American Porter Bee Cave Brewery Robust Porter

Brewed this via BIAB on Saturday and like many have said the notty is giving a very active ferment.

My room temp is 67, but the fermenter is showing around 73-74. I moved it closer to the floor to hopefully bring down the temp a bit. Should I be worried??? If so, any ideas how to bring the temp down a bit?

Sorry Ed, I skimmed the first few pages but didn't see the answer I was looking for. What kind of IBU's are you shooting for on this brew? I am thinking of replacing the Northern Brewer hops with some Chinook I have in the freezer but don't know how much to use without an IBU range. Thanks.

BTW, this will be the 4th time I've brewed this recipe and I've been happy with it everytime so far. I usually add vanilla beans to secondary. This time around, I'm brewing 10 gallons, 5 will be oak aged vanilla porter and 5 will be the regular robust porter. I may set a gallon aside and fiddle with some chocolate mint as well. I've used this recipe with spearmint in the past and it was a little too much, thought I'd try to find some chocolate mint and use that in a secondary but I'll go easier on the mint this time around.

mbosco said:

Brewed this via BIAB on Saturday and like many have said the notty is giving a very active ferment.

My room temp is 67, but the fermenter is showing around 73-74. I moved it closer to the floor to hopefully bring down the temp a bit. Should I be worried??? If so, any ideas how to bring the temp down a bit?

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Mine fermented right around that temp and it came out great. As far as I know notty isn't a terribly sensitive yeast.

I brewed this one today... I stuck to the recipe exactly except for, I only used 4 ounces of malto dextrin because that's all I had on hand. Brew day went smooth as silk. I hit all my numbers and volumes dead on. I can't wait to taste this, it smelled wonderful!

Brewed another batch of this today.....remembered the malto-dextrin this time. This is shaping up to be a regular in this house.

Tapped this about a week ago. Very well balanced and great mouth feel. Been a hit with everyone that has tried it.

Yep, it's time to brew another batch before winter comes in. It's a great nightcap on a cold night.

I have been brewing for over a year now and I have never used a blow off tube. This batch I decided I should because the fermenter is kind of on the full side. So glad that I did. Two days and the tube is full of krausen and wort.

Very good beer. I did not change the recipe for my first try at it and honestly I don't think I will except for maybe trying vanilla beans. I fermented it in a 7.9g wine bucket with an airlock and did not have any issues. I have been using a 7.9 for bigger beers and batches (6g) and have not had to use an airlock so far, it seems to work well. I do have very good temp control this time of year in my WI basement, and I kept a close eye on this one with a blow off on stand by.

EdWort said:

This ferments vigorously, so use a blow off or be prepared to wipe up some beer.

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Glad I took this advice and used the big blow off tube:

Just brewed this afternoon.

Between a bit higher efficiency and boiling a bit more off than I wanted, ended with a OG of 1.077. Pitched 2 packs of s-05. Look forward to trying it about the time we get a buttload of snow up here!

Just brewed this up yesterday. It was my first all grain and I ended up with 5.5 gallons at about 1.066 og.

Can't wait to try this!

What would be the best water profile for this recipe?? I will be building from ro
Thanks

After hearing great accolades, I decide to brew this as my first porter. Everything is going fine, wort smells and tastes great, yay! Suddenly, a mighty thunderstorm looms in the distance and my brew day gets ruined.

With the sudden pressure drop, along with the cold front and humidity change, suddenly I couldn't get a roiling boil with my SQ-14. Cranked it to full, even put it in the garage with all the doors closed and the garage door only cranked 8 in, still no roiling boil. It would boil on and off intermittently, so I went a bit over on the times. Florida sucks.

Ended up at ~5.3 gallons with an O.G. of 1.067 somehow, but the fermentation just really isn't wanting to take off. Nottingham package looked extremely old. Wish me luck, and thanks for the recipe!

Brew this yesterday also.. I brewed it on my new rims and ekettle setup I been slowly been putting together. I realized when I was finished that the black patten and maltodextrin was laying on the counter!!  forgot to put it in. Everything worked great. Except for my melon, guess I was a little over whelmed with all the new stuff going on.

Would it be all right to add the maltodextrin to the primary or maybe mix it in while kegging it??

TheDrunkenRancor said:

After hearing great accolades, I decide to brew this as my first porter. Everything is going fine, wort smells and tastes great, yay! Suddenly, a mighty thunderstorm looms in the distance and my brew day gets ruined.

With the sudden pressure drop, along with the cold front and humidity change, suddenly I couldn't get a roiling boil with my SQ-14. Cranked it to full, even put it in the garage with all the doors closed and the garage door only cranked 8 in, still no roiling boil. It would boil on and off intermittently, so I went a bit over on the times. Florida sucks.

Ended up at ~5.3 gallons with an O.G. of 1.067 somehow, but the fermentation just really isn't wanting to take off. Nottingham package looked extremely old. Wish me luck, and thanks for the recipe!

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Ha brewed this one up in Fla yesterday too! Just before the front came through...

Man, I got what was coming to me for worrying about the fermentation! I couldn't get it to even bubble before I went to sleep, but I put a blow off tube anyways. Kept having dreams about people with flatulence! Woke up, and it had half filled a pitcher with krausen. As I was standing next to it, it blew the rubber stopper on the Better Bottle... Krausen everywhere! Considering I was standing next to it with my mouth open, I can say it already tastes good...

Jbt said:

Brew this yesterday also.. I brewed it on my new rims and ekettle setup I been slowly been putting together. I realized when I was finished that the black patten and maltodextrin was laying on the counter!!  forgot to put it in. Everything worked great. Except for my melon, guess I was a little over whelmed with all the new stuff going on.

Would it be all right to add the maltodextrin to the primary or maybe mix it in while kegging it??

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As far as I know, which you might want to double check, I think Malto - D is an only slightly fermentable sugar so you should be able to boil some in RO water, cool it, and add it to your fermenter.

That's too bad, the black patent is pretty important.. much more so than the Malto.

Maybe I ll boil the Malto and then steep the black patent in it at 150 and dump it in.. Should work I dont expect to get much more than flavor from 4 oz of the black patent

Jbt said:

Maybe I ll boil the Malto and then steep the black patent in it at 150 and dump it in.. Should work I dont expect to get much more than flavor from 4 oz of the black patent

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I would steep the black patent, then boil it and add the malto dextrin to it, then add it to the wort.

EdWort said:

I would steep the black patent, then boil it and add the malto dextrin to it, then add it to the wort.

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Ya the makes more sense. Maybe I should pull a quart out of the Primary to do this?? Instead of adding more water. I already have 6gal in the bucket. I did pitch already

Added malto and black patent as stated above.. And this morning I had to up size my blow off container to a pitcher! And I put the whole thing in the laundry sink.

Jbt said:

Added malto and black patent as stated above.. And this morning I had to up size my blow off container to a pitcher! And I put the whole thing in the laundry sink.

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Yeah, mine ended up filling up two entire half gallon pitchers. I thought she was done but it had a second reprisal. I'm kinda sorta worried that it fermented too quickly because it's only 2 days later and it's not even really bubbling anymore. I'll see how the gravity reads.

TheDrunkenRancor said:

Yeah, mine ended up filling up two entire half gallon pitchers. I thought she was done but it had a second reprisal. I'm kinda sorta worried that it fermented too quickly because it's only 2 days later and it's not even really bubbling anymore. I'll see how the gravity reads.

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Mine continued with the blow off till last night. Now there is almost no activity. I pulled a gravity sample when I put the airlock on and it was at 1.024. So I'm sure it's just about finished

Bottled my second...or maybe third.....batch yesterday, FG 1.014. Spent a long time in the fermenter (close to 6 weeks, I got delayed with holiday matters), but tasted great. Last batch of the fall brewing season.

Has anyone ever used lme vs dme when doing a partial mash of this recipe?
Thanks!

gonna bottle this tomorrow ..was brewed on thanksgiving with the swmbo, sg was 1.063...will post tomorrow after bottling

Is this a 60 min boil or a 90 min boil?

Thanks! Looking forward to making this.

Brewin06111 said:

Is this a 60 min boil or a 90 min boil?

Thanks! Looking forward to making this.

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I did a 60min. But also depends on how much you collect if you need to boil off.

Just bottled this just now.. Was brewed on thanksgiving and went into the fermenter at 1.063 finished at 1.021... Gravity sample tasted great ...I might be entering this to a comp

I just tapped a keg of this porter this week. It is delicious! It spent 24 days in primary and then sat in the keg at basement temp for another three weeks before moving to the fridge. It tastes ten times better than it did when o racked it. I wish I had this kind of patience with every brew.

Bottled my first batch last night. Gravity sample was awesome. Cant wait for this to carb up....

Thinking of brewing this, but I would like some vanilla notes on this. I know some people have tried adding some vanilla bean to a secondary or maybe extract in the keg to theirs. Anyone know a good amount to add? I like a very noticeable vanilla taste. Thanks for the help, and thanks Ed for the recipe!

Edit: The original recipe does not show how many AA's the hops have, so really hard to calculate the IBU's. Anyone have a number on this?

Subbed out the two row for a Belgian base 2-row my LHBS seems to love, also split the crystal with .5 amber malt, and subbed .5 cascade for 1 oz hallertau, I'll certainly have a different beer - calling it a Belgo Porter (?) will be interesting and will follow up. Thanks for the base recipe Ed.
edit ---

og 1.068!

TVarmy said:

Thanks for the recipe. It's my second all grain (first was Haus Pale ale!)...

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Same here. I hit my target volume dead on, but with an OG of 1.072! I scaled the recipe to 2.75 gallons and 70% efficiency (OG should have been 1.066)! I even dunked the grains a few extra times in a small kettle and brewed a 1.030 small beer (~3/4 gallon) that will probably taste like crap because I used too many hops in it. Oh well, they were leftovers!

I brewed a three gallon batch a month ago and bottled yesterday. It was my first all-grain batch. Hit a higher gravity than I expected and, of course, wound with a higher OG. It smelled amazing during bottling.

I brewed this on New Years Day. My second AG batch and the first one with my new Monster Mill... Ended up with about 5.5 gallons in fermenter...looks chewy!

How long does it take for this beer to hit its prime? I brewed it back in December and it's been 6 weeks since brew day and it's still very green. I hit all my numbers and temps perfectly but the beer is missing the mouthfeel and has a watery taste. I'm just not getting the strong roasty, toastiness I'd expect in this type of beer. I'm guessing it's just a green beer. This was the first beer I kegged so the conditioning in the keezer instead of the 3 weeks at 70 degrees like normal could be part of the problem I'm guessing. Any thoughts on this?

My second batch is still conditioning at this point. The first batch was great at 6 weeks....but that's six weeks in the bottle, so the comparison may not be valid.

I bottled mine after four weeks and the hydrometer sample was great; big, chewy mouthfeel. I'm going to give it probably at least six weeks in the bottles. I did a smaller batch and I don't want to start drinking them before they're near their best.