Non-charcoal Porter recipe?

I was at a Dallas Humperdink's a few weeks ago, where they brew their own beer. I really enjoyed their porter, which was dark amber, smooth, nicely sweet without the usual strong charcoal / roasted grain taste that most porters have. I know this is a desired taste for many folks, but I am not too fond of it.

I found this porter to be a good cold-month beer, and would like to brew it. Does anyone know of a good porter recipe for an extract brewer that does not have a strong charcoal / roasted aftertaste? I contacted the restaurant, but don't know if they will respond. I've been sampling commercial porters for a while to try to emulate, but no luck yet. I appreciate any guidance.

That "burnt" taste comes from black patent or roasted barley. I agree with you that too many porters use it. To me, it's a stout flavor. I very much like it, but in a porter, I'm looking for a smoother flavor.

You want to use chocolate malt and just a bit of 60L crystal malt to get you there. I don't know what batch size you're making, but just use a recipe calculator or software to add enough extract to get the gravity right, then enough chocolate/60L to get the color right. I like some finishing hops in my porter...say about 5 minutes from the end of the boil.

Here's a recipe that's always a hit on my taps (for 12 gallons, all-grain):
20 lbs 2-row
4 lbs Chocolate
2 lbs Crystal (60L)
2 oz Centennial - 60 minutes
1 oz Centennial - 5 minutes
White Labs California yeast

It's a nice, smooth porter. If you need help resizing your recipe or making an extract recipe out of it, post and let us know what size batch you're making.

Cheers!

I like the roasted malt flavor also, but like you, in stout only. I also prefer a porter without it.

I'd look to make a 5g or 5 1/4 g recipe using extract and specialty grains. I am not yet brewing all-grain; perhaps next year.

Thanks for the help!

thor, this is from my HBS in Houston - DeFalco's

BRITISH PORTER

Dark brown, roasty, some hop bite, malty smooth
6 lbs. amber malt extract
1 lb. British pale malt
1 lb. medium crystal malt
10 oz. chocolate malt
1/4 lb. Special "B" malt
2 oz. black patent malt (optional)
3/4 oz. Target or Northdown hops (bittering)
1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (flavoring)
1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (finishing)
2/3 cup brown sugar (for priming)
1 pkg. Safale S-04 (or Wyeast #1028, #1968 or White Labs British, Burton, or English)
1 pkg. Bru-Vigor (yeast food)
O.G. - 1.048 -- F.G. - 1.012
obviously, delete the black patent malt :~)

Something like this will put you in the ballpark:

6 lbs DME
1.75 lbs Chocolate malt steeped
.5 lbs 60L Crystal steeped
1 oz Centennial (assuming 10% alpha) - 60 minutes
.5 oz Centennial - 5 minutes

That Porter will have some hop flavor (not much), so omit or reduce the last hop addition, or make it earlier if you don't want that. Also, if you want it more on the sweet/less dark side do something like 1.5 lbs chocolate and .75 crystal.

Cheers!

Hey Janx!

Im back and going to start brewin again, I think I am going to brew up this porter recipe you have here. Seems like a simple one for me to get back into it with.