Please give me feedback on my Chocolate Gingerbread Porter Recipe

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noslenwerd

noslenwerd

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Okay first off the base porter recipe is based on a Black Butte clone as I wanted to use a more chocolately/non-roasty porter base. I wanted to try and give it a gingerbread kick, but have not worked with any of the typical gingerbread ingredients in beer before. So any feedback/advise from people who may have used any of the following spices would be appreciated. How much would you use for a 6 gallon batch, as well as when would you use them. ie: During boil, during fermentation etc.

Gingerbread ingredients
12 parts molasses
3 parts ginger (going to use fresh ginger, not ground)
1 part ground nutmeg
1 part ground cloves
1 part ground cinnamon
1 part vanilla

Base Porter Recipe (Based on Black Butte)

OG: 1.058
FG: 1.012
IBU 37
Boil Time: 90 min
Intermediate rest: 130F at 10 min
Conversion: 156F 60 minutes.
Mash Out: 160F 10min
Sparge: 170F 45min
Ferment: < 64F
Pre Boil Volume: 7.7 gallon (6 gallon batch)

MALT
10.58lb - Pale Malt
1.39lb - Wheat
.70lb - Crystal 80
.42lb - Chocolate Malt (American)
.42lb - Chocolate Malt (Great Britian)
.42lbs - Kara Pils

HOPS
.60oz Galena 90min
.25oz Cascade 30min
.25oz Tettnanger 5min

YEAST
WLP 002 English Yeast
 
This maybe a weird idea, but make some gingerbread cookies and add some the mash.
 
I just brewed a gingerbread brown ale and suggest this array of spices, it smelled and tasted PERFECT when I took a gravity reading. I had SWMBO smell it and got a wide-eyed wow because it was so gingerbread-like. I got the ratios from Radical Brewing.

for 5.25 gallons, ground and dried spices:

1 gram allspice
1 gram cloves
2 grams ginger
4 grams cinnamon

I did a 4.25 gallon batch so reduced everything by 20%. For a six gallon batch, increase everything by 20%.

Add all spices with 5min left in the boil and stir vigorously to be sure it doesn't just stick to the sides of your kettle.

If you're using fresh ginger, I'm not sure how to adjust it... I was going to use fresh but decided to use powdered because I wanted it to turn out right. Also, idk what you're going for but I'm going for a bready gingerbread beer with no hop flavor at all. I think the late addition in your recipe might conflict with the spices and I'm not sure what the point of the 30min addition is. I kept the IBUs a little under style for a brown ale.

I didn't think about vanilla, that'll probably be really nice.
 
for more of a chocolatey flavor you could also try cocoa nibs in the secondary. I used a small bag of them in a smoked porter I did and loved how it turned out.
 
bovineblitz said:
I just brewed a gingerbread brown ale and suggest this array of spices, it smelled and tasted PERFECT when I took a gravity reading. I had SWMBO smell it and got a wide-eyed wow because it was so gingerbread-like. I got the ratios from Radical Brewing.

for 5.25 gallons, ground and dried spices:

1 gram allspice
1 gram cloves
2 grams ginger
4 grams cinnamon

I did a 4.25 gallon batch so reduced everything by 20%. For a six gallon batch, increase everything by 20%.

Add all spices with 5min left in the boil and stir vigorously to be sure it doesn't just stick to the sides of your kettle.

If you're using fresh ginger, I'm not sure how to adjust it... I was going to use fresh but decided to use powdered because I wanted it to turn out right. Also, idk what you're going for but I'm going for a bready gingerbread beer with no hop flavor at all. I think the late addition in your recipe might conflict with the spices and I'm not sure what the point of the 30min addition is. I kept the IBUs a little under style for a brown ale.

I didn't think about vanilla, that'll probably be really nice.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much bovine.

When did you add the rest of the spices? Into the boil?
 
Any idea how many grams a stick of cinnamon is? There is a store near me that has fresh spices and would like to use a stick.
 

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