My First Stab at Recipe Formulation

So in the past I have only followed recipies that I was able to find in various places (books, internet, etc.) After purchasing and reading The Brewmasters Bible I decided that it was time to take advantage of it's fairly comprehensive information to formulate my own recipie, following the guidelines listed in the book but calculating everything myself. Let me know what you think about this....



My First Porter

8# 4oz Marris Otter
2# 12oz Vienna
6oz Special B
4oz Chocolate Malt
4oz Black Patent Malt
4oz Roasted Barley

Single step infusion mash 75 minutes at 153 degrees with 10Q water treated with a bit of calcium chloride. Mash out with 5Q 212 degree water. Batch sparge with 18Q 170 degree water.

Boil 80 minutes.
1oz E Kent Goldings (60 minutes)
1oz Styrian Goldings (15 minutes)
1T Irish Moss (15 minutes)

Not sure which yeast I will be using yet but think that I might be leaning towards the british Ale Yeast from White Labs (I can't help it I love those little test tubes)




If calculations came out correct (I haven't sent beersmith my money yet so they won't let me just plug it in there) it should come out to about:

27 IBU
31 SRM
1.064 OG
1.015 FG
~6.4% ABV :rockin:


So check it out and let me know what you all think!?! I should be brewing in about 5 or 6 days so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I would personally up it to 8oz Black Patent, but I like a firmly roasty porter. Looks pretty good though.

Looks pretty darn good so far. Plugging this into Beersmith (which has a free trial, by the way) gives me numbers close to yours, depending on efficiency and batch size. I generally go for a 5.5 to 5.75gal batch to make up for losses to Kettle Krud™ and yeast/trub in the fermenter. That gives me a realistic 5gal into bottles. Your recipe comes up (using my defaults) at 1.066 for 5gal and 1.060 for 5.5gal. I also get a slightly lower IBU number, but that is probably because the Styrian Goldings I've gotten lately have had 4.2%AA rather than the usual 5% or so and I've adjusted Beersmith to account for that.

Anyway, the one concern is the roasted barley. By most accounts it doesn't belong in a porter and is sometimes used as the dividing characteristic that separates porters from stouts. In Designing Great Beers Ray Daniels says in the Porter Style Definitions:

No roast barley. Sharp bitterness of black malt, without high/burnt character. . . "

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All in all it should be a darn good beer, but I'd give some more thought to the roasted barley.

Take care,
Chad

My thoughts on the roasted barley (I've never used it before) were that the small amount would lend some nice roasty and possibly caramel(y) flavor without giving too much bitterness...

TerapinChef said:

My thoughts on the roasted barley (I've never used it before) were that the small amount would lend some nice roasty and possibly caramel(y) flavor without giving too much bitterness...

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Well, the black patent is going to give you a roasty/bitter characteristic as well. You can drop the roasted barley to just a smidgen, 2 oz or so, and it will still subtly come through. Chad is correct though, I've never understood the true difference between Porter and Stout, and roasted barley is usually what I use as the dividing line.

Also, if you're looking for caramel, you could add a mid-level crystal malt, 40L or 60L. While not a porter, I mixed Special B and Crystal 60L (I think) in my Oatmeal Stout, and there's a nice caramel sweetness that mixes well with the bitter attitude.

That's the beauty of brewing it yourself. If you want a roasty flavor in there, then use the roasted barley. I probably wouldn't use it in a porter, but I use it in a stout everytime.

It looks like a solid recipe to me.

My thoughts as well, you might even go to 80 or so on the crystal in a brew like that one. I love a caramel hint in a dark beer.

PseudoChef said:

Well, the black patent is going to give you a roasty/bitter characteristic as well. You can drop the roasted barley to just a smidgen, 2 oz or so, and it will still subtly come through. Chad is correct though, I've never understood the true difference between Porter and Stout, and roasted barley is usually what I use as the dividing line.

Also, if you're looking for caramel, you could add a mid-level crystal malt, 40L or 60L. While not a porter, I mixed Special B and Crystal 60L (I think) in my Oatmeal Stout, and there's a nice caramel sweetness that mixes well with the bitter attitude.

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4 oz in that recipe is around 2% or so of the bill. From my experience, at that percentage, the black patent will greatly contribute to color but not impart much, if any, roasty character at all.

So we're thinking more along the lines of....

6 oz Black Patent (that's my final offer, I don't want it to bitter...)
4 oz Crystal 40 instead of the roasted barley....

I kind of was wondering about that, the Homebrewers Bible, under roasted barley, gives this description...

This is unmalted barley gently and gradually roasted to a rich, dark brown, but it is generally lighter than black barley and smoother and drier than black malt. It is produced in Britain, Belgium, and the United States and is most often used in proters, stouts, Scottish ales, and milds. blah...blah...Imparts bitterness, roast aroma, dark color, and coffee flavor when used in greater quantities.

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But I've never really found a porter recipe with roasted barley in it (which is why I included it in the first place) and it seems to be fairly common knowledge that the roasted barley is a stout ingredient....This is the first beer I'm making that I feel may be worthy of sending in to a competition and I wouldn't want 4oz of grain to make it "uncategorylike" or whatever....