Edmund Fitzgerald Porter Clone - BYO

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Dynachrome

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Copied from my other thread.

Brew night. This will be my first attempt at a dark beer.

....three hours later. Oh man. I should have done this a long time ago. The wort smells awesome. Roasty-chocolaty-hopppy heaven.

I'm straining every last teaspoonful of tannin laden wort from the mash-tun too.

Slightly modified from The best of Brew your Own - 250 Classic Clone Recipes
22 lbs - 2 Row pale malt
2.2 lbs - 2 Vienna Malt
1.5 lbs - Crystal Malt 60L
1 lb chocolate malt 350L
1 lb roast barley 450L

___________________________
27.7lbs - total

Minimum water 1.5x27.7lbs grains - approx 11 gallons
I may add a little extra for grain absorption.
0.2 gallons absorbed per lb of grain = 5.5 extra
18.5 gallons total

Mash 8.5 gal at 160 deg F

Take first runnings and leave grain bed really wet.

Sparge 1, 4 gal at 180 deg F dropped to 163 deg F, "modified fly" w/dwell at 20 minutes.

Sparge 2, 4 gal at 180 deg F dropped to 163 "modified fly" then drain.

About 12 gallons Pre-boil. ...one gallon too many (again)....

Hops

60 min. - 2.0 oz Northern Brewers pellet
30 min. - 1.5 oz Fuggles pellet
3 min. - 2.20 oz Cascade whole leaf hop. (1.1x original 2 oz).
(I bought a scale because I over did it on the Ale version of this recipe)

Cooled a sample to get specific gravity.

Took a sample and cooled for SG. 1.066 after slow rolling boil.


Cooled overnight in a "Gales of November" garage.

Left out the yeast nutrient - changed the yeast - Ive been having good luck with dry Safale s-04 dry ale yeast.

Start yeast in 1 cup room temperature water for a few minuets till you see activity. Pitch yeast and cover pot.


Tastes tangy and roasty, this will probably have a lingering tin, but I like hat. Too early to tell - it will probably change a lot after fermenting and over the next few weeks bottle conditioning.
 
Bottled tonight. It had a final gravity of 1.014. The taste was a little red-like but roasty and fairly well rounded. I put it in Grolsch bottles.
 
Popped the cork on one of these last night. I put them in Grolsch bottles. This one had a little foam on top of it. I didn't have enough new rubbers for all of my bottles so I re-used about four of the old ones. this was one of them. I think it may not have sealed enough and was leting co2 form on top.

It should turn out to be a nice satisfying beer.
 
I'm doing this one again. I plan on doing the pumpkin Porter afterwards with the spent grain bed like I did last year. People liked that one for some reason.

I called ahead to the LHBS to order grain. I made it there before he got a grain bill out of the 250 Classic Clone Recipes magazine. I looked at my grain bill Vs the book - good thing mine is pretty different.

I'll have to come up with a different name too. I had an E.F.P last summer. The original is way heavier and not to my taste. It is considerably heavier than the Summit Great Norther Porter.

So - hijack my own thread - I had a Summit 25 Year Anniversary a couple nights back. I enjoyed it very much. It was full bodied and quite hoppy. I can't tell you IBU's, but I'd say on the order of Bells Two Hearted.

I have the grain ground and warming up to room temp. Too late to boil tonight.

...the pumpkin is browning in the oven for the other batch too.
 
How close is this to the original? What differences do you note?

Either way, it sounds like you're really enjoying it, so brew on! EF is one of my favorite porters; it's really well done in almost every way.
 
I think the real Edmund Fitzgerald is much maltier and heavier. It has a lot more going on and it seemed hoppier in the bitter range.

Mine had a bit more aroma. I dry hopped at the last three minute interval.
 
This may become a seasonal thing. This one is a beer I really like and got some compliments on.

We're giving it another shot. This time I think we'll go right into the Pumpkin after doing the porter without letting the grain bed sit like last year.
 
How close is this to the original? What differences do you note?

Either way, it sounds like you're really enjoying it, so brew on! EF is one of my favorite porters; it's really well done in almost every way.

The recipe I have is not as heavy as the Great Lakes version. It comes close to Summit Great Northern Porter actually - by accident.

I had a bottle of EF up in the UP earlier this summer. It had a bi t of a burnt flavor to it. I think there were more hops/IBUs, but I'm not a certified judge...

Too much going on there for my personal tastes.
 
The Specific Gravity when I pitched my yeast was 1.070

The temperature in the HDPE buckets was 50 degrees.

Maybe I'll do the calcs to adjust for temp later. That should drop it down a bit.
 
Our final gravity was 1.016. My wife helped bottle.

Man, bottling can be a lot of work.

Now the waiting. Four weeks minimum for bottle conditioning.
 
When we bottled this last batch, I forgot the prinimg sugar in the bottling bucket at first. I added iy to the bucket after we already had a few six packs capped.

I'm finding I look forward to the ones that weren't primed.

I had started using black caps. After I primed the bottling bucket, we switched to a different color cap to tell them apart.

They have a lighter carbonation and are somewhat smoother to drink.
 
I didn't get back to rate this batch. It is being consumed at a rapid pace. It's about time to do another batch.

...I can't even blame it on scurvy pirates!
 
I didn't get back to rate this batch. It is being consumed at a rapid pace. It's about time to do another batch.

...I can't even blame it on scurvy pirates!

....That time of year again. It was 45 degrees Tuesday morning. We're heading into winter in the north-woods.

I picked up the ingredients. I purchased one each, Safeale S-04 and S-05. I'm thinking of doing a split batch to see what the different yeast characteristics are.

:D
 
I love split batches. Nothing's better to help you dial in on the differences an ingredient switch can make. Hope it goes well.
 
I'm just getting around to this today. ...Packer game starting up in the background.

I helped one of my co-workers with car troubles a few times over the last year. They gave me a box of the CZ flip tops from my LHBS and as a thank-you. ...totally unnecessary, but it is appreciated.

I took it down and traded it for another carboy, so I have double my old safe fermenting capacity. I'm a little worried it will make me lazy, that I'll leave it in the fermentor way longer than necessary.

We shall see.
 
Same grain bill different hop schedule:

1-2/3 oz. Northern Brewer (BSG) 9.3 AA - first-wort-hops
2 oz. Chinook - (home grown) @25 minutes
1 oz. Fuggle Hop (BSG) @15 minutes
1/3 oz. Northern Brewer (BSG) 9.3 AA @ 3 minutes

14 gallons post-boil. ...cooling on the back deck in the cold November wind.
 
Never tried edmund fitzgerald but i got one in the fridge from a recent trade.
 
Dynachrome said:
What do you normally like to drink?
IPAs are my choice drink followed by American wheat beers then lagers. I enjoy a good lower gravity stout once in a while (that's why Edmund is catching my eye)

How about yourself?
 
I'm thinking the EFP will be too "out there" for you. It was over the top for me.

See if you can dig up Summit - Great Northern Porter.

I am a big fan of IPAs also. Ever have Bell's - Two Hearted? It's my current favorite. ...Ranger is right in there too.

I found a recipe here for Boddington's Bitter that I really like. It drinks much like Smithwick's.
 
On this night 38 years ago the Edmund Fitzgerald went to the bottom of Lake Superior with her crew of 29. Hats off to her crew.
 
ColdToes said:
On this night 38 years ago the Edmund Fitzgerald went to the bottom of Lake Superior with her crew of 29. Hats off to her crew.
I wish I would have known this yesterday. I would have opened my bottle in remembrance to the 29 that passed.
 
aeviaanah PM me your address - I'll see if I can get one sent out. ..no promises.

I've got three bottles I was going to send to a friend in Germany boxed - (it's been over a year). Part of that is shipping is damned expensive though.

For my own records.

OG was 1.057

F.G was 1.014 for both yeast selections.

It tasted great going into the bottles.
 
I just bottled a batch today. It tasted great out of the fermenter. I have been strictly kegging in the 21st century and haven't bottled beer since the late 1990s, but my new brew partner wanted bottles so that's what we did. Hope we don't get as much foam as Dynachrome.

OG was 1.064
FG 1.018

Can't wait.
 
I still have the last twelve pack of this. It has matured into a really neat beer. It has hints of raisin.

I'm going to enter it in the People's Choice competition at my brew club competition later this spring.
 
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