American Porter Black Butte Porter

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: London ESB - Wyeast 1968
Yeast Starter: Per Mr. Malty
Batch Size (Gallons): 6.0
Original Gravity: 1.061
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU: 27.5
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 27.4 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 4 @ 64; 6 @ 68-70 for diacetyl rest and trying to get the FG as low as possible.

The grain bill is straight off of 'Can You Brew It' for the Deschutes Black Butte porter. I know some people have issues with posting these sort of recipes, but my feeling is that it's public information and a damn good porter, so the more people that are exposed to it the better. I changed the bittering hops and aroma hops, but kept the Cascade for flavor... can't taste much for hops in this beer anyhow, so I don't think its a huge difference. I think they used Chinook and Mt. Hood (or Tett from the brewer's recipe). I know the amounts are odd, but I wanted to try it exactly, I'm sure a bump up or down to nice, round numbers wouldn't make a huge difference.

Grain Bill:

10.58 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.95 %
1.39 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 9.98 %
0.70 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.03 %
0.42 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.02 %
0.42 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.02 %
0.42 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 3.02 %

Hop Schedule:

17.00 gm Magnum [13.00 %] (90 min) Hops 23.8 IBU
7.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
7.00 gm Hallertauer [4.80 %] (5 min) Hops 0.7 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Single infusion mash, 154 for 60 mins. According to the recipe, it should be 156, but i missed it and it turned out great.

Man is this a nice porter... Not too roasty, nice chocolate and coffee notes, great mouthfeel from the carapils/wheat additions. Perfect color, not too dark, a little ruby highlighting on the sides, nice tan head and very nice flavor from the Wyeast 1968 yeast, I love that stuff, it has left behind the perfect residual sweetness in both beers I've brewed with it.

I just bottled this a week ago. The sample I took was great. Have never had Deschutes....not available here, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Did you notice that the recipe is very similar to the brown ale in Brewing Classic Styles? I think it's Janet's Brown. People seem to love that beer.

Nice, you will love it once it's carbed up, i'm having one right now... I haven't cross referenced it with the brown ale from BCS, i'll have to go take a look at it.

I've never had a deschutes either, no one carries it locally... I'm looking forward to trying it when I can find some on a trip.

My black butte porter is boiling away I type this. It smells great!

I could be wrong about this but I think that tasty did a hydration at 130 for ten minutes before bringing the temp up to 156 for 60. I followed this method today, the lauter was really clear and easy. Think it makes a difference?

android said:

[

Click to expand...

dude your porter looks delicious.

android said:

Nice, you will love it once it's carbed up, i'm having one right now... I haven't cross referenced it with the brown ale from BCS, i'll have to go take a look at it.

I've never had a deschutes either, no one carries it locally... I'm looking forward to trying it when I can find some on a trip.

Click to expand...

I'm going to have to try this. BBP was my favorite beer in highschool. Too bad you can't get Dechutes. They were one of THE original microbreweries in the country with really excellent beers, but their quality has gone down a little with their rise in popularity. Still pretty good though.

philrose said:

My black butte porter is boiling away I type this. It smells great!

I could be wrong about this but I think that tasty did a hydration at 130 for ten minutes before bringing the temp up to 156 for 60. I followed this method today, the lauter was really clear and easy. Think it makes a difference?

Click to expand...

He definately doughed in at the lower temp and then ramped it up. I thought about doing it but decided against it. I know it's a pretty common commercial brewing practice, but I don't know what difference it makes. Maybe I'll look it up.

Still waiting on my beer to finish. I stuck one in the fridge last night so I'll get a taste later.

Ok. Found this from Palmer's "How to Brew". Some people seem to be in favor of it, some not. I'm guessing that commercially, Deshutes is making use of less modified malts in order to get some different flavor profiles.

14.4 The Protein Rest and Modification

Modification is the term that describes the degree of breakdown during malting of the protein-starch matrix (endosperm) that comprises the bulk of the seed. Moderately-modified malts benefit from a protein rest to break down any remnant large proteins into smaller proteins and amino acids as well as to further release the starches from the endosperm. Fully-modified malts have already made use of these enzymes and do not benefit from more time spent in the protein rest regime. In fact, using a protein rest on fully modified malts tends to remove most of the body of a beer, leaving it thin and watery. Most base malt in use in the world today is fully modified. Less modified malts are often available from German maltsters. Brewers have reported fuller, maltier flavors from malts that are less modified and make use of this rest.

spaced this thread... yes, he does do the protein rest. i haven't even tried one yet and use a cooler MLT, so i don't know exactly how i'd do it, decided against it... seems to me like the white wheat malt is the only one that would benefit from it, and it's only ~1.5 lbs (not sure how modified it is)... can't hurt though. this beer keeps getting better, i friggin love it. perfect time of year for a good porter too.

I did the protein rest. Using brewpal to calculate, this was my mash


70 minutes, 9.7 gallons
Strike
Target 130°F 4.6 gallons
139°F
10 minutes (+0)

Infusion 1
Target 156°F 2.5 gallons
212°F
60 minutes (+10)

do you use a cooler MLT? and i'm having trouble reading that exactly, but does it indicate that you struck with 4.6 gal at 139, then added 2.5 gal at 212 to reach 156? and if this is how you did it, wouldn't it make a super thin mash? not that it probably matters all that much, i'm just curious to know if that would have any impact on the fermentability (i.e. making it too fermentable). stoked that you brewed it though! can't wait to see a pic of it to compare.

yeah sorry about the silly format, I cut and pasted from brew pal...

Yes, I'm using a 10 gal water cooler. The mash was pretty thin. I batch sparged with 2.5 gallons of water and had wort to spare. I was happy with my numbers on that batch though, only missed the gravity by two points. I think If I had a wider pot this one would have been on the money.

finally, I pitched onto a huge cake of english yeast leftover from my ordinary bitter.

Next day there was a 'splosion. suits me right for not rigging a blowoff.

I do stovetop ag with small batches. Not that you care, but...

I think this is going to be very nice. Taste at 2 weeks in bottle was green, but you can see the potential here. I think around Christmas this will be rocking.

post some pics when you get one poured. i'm anxious to hear how it tastes once it's fully bottle conditioned.

kegged this beer yesterday, needs some time to carb up, but the flat & warm beer tasted great!

android said:

post some pics when you get one poured. i'm anxious to hear how it tastes once it's fully bottle conditioned.

Click to expand...

Mmmm....




This stuff is awesome! Nice toasty aroma, dry enough to be drinkable in quantity, pretty lacing as you drink it, great "warming alcohol."

I'm tempted to run to the store for a sixer and compare.

apologies for the crappy blackberry picture

nice! looks deelicious!

I brewed a porter based on this recipe this weekend. ran with the following recipe (5 gallon):
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 row) US (2.0 SRM)
1 lb 6 oz Wheat Malt, US (2.0 SRM)
11 oz Caramel/Crystal malt - 80L (80 SRM)
6 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
12 oz Chocolate Malt (328-432 SRM)

HOP BILL:
.55 oz Magnum Hops (60 minutes) (Whole Leaf)
.28 oz Cascade (30 minutes) (Pellet)
.28 oz Hallertauer (3 minutes) (Pellet)

YEAST:
Wyeast - London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968)

I had gotten this month's Brew Magazine and put it in my briefcase; pulled it out this morning and saw there was an article on porters in it and who was interviewed? Larry Sidor of the Deschutes Brewery, and he gave hints.

I think the Can You Brew It? recipe is pretty good, but Larry indicates that they go for a 50 IBU target, making the 29 IBU of our recipes a little low. I think the British Ale yeast is in line with his recommendations, but he indicated that they use Nugget hops on the front end and a small amount of Willamette on the tail end. He also indicated that they go for a fairly low degree of mash fermentability. I'd say this indicates a mash temp of 154-156.

Larry says that Black Butte is fermented at a relatively low 63 degrees. I'm just going to have to deal with my apartment's 68-70.

Finally, he said that they use finings on a batch to batch basis. I tossed in a tab of whirlfloc 15 minutes from the end of my 90 minute boil.

All in all, my brew day went very smoothly. The wort looked crystal clear and a deep dark dark caramely brown. Tasted sweet and delicious. I ended up with a OG of 1.066 and, after adding my starter, had pretty vigorous airlock activity 5 hours later.

I plan on bottling in about 3 weeks if my schedule holds, and will post an update a couple of weeks later when I pour my first. Depending on how it tastes, I might tweak the recipe a bit to conform more with Larry's tips and try the recipe again.

NYCHomebrewer

i bet yours will turn out really similar, it looks like the only major change is the one type of chocolate instead of two?

interesting the comments from larry sidor, on the can you brew it podcast, they talk to jimmy seifrit, and IIRC, they give slightly different info on that porter... and the IBU i think the CYBI guys changed to reflect how bitterness comes out on their own system... i've got that issue, but haven't read all the way through the porter section, i'll have to check it out.

looking forward to hearing how this turns out!

android said:

i bet yours will turn out really similar, it looks like the only major change is the one type of chocolate instead of two?

interesting the comments from larry sidor, on the can you brew it podcast, they talk to jimmy seifrit, and IIRC, they give slightly different info on that porter... and the IBU i think the CYBI guys changed to reflect how bitterness comes out on their own system... i've got that issue, but haven't read all the way through the porter section, i'll have to check it out.

looking forward to hearing how this turns out!

Click to expand...

Yes, I seem to remember that they didn't go by measured ibus but instead by percieved taste based on rager

Yeah, my local homebrew shop only had the one type of chocolate malt. It seemed to span the appropriate range though, so I just decided to make do. They say why use one grain when two will do, as that adds complexity and depth to a beer, so I guess mine could be lacking in depth, but there are still like five different grains in there. I don't think it will make much of a difference.

My apt is kept at about 68 degrees. Its been fermenting away for two days now with the airlock burbling rapidly and lulling me to sleep at night. The heat of fermentation drove the temp all the way up to 75-76. Nothing I can do though. Its New York after all.

well, it might be a little estery, but who cares, it will still be a great beer... and i've noticed the range of lovibond on the grain buckets... i wonder if there is that variability within each batch or if each batch has a slightly different rating... but you're right, i'm sure it will be just fine.

Boiling away on another batch of this right now.

Beer is looking and smelling absolutely perfect. I love this recipe.

amen! i'm still chipping away at my keg, it's almost gone... did you do anything differently this time phil?

just a hop substitution, had to use magnum for bittering, still had mt hood and cascade for the other additions though. Shouldn't matter much at all.

I stuck with the 130 rest, got slightly better efficiency. OG was 1.062 instead of the 1.058. Just a smooth brewday, not much to report

Super excited about this one. This will be my first porter. My friend from Portland is coming to visit me in new york during the first weekend in April. Its his favorite beer, so i am hoping the grain i just ordered will arrive in time. Probably not, but it would be nice.

Any additional tips for this one are gratefully welcomed.

Despite the lack of temperature control on my ferment, I still got an average of 36/50 points on this beer in a recent competition. Not enough to place, but I was definitely in the running. This beer is a definite repeat brew for me. Despite fermenting hot, the esters were still only a background flaw. I have no doubt that this is a potential competition winner.

Was that the homebrewalley 4th comp? I submitted an ESB to that and got a 34. My first comp, and it was pretty cool to see the resulting score sheet. What were the criticisms of your recipe?

Yes. Homebrewalley 4. Pretty much what I expected. Some esters and to watch my ferment temperature and pitch rates. Described it as very drinkable.

I also entered an ESB and got an average of 34! Said it was slightly out of style. It was a kit brew though and if I would not brew it again.

I am an idiot, who did not scale down the recipe posted on the first page. I made 5 gallons using 10.5 lbs 2 row, 1.5 white wheat, 0.75 crystal 80, 0.5 carapils, and 1 lbs chocolate

brewed this last night and got an OG: 1.078

that should be a nice, high gravity porter!

If this recipe really comes out like the real thing, you should still have a tasty beer. Black Butte has quite a bit of hop character to it, so even though yours your be a little maltier, it'll still be good.

ChshreCat said:

If this recipe really comes out like the real thing, you should still have a tasty beer. Black Butte has quite a bit of hop character to it, so even though yours your be a little maltier, it'll still be good.

Click to expand...

It does, you gotta try it cat. Its your duty as a PNW'r

philrose said:

It does, you gotta try it cat. Its your duty as a PNW'r

Click to expand...

Funny... Black Butte was always my standard beer. Pretty much all I drank. Then when I started brewing, I started buying all different beers to try different styles and whatnot. Hadn't had Black Butte in most of a year until I bought a sixer just the other day. I almost forgot how good it was. I'll definitely be giving a shot at this sometime soon.

Just got the goods in today for a brew-tiful weekend! Got the grains for a 12 gallon batch... any recommendations where I should be for the hops?

not sure what you mean grinch. you mean scaling up the hops for 12 gallons?

yes, exactly.

do you have beersmith or one of those programs? if not, try using beercalculus or one of the online calculators to move everything into 12 gallons. without putting the numbers into one of those programs, I don't know what exactly your amounts would be.