.71 %
1.50 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 8.82 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2.94 %
1.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.94 %
0.75 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 29.1 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
2.00 items Vanilla Bean (Secondary 14.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 17.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 21.25 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F


Notes:
------
After primary, slit open 2 vanilla beans. Scrape the insides, chop the pods into quarters, add to secondary fermenter, rack beer onto vanilla. Taste periodically for the correct balance.

Rack to bottling bucket and add 1.5-2.5 oz/gal of Maker's Mark (to your taste).

Optionally, you can infuse the bourbon with Oak Chips or Oak Cubes for 7-10 days prior to adding it.

Added 2 oz of pure vanilla extract and 3 oz of Makers Mark (to 2 gal). Recommended bourbon @ 2.5 oz / gal.


EXTRACT VERSION
Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter - Extract Version

This is my best guess at the conversion between All-Grain and Extract. I would recommend doing a Partial Mash with this recipe, however.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.74 gal
Estimated OG: 1.067 SG
Estimated Color: 30.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 37.1 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 55.08 %
1.80 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 15.25 %
1.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 12.71 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 8.47 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.24 %
1.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.24 %
0.75 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
2.00 items Vanilla Bean (Secondary 14.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Recipe looks great, I'm going to be trying the partial mash version this Sunday with my pops so he can get hooked on brewing too. I have a few questions though since I'm still very new to this. First of all

"Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 17.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 21.25 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F "

I don't 100% understand what this means. Here's the picture in my head, you put all the grains in the bag and you boil them for 75 minutes at 160 in 5.5 gallons of water, then you add the extract in and once it dissolved you get to the hop addition? I'm just having a tough time translating the recipe from the words to the actual steps involved in doing it, I havn't done a partial mash before.

I actually just made this last week, without following that it was going to be the "beer of the month".

This was my first shot at The Pol's no-chill/real wort starter strategy. I ended up using Nottingham on it after my starter crapped out. It's in the secondary with vanilla now.

BrewRI said:

Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 21.25 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F "

I don't 100% understand what this means. Here's the picture in my head, you put all the grains in the bag and you boil them for 75 minutes at 160 in 5.5 gallons of water, then you add the extract in and once it dissolved you get to the hop addition? I'm just having a tough time translating the recipe from the words to the actual steps involved in doing it, I havn't done a partial mash before.

Click to expand...

The second number (150) is the one you're shooting for.
What I do when I partial mash is preheat the oven to 150 (check with a thermometer), then preheat around a gallon and a half of water on the stove to 160. Add the grain bag, cover, and pop it in the stove to let it soak. Meanwhile, start heating up the rest of the water. Give the grains at least 30 minutes to steep, then add them to the pot and proceed as normal.

Alright, so you just initially want it to be at 160, the second temperature is the desired heat during steeping. Once your done steeping the grains in the original mash I take the grains from that and let them sit in the "Sparge" water which is heated up to 160, then I remove the grains, add the wort from the original mashing pot and then start the hops boil?

When the recipe for extract says 8lb dme and 1.5 lb lme that alone is going to kick the og to some where around 1.085 right? So shouldn't this be changed if you're shooting for the of posted in the recipe?? Just wondering before I brew this if the conversion posted for the original all grain is correct...

first, i noticed that a partial mash is recomended, but no partial mash recipe is posted, could someone post a partial mash version?
also, we are aloud to tweak this to make it our own. what are the limits of tweaking? can i use a different yeast if i wanted to?

FYI, with the vanilla beans, it says "scrape the insides". I am pretty sure that you want to add those scrapings to your secondary. I just brewed this and just as I was preparing to rinse the scrapings down the sink, my swmbo caught and corrected me

Not sure if I'm going to make this by the end of the month, but it's definitely my next brew. Probably early December.

When I made this I added 10 oz of Makers to 5 gallons. It tasted the best after 6 months of age.

eppo said:

first, i noticed that a partial mash is recomended, but no partial mash recipe is posted, could someone post a partial mash version?
also, we are aloud to tweak this to make it our own. what are the limits of tweaking? can i use a different yeast if i wanted to?

Click to expand...

Of course make it your own, if you think it would make it better go for it. This is just a base, of u want to make it as is great of not, also great just make sure you give a review back here on what it came out like. Have fun!

dunnright00 said:

Not sure if I'm going to make this by the end of the month, but it's definitely my next brew. Probably early December.

Click to expand...

Cool no problem, I'm gonna start up a new round of voting for the December brew of the month comming up so keep an eye out for that as well. I'll link to it from here as well. Just make sure to post your results here.

I was the one who posted the original recipes, so I ran it through BeerSmith to get the PM recipe for you who are interested. I can not vouch for this at all, it's just BeerSmith's recommendation (I rounded the values off so you didn't have to try and measure 2.87 lbs or something like that).

Recipe: Bourbon Vanilla Porter (PM)
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: Partial Mash

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.74 gal
Estimated OG: 1.078 SG
Estimated Color: 30.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.50 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 43.14 %
2.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM) Grain 15.69 %
1.75 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 13.73 %
1.50 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 11.76 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 7.84 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.92 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.92 %
0.75 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 29.1 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
2.00 items Vanilla Bean (Secondary 14.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 7.25 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 9.06 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F


Notes:
------
After primary, slit open 2 vanilla beans. Scrape the insides, chop the pods into quarters, add to secondary fermenter, rack beer onto vanilla. Taste periodically for the correct balance.

Rack to bottling bucket and add 1.5-2.5 oz/gal of Maker's Mark (to your taste).

Added 2 oz of pure vanilla extract and 3 oz of Makers Mark (to 2 gal). Recommended bourbon @ 2.5 oz / gal.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tilldeath said:

When the recipe for extract says 8lb dme and 1.5 lb lme that alone is going to kick the og to some where around 1.085 right? So shouldn't this be changed if you're shooting for the of posted in the recipe?? Just wondering before I brew this if the conversion posted for the original all grain is correct...

Click to expand...

I think the issue here is that you're calculating for a 5 gallon recipe. This is a 5.5 gallon recipe. And just so there is no confusion, it's 1.8 lbs of LME, not 1.5. However, if it's easier to do 1.5 lbs, you could probably get away with raising your DME amount to 8.25 lbs or so. It'll probably be easier to measure out the DME than the LME.

Thanks for catchig that and congrats on having the winning recipe. Can't wait to get this one started!

Just ordered the stuff I need for this recipe. Think I'm going to use the yeast cake from my cream ale to save some money. Just have to read up on how to wash yeast.

So my ingredients come Wednesday. My wife has the flu so we aren't doin anyhing for thanksgiving. So I'm goin to brew it up on thanksgiving. Going to name it H1N1 thanksgiving day porter. Anyone wanna trade?

I had the Swine last week and got the whole week off of work. I was feeling pretty spry by the end of the week, so I was going to brew up a House Pale or something. I was going to name it the Swine Flu Haus, but decided against the whole venture. I figured there was a reason my boss told me to take the week off.

BTW, racked this to secondary last night after 13 days in Primary. I infused some oak chips in my Jim Beam for 2 weeks, and put the oak chips in the secondary. I also quartered two Madagascar "Bourbon-Islands" Vanilla Beans (slit twice the long way) and put those in there.

I tasted it before putting the stopper on. There wasn't any real oak or vanilla flavor yet (I had JUST racked it) but the beer had a REAL nice roasted malt character that is really going to be complemented by those flavors. I have very high hopes for this beer. If you haven't brewed this up yet, I would strongly recommend you do so soon.

It's been about a month since the last update from anyone. Who has been working on this? Where is it at? How is it going?

Mine has been sitting on the oak chips and vanilla beans in secondary for a little over a month now. I tasted it, and there was a real nice roast character, and the bourbon oak flavor was really starting to come through. The vanilla flavor was VERY understated, too understated even.

I racked the beer off of the oak chips and vanilla beans, and then racked it back to the secondary with a third vanilla bean, hoping to infuse a bit more vanilla flavor. I'll be bottling this up in a week or two, and I'm hoping to use the KreamyX priming formula to get an extra silky head.

I noticed today that there were some oils floating on top of the beer, I'm assuming from the vanilla beans. Has anybody noticed this? I'm sure the beer will taste fine, but I'm hoping it won't affect the head retention.

I still have mine in the primary it won't finish. It's stuck at 1.027. I brewed up a quick nut brown ale with the same yeast and it will be ready Tuesday.
At that point I going to rack the porter ontop of that cake.
I've sampled it and it's tasty so far.

Well eppo, if I didn't know better, I would swear that we're the only two brewing this.

You pitching the porter on your yeast cake tonight?

its sitting right behind me bubbling away. probably give it another week or 2, then move it to secondary.

Tilldeath said:

Thanks for catchig that and congrats on having the winning recipe. Can't wait to get this one started!

Click to expand...

Tilldeah, you put all this work in, did you even participate in it? If so, how's it going? I've started traveling for work, so I'm a bit behind schedule, but I'm hoping to bottle this weekend.

Anyone else, BrewRI? This was originally your idea, anything? Anybody? (don't worry eppo, we're cool )

Sorry haven't been as involved in this thread, but have mine bottled and should be checkingin it out in about 2weeks, can't wait to see how it tastes.

went and picked up the 2 vanilla beans. not exactly what i thought they would look like, thought they would be round, but i guess they look like thin green beans (but black)? do they all look like this?
and how much bourbon did you guys add to your brews?

Well yeah the beans are supposed to look like that, I did a vodka soak and then pitched em in, but I did 4 beans cause I wanted the vanilla to be super up front.

Oh also I used about 10oz. Of burbon in mine however given the amount of vanilla I feel maybe 2-4 oz more would have helped with the balance. I'm not a big burbon fan for theist part so for me a lite flavor is perfect.

how long should this sit in my secondary? should i taste it after a week? i'm not exactly sure how much vanilla flavor should be in there since i have nothing to compare this to.

well mine is finally finished. did anyone else actually brew this? want to swap yeast samples?

Well this may be ridiculous but...

My friends and I have been meaning to make this since the brew of the month thread back in November.

As of yesterday it has been in the bottle 1 week.

Patiently.

The brew went very well. OG - 1.082, FG - 1.018 8.3ABV
We had 60L on hand and subbed it in for the 40L.
2 Vanilla beans in secondary.
Used Buffalo Trace during bottling.
By my calculations the whiskey ups the ABV to about 8.9%.
Got a great yeild out of this. We normal get 40-44 bottles out of a 5 gallon batch.
We got great efficiency and were able to top off the carboy.
Ended up with 6 - 22 oz. and 40 - 12 oz. bottles.

Now we just play the waiting game.

I brewed this up as well. Cracked my first bottle a few weeks ago, and it tastes great, but it needed a little more time in the bottle, I'll be cracking another one this weekend.

Eppo - I'm down to swap a few if you're interested.

Well, a year later I'm finally going to make this! LOL!!

Gonna get the ingredients this week, but prolly won't brew until next weekend.