English Porter Black Pearl Porter (AG)

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Hey buddies, I just brewed this up tonight. I am a little surprised because my original gravity was 1.051 and that seems a little low. I am not sure what I did wrong, when I sparged the final run was almost clear. I mashed it for 1 hour. Any ideas?

I am sure it will taste great, I just want to see if 1.051 is a normal original gravity or if I did something wrong.
 
I've been brewing for several years and this is the first time I've brewed a beer that has essentially no head retention, nor lacing. The taste is good, if not a bit sweet for my liking, but the head disappears like that of a Coke when poured from the keg. It's been on CO2 for a few weeks, so it should be good. Anyhow, strange. I wonder if anyone else has had this issue with this beer.
 
Well, I've brewed this one twice (one is still fermenting) and believe it had fairly good lacing. There wasn't much of a head on it but it wasn't non-existent either. I think this is a pic of the beer but my memory of that day is a bit fuzzy.

Also, my OG on both batches was closer to 1080. Based on the final run being clear I'm wondering if you maybe had channels in the grain bed preventing a good clean sweep. I always fly sparge as slowly as possible and use rice hulls a lot. I've never had that problem. I guess you did a batch sparge? View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1425704169.593085.jpg
 
Yes, I've always batch sparged, but never ran into this issue. I hit my numbers right on, so not sure what to attribute it to. I'll have no problem finishing the keg, but it's interesting how something like lack of head retention and lacing can impact the overall experience. I'd never thought of it until I brewed a beer that was lacking in these areas.
 
Redcat said:
Brewed this and forgot the oats. Even without the oats, I like it.

OG was 1.058 and FG was 1.020.
Click to expand...

I've brewed this 4 times total now. Since I liked the beer so much without the oats the first time, I've made all 4 without oats.

The last time I made this beer, I fermented with Wyeast 3711 for our local homebrew club's Ironbrewer challenge. The challenge was you had to use 3711 and 1/4lb of midnight wheat malt (550L).

I just added the midnight wheat malt to this recipe. Didn't adjust any other parts of the recipe except excluding oats.

Main fermentation was at 68F for two weeks. Starting OG was 1.064 and FG 1.008.

It tastes amazing, super silky smooth. :mug:
 
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THnking of brewing a 10 gal batch of this and splitting into two 5 gals...one I will leave alone and the other will become a choc pumpkin porter. Will use S04, Nugget/Magnum and some other low alpha in my freezer

:mug:
 
Made 10 gallons today, omitted the lactose, all else according to the recipe. Split between 2 carboys, going to leave one as is, and add cocoa nibs and vanilla beans to the other in the secondary. Efficiency was a bit lower that expected, but otherwise all went well. Can't wait to try this one!
 
Man, hella good job Biermuncher, made this one 5 weeks ago, spent 2 weeks in the fermenter and three weeks in the bottle. Damn this is good! I think next time I will try making this with Vanilla Bean and maybe try my hand at doing some whiskey burbon chips.
 
Hey guys, would this make a good base for a snickerdoodle porter? Thinking about going with this and adding a but more lactose and some vanilla beans and cinnamon. It seems like it would be a pretty good fit?
 
ehartunian said:
Made 10 gallons today, omitted the lactose, all else according to the recipe. Split between 2 carboys, going to leave one as is, and add cocoa nibs and vanilla beans to the other in the secondary. Efficiency was a bit lower that expected, but otherwise all went well. Can't wait to try this one!
Click to expand...

Keep us posted -- I was thinking to do the exact same thing with this recipe.
 
Quick Question,
Could a cup of granular splenda replace the malto-dextrin and lactose?
Granular splenda is 98% malto-dextrin with sucralose added for sweetening.
Sucralose like lactose will not ferment.
 
mredge73 said:
Quick Question,
Could a cup of granular splenda replace the malto-dextrin and lactose?
Granular splenda is 98% malto-dextrin with sucralose added for sweetening.
Sucralose like lactose will not ferment.
Click to expand...

To produce some extra sweetness, sure. But it won't be like lactose sweetness
 
If I were to add PB2 to this, should I up the bittering hops a bit? Or would peanut butter slide right in? what about cacao nibs?
 
plan to brew this next exept im omitting the sweet additions and adding a lb of amber malt and using bramling cross for hops cause thats what i have on hand.

I have always used 1/2 lb chocolate, 1/2 patent , 1/2 lb caramel as a base for my porter flavours so im looking forward to trying this chocolate malt only for roasted malts..
 
I skipped the sweet addtions (don't like sweet porter/stout) and added a lb of amber malt instead of crystal cause its what I had on hand.. subbed bram cross hops cause its what I had too :)


Turned out awesome, very smooth , nice alternative to my usual black bitter porters which I love.


very easy drinkin
 
I'm pretty new to brewing but I'm doing a 1 gallon batch of this today. Do the boil times mean for example add the first fuggles 60 minutes before its done, or you boil fuggles 60 minutes, add next fuggles and boil two minutes, then add Irish moss..... Etc?

Quick help would be very appreciated!
 
Been without a porter in the pipeline as I have been brewing Summer beers. Just put the grain order in with my LHBS and will pick up on the way home from work. Brewing this on Sunday.
 
Picked up my ingredients for this brew today at my LHBS and one of the guys there (a respectable brewer) had suggested that I could eliminate the Malto-Dextrine and mash at 152 instead.

He also strongly encouraged me not to mash at 158, especially when using the Malto-Dextrine. He said it would end up way too sweet.

I trust Biermuncher and I've been reading great things about this recipe.

What's your thoughts, especially if you've brewed this recipe?
 
Follow the recipe precisely at least once - you won't be sorry. Play with it and make it your own the next time around.
 
Follow what the master brewer offered you the chance to experience. It is a winner and why overthink something without trying it first. Establish your base brew, think the next steps through and then decide what is best for you to do next time.
 
Vanilla beans are your friend on this journey. If you are brave: cut strip and soak beans in bourbon ( I would use two or less if you have not been on this journey before) and if you are not a risk taker use vodka. Get the soaking done now!! Please report back.
 
pigroaster said:
Vanilla beans are your friend on this journey. If you are brave: cut strip and soak beans in bourbon ( I would use two or less if you have not been on this journey before) and if you are not a risk taker use vodka. Get the soaking done now!! Please report back.
Click to expand...

I bought some pure vanilla extract from my LHBS; was looking at vanilla beans next door at a cute little market but they wanted $10 for 3 of them whereas the tiny bottle of Vanilla extract was less than $5. I chickened out and bought the extract.

I'm hoping my yeast isn't bad; started a starter last night, no evidence 15 hours later of anything happening. Thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7653933#post7653933

**************

And as long as I have the line open here: the original recipe in post 1 of this thread shows a mash temp of 158 degrees; I've never done anything more than about 153 degrees, so 158 seems rather high. I was thinking of compromising at maybe 155, but thought I'd ask first. *Is* 158 really high, on purpose? Beta amylase won't be doing much at that temp. I know that should increase mouthfeel and sweetness but that seems rather high to me.
 
Vanilla beans are $7.00 each in Canada so you have a bargain supplier. I get mine when I stay in AZ on line. I would not use the extract but others might. Use the best, taste the best! Others may say you are spot on. I made this a long time ago(2013) and mashed at 153 because I did not heat water high enough (now I go to 178-180 and stir more to cool out to mash termperature). I did mash for 85 minutes to get all the conversion I could from my mistake. Trust me it will be great.
 
mongoose33 said:
I'm doing exactly that on Sunday. Starter is on the stir plate.

Anxious to see how it turns out, I'm planning on adding Vanilla to make a Vanilla Porter out of it.
Click to expand...

I brewed this for the first time myself last Sunday. Had a terrible experience with the yeast pack too, exploded on me when smacking the inner pack. I ended up making a 2L starter with the yeast I had left. Yeast never did much of anything in the starter. I was nervous I was going to have to buy more yeast.

Anyway, went ahead and pitched my starter and the yeast did it's thing in four days. Was amazed how quickly this fermented. I got krausen and everything. Also have the Tilt bluetooth gravity reader in my FastFermenter.
 
Saw this on Beer Smith and will be my next brew - cant wait!! I would like to bump the ABV up a bit and was thinking of going +2 on the base malt to 10lbs. Other than the ABV do you see this dramatically impacting any other characteristic?
 
Vanilla is a good addition to this one (as is the bourbon). I agree with pigroaster that it's better to use real beans instead of extract. That way you know exactly what is going into your beer. The high mash temp is necessary to achieve the character this recipe appears to have been designed for - it's supposed to be sweet.

1028 has always been very "quiet" in my experience. Little to no airlock activity and not much going on in the starters either. Resist the urge to open the bucket and trust that they're doing their job. It always turns out good.

In the end you're going to make beer. 158 or 152, extract or whole beans - whatever your choice it will be beer and it will be good!
 
smit70136 said:
Follow the recipe precisely at least once - you won't be sorry. Play with it and make it your own the next time around.
Click to expand...



pigroaster said:
Follow what the master brewer offered you the chance to experience. It is a winner and why overthink something without trying it first. Establish your base brew, think the next steps through and then decide what is best for you to do next time.
Click to expand...


Good advice. Those were my thoughts but just wanted a bit more reassurance.
 
Thinking about giving this a try, those that did bourbon and vanilla how'd it come out?
 
Brewed this on 7/31; had a couple issues w/ the yeast not doing anything at Biermuncher's specified 60 degree fermentation temps; raised to 65 and it took off (see earlier in the thread).

Today, 12 days later, it looked like it was mostly done, so I took a hydrometer sample and gravity came in at 1.020, more or less where others have ended up. I put the airlock back on, came back an hour later and it's going again. Not very fast, but there is still bubbling going on. I'd hoped I could cold crash it today and keg it on Sunday, but I guess I'll wait a bit longer.

I suspect it may drop another point, maybe two. OG was 1.068, the ABV calculator says 6.3 percent.

Biermuncher specified 7 days in primary, 10 days in secondary, but I've just left it in primary. The sample that I pulled tastes very nice; I can't wait until I can keg it, carb it, add some vanilla to it, and let it age some more.
 
Mine had very little krausen and was not active at all after 3 days. Took a hydro reading and it was at 1.023.

Raised the temp to 65F and no additional activity.

I'm thinking BierMuncher's 60F in the recipe should be interpreted as ambient temp and not actual fermentation temp.
 
Ok, I am really discouraged. I've brewed this twice and had the same issue both times. So I brewed this in early Aug, after 3 weeks cracked my FastFerment Conical and saw a white sludge all over the top. I thought my first infection. I still ended up kegging it, leaving the top inch or so of the sludge still in the conical.

I had taken a picture of the sludge and took the picture to my LHBS and showed it to the owner. He said not to panic, it just looks like some mold on top. He gave me a glass carboy to take home and said to move the beer into the carboy put it in a dark place and see if it happens again. If not it is good. When I cracked the keg open to transfer, it was very clean on top. So I tasted it, tasted fine so I decided to leave it in the keg. In the meantime, I had already bought all the ingredients to make again.

I did not make it again, instead I made a Pumkin Ale, which turned out just fine, no problems. So with the ingredients to make this again I went ahead and brewed this a second time. Well I cracked it open this morning after 3 weeks to check on it, and damn it, I have the white sludge again. See picture below.

I've never brewed with Malto-Dextrine or Lactose before this recipe, is this a result of that? Any help or advice would be appreciated.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1475840304.833718.jpg
 
I don't remember how mine looked, but it was one of the best beers I ever brewed. Have you got to taste the first batch yet?
 
TorMag said:
Ok, I am really discouraged. I've brewed this twice and had the same issue both times. So I brewed this in early Aug, after 3 weeks cracked my FastFerment Conical and saw a white sludge all over the top. I thought my first infection. I still ended up kegging it, leaving the top inch or so of the sludge still in the conical.

I had taken a picture of the sludge and took the picture to my LHBS and showed it to the owner. He said not to panic, it just looks like some mold on top. He gave me a glass carboy to take home and said to move the beer into the carboy put it in a dark place and see if it happens again. If not it is good. When I cracked the keg open to transfer, it was very clean on top. So I tasted it, tasted fine so I decided to leave it in the keg. In the meantime, I had already bought all the ingredients to make again.

I did not make it again, instead I made a Pumkin Ale, which turned out just fine, no problems. So with the ingredients to make this again I went ahead and brewed this a second time. Well I cracked it open this morning after 3 weeks to check on it, and damn it, I have the white sludge again. See picture below.

I've never brewed with Malto-Dextrine or Lactose before this recipe, is this a result of that? Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...


the home brew owner said that looked like mold??? does he not know what a pellicle is (that's kinda scary)? On a related note, check out the pellicle thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=174033&page=232

if your beer is infected (which it is), transferring it to another carboy and waiting for another pellicle will not do anything but possibly increase the chance for oxidization (depending on transferring methods), as well as creating more stuff for you to clean and sanitize. once its infected, its infected.

malto-d and lactose is added during the boil with this recipe with enough time left to completely sanitize it. something that came in contact with the wort (post boil) didn't get sanitized thoroughly enough, resulting in an infection.

clean your carboy, lid/stopper, airlock/blowoff, aeration wand (if you have one), and anything else that came into contact with the wort post boil. clean it very well as you don't want the bugs sticking around and infecting another batch of beer.
 
I had a beer that looked like that, bubbles weren't that big though, just really small ones. Beer ended up being fine, never had an off taste or issues with bottle bombs from something wild fermenting in the bottles.
That said I'm pretty sure the "film" on top isn't from Malto-d or lactose. I've used it in others and never seen that.
 

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