English Porter Black Pearl Porter (AG)

crhuda said:

I brewed this yesterday (New Years Day) in the cold as a consequence missed my mash temp - went from 152-144 over the first 45 minutes. Fermenting in my basement now at 62 degrees. Since I was low on mash temp and the basement is cold, should I expect to at least double fermentation time?
Charlie

on tap - Kona Firerock Pale Ale Clone
in bottles - American pale ale

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What yeast are you using? 62 is on the lower end for most ale yeasts, but not that low. But that only counts if that is the temp of your beer. You are talking ambient temps here, and your beer will ferment at 4-8 degrees warmer than ambient. That should put you in the 66-70 range. The problem might be that the yeast would flock out early. When the yeast stop producing so much heat the beer temp is going to drop, and possibly cause the yeast to take a nap. I would watch the temps and maybe bring it up stairs when fermentation starts slowing down so that the yeast can finish up and not flock out. Like maybe around day 3 or so of active fermentation.

Wyeast 1028 just like the recipe said

crhuda said:

Wyeast 1028 just like the recipe said

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You are completely fine then. I would still move it to somewhere a little warmer when fermentation is winding down. London ale yeast flocks like crazy and you don't want to give it any excuses to flock out early by letting the beer temp fall.

Knowing where you ferment your beer you might want to throw a space heater in there just to take it up a few degrees.
Setesh do you have a temp recommendation?

Cally51061 said:

Knowing where you ferment your beer you might want to throw a space heater in there just to take it up a few degrees.
Setesh do you have a temp recommendation?

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I think he's probably fine for now. Remember that fermentation is an exothermic process. When the fermentation slows THEN he could move it upstairs, wrap a blanket around it, take a big box and slide it sideways over the carboy and put the open side of the box up against the warmest wall in the basement. You just don't want the beer to come back down to ambient if you can help it, warmer is ok, but drops tend to put yeast to sleep which you don't want them to do until they have finished their work, especially if you are bottling.

A buddy and I brewed this in November. Brew day went really well other than my friend's poor judgement as to when it was going to hit a boil while I cleaned some equipment, so one boil over. Hit our numbers pretty close to expected - for my second all grain brew (BIAB w/dunk sparge) I think that is alright. This beer is delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

comet said:

A buddy and I brewed this in November. Brew day went really well other than my friend's poor judgement as to when it was going to hit a boil while I cleaned some equipment, so one boil over. Hit our numbers pretty close to expected - for my second all grain brew (BIAB w/dunk sparge) I think that is alright. This beer is delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

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Looks amazing. Perfect beer this time of year.

Oddly enough, I just had an old man winter porter at a local pub.. Was a dead ringer for this beer.

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Hit numbers dead-on (158º dropping to 157º after 45min) in the mash, OG at the BeerAlchemy calculated value of 1.058.

I fermented at 62ºF, but it stalled at 1.028, which is a bit sweeter than I want (even if it is tasty) (measures 1.029 on 1/8, 1.028 on 1/9 with no bubbling and no krausen). I've pumped the temp up to 68º, but am wonder - has anyone has had success lowering the FG a few points by raising the temperature on this recipe? I'd much prefer to end up someplace in the 1.020-1.022 range, and even that's quite sweet...

I have. Raising the temp and a gentle rousing/re suspension of the yeast helped me knock a few points of what I thought was a stalled beer (.022 down to .016, iirc)

This recipe is up next on my list to brew. I am thinking of adding cherries and vanilla beans to this. Should I add the crushed cherries during boil or secondary fermentation? I understand this is already a sweet beer and I don't want the cherries to add too much more sweetness, so only planning on adding about 2 cups of fresh crushed cherries, and 2 vanilla beans cut open and added during secondary.

This recipe looks awesome by the way. Thanks BM

Damoxemus said:

I have. Raising the temp and a gentle rousing/re suspension of the yeast helped me knock a few points of what I thought was a stalled beer (.022 down to .016, iirc)

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Raised mine to 68*, and got it to drop another .004 (1.028 to 1.024) over a few days. Hoping it drops another point or three before cold crashing, but seems palatable now. The malt isn't overpowering the toastiness of the porter, and I can tell it'll have great mouthfeel when carbonated.

Brewed this one last night with 1 oz of fuggles at the start of the boil to boost the IBUs a bit. Hit 1.068 perfectly in line with Beersmith's figures. Looked amazing - silky and deep brown. Can't wait to taste it.

Just plugged this into beersmith and I am getting 7.9 IBU? I know that hops don't really have much of a presence in a stout or porter, it just seems pretty low for something with a S.G. of 1.062? Am i missing something?

didnt read through the pages to see if this was asked before as I assume it has, but I cannot find it in quick scanning.

D_Nyholm said:

Just plugged this into beersmith and I am getting 7.9 IBU? I know that hops don't really have much of a presence in a stout or porter, it just seems pretty low for something with a S.G. of 1.062? Am i missing something?

didnt read through the pages to see if this was asked before as I assume it has, but I cannot find it in quick scanning.

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Yeah - same thing here, which is why I upped my initial hop addition 2x. I think that brought it up to like 12-14 IBU's.

jwbeard said:

Raised mine to 68*, and got it to drop another .004 (1.028 to 1.024) over a few days. Hoping it drops another point or three before cold crashing, but seems palatable now. The malt isn't overpowering the toastiness of the porter, and I can tell it'll have great mouthfeel when carbonated.

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Good to hear!
I think I may be going overboard a bit as I raised my latest batch to almost 70f and it finished at 1.010 (down from 1.052). I was actually aiming for 1.013.

What effect might a protein rest have on this recipe? Given that the malts I'm using are (presumably) largely modified already, would it just end up thinning the beer out too much without increasing efficiency? My first batch had faaaaar too much head retention, so I'm toying with ways to thin it out a little (either by lowing the FG, as I hit 1.024 with the first, or thinning out the proteins a bit...). I've never done protein rests before, so I may be approaching this all wrong.

Any brilliant insight?

What BJCP style would this porter fall under? Baltic Porter? It's a bit low on the IBU's even with me doubling the bittering hops. Just wondering what you think.

And back for another round...

Going to brew this for a third time this weekend (as a test-batch for my wedding). Both of my batches thus far have ended up with way too high a final gravity (1.058»1.026 after mashing at 158; and 1.058»1.020 after mashing at 154). From my calculations, the unfermentables (maltodextrin and lactose) probably add 1.010 to the final gravity (1.043 ppg * 1/2 lb. / 5 gallons).

It looks like a lot of people have hit FG in the teens in this thread, which seems impossible at a mash temp of 158 when .010 of the FG is coming from unfermentables. Am I missing something? Would my brews have really hit at 1.016 and 1.010 without the malto and lactose?

Trying to decide whether to cut down the malto and lactose to get a slightly drier beer in the 1.014-1.016 range... Does anyone have feedback on this recipe at those ranges? I get the goal of a malty brew, but the 1.026 definitely seemed too sweet for my tastes... Worth trying another batch, at least

Thanks!

Just another Thanks to BierMuncher for an awesome recipe!

I increased the caramel & chocolate to 1.5lbs each and added 1 cup of coarsely ground french vanilla coffee to the secondary for a week. This took 1st at a regional Pro Am with a score of 44 (specialty beer class, 23A).

Reading through this thread, I saw multiple comments regarding fermentation either stalling or being slow to start. I had the opposite. I used a yeast starter (always do) and it TOOK OFF withing 12 hours. I always use a blow off tube, with the tube in a wine jug. Bubbles/foam were coming out the top. It slowed down after 24 hours, and now, about 72 hours after pitching, is sending out a very tiny bubble every 4-5 seconds.

When I first pitched, it was very warm in the house; about 75 degrees. I had to think quickly and went with the swamp cooler approach and got it down to around 68 before I went to bed. I'm a bit nervous with this batch, as the temp has not been stabilized. It's been fluctuating between 64-68, so hopefully not a problem.

This is the second time I've brewed this. Holy crap. The first batch was excellent. I added vanilla beans and coffee to the secondary and it was delicious. This batch is going to be a bourbon vanilla. Highly recommend this recipe; it's top-notch.

Picked up the ingredients to brew this today. Im on a summery/light/crisp beer kick with the warmer weather but after reading the thread i couldnt resist trying. Results in a month. Wish me luck!

Bought the ingredients and forgot to brew it, they've been sitting for almost 5 months...
Specialty grains milled, sitting in brown bag in a 6g Bucket.
Didn't buy hops or yeast at the time. 2row is unmilled.

Am I still good to go, or should I toss the milled grains?

Also, worried about the high final gravity on this. Is it due to the high temp mostly, and the lactose as well? What does the Malto-dextrine do, I've never used it before?

Milled grains will have oxidized, so you may have to toss them.

The high gravity is in part from the lactose and maltodextrose, which add about .004 points to the gravity (by my math). The mash temp is also pretty high, which makes the mash less fermentable and gives a higher final gravity.

I kept getting a much higher FG, so I ended up brewing my last batch at 151 instead of the recipe's 158, which gave me a FG of 1.014.

MikePote said:

Picked up the ingredients to brew this today. Im on a summery/light/crisp beer kick with the warmer weather but after reading the thread i couldnt resist trying. Results in a month. Wish me luck!

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Racked to secondary today because I needed to empty the primary bucket. Took a hydro sample (1.021 same as a week ago), chilled it, and it was delicious! Im gonna bottle this in the next couple days so it can start to carb before I go out of town for the weekend. More results in 3 weeks or so.

Just brewed it. Was my 2nd all grain, biab. Only have a 5 gallon pot so this is what i did. Got 64% efficiency and missed volume by 1G (4G into fermenter)

Heated water in 2 seperate pots, 2.5G @ 2G, and 5G @ 4G. Heated to 169~.

Mashed in my bottling bucket, I know I know Lacto infection much? I soaked in a heavy dose of oxyclean after. Hit mash temp perfectly, thanks calculator, lost about 3 degrees in 90 minutes.
Split wort volume~6.5G ish into the 2 pots. 2ish, and 3.5ish gallons.
Got about 1.5G and 2.5G if I were to guess after boil.

Note to self: Find a better way to mash or at least sparge. 13lb of grain does not fit in colander insert, or 3G bucket. Put 3G bucket upside down inside regular bucket and drill holes? Should work fine.

I bastardized this recipe with some additions (Vanilla, Bourbon and a few others) and people are ranting. It's still green, so going to bottle some up and let it sit before I pronounce victory


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I brewed this on a frigid January 1st and had trouble keeping/holding temperatures. It's sweet for a porter but delicious nonetheless, surprisingly alcohol is high given the unfermentables. Can't wait to rebrew in the fall under better conditions.


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I brewed 4-30, bottled 5-29, and drank my first today (1 week in bottle). Wow! Totally undercarbed but sooooooo good. I cant wait till a few weeks when this carbs a little more. I definitely need to set a six pack aside to see how it ages because I will drink this stuff way to fast. Great recipe. This will definitely be a "you made this?!" brew.

Withheld the maltodextrin, lactose, irish moss; first was a 1-gallon before Christmas and all nine bottles were well-received.

Brewed a 5-gallon batch (my second 5-gallon) this April, added a 1-week cold-crash in secondary; bottle-conditioned for more than 4 weeks. Had my first two bottles this weekend. This one is worth the wait! Thank you for the recipe.

This stuff is reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyy good.

This beer on draft is a dream come true. What a memory. Time to brew it again.

I am looking to do a pumpkin, chocolate, Belgian, porter. Would this be a good base recipe to make this delicious brew?

It's pretty sweet and thick with the lactose and maltodextrin. I'd suggest dropping the lactose if you want some variations, maybe 1/2 the original amount with the chocolate one.

Local time is 1:30 AM and I've just finished cleaning up after making a batch of this porter. I scaled the recipe down to 3.5 gallons

Variations;

• Used Safale S-04
• used 3/4lb of carapils instead of maltodextrin
• LHBS only had a pound of Munich (and no Vienna) so I made up the difference with English 2-Row

Brew night went well. I am looking forward to trying this one. I'll report back in ~2 months.

Thanks for posting the recipe BierMuncher.

Just made 11 gallons of this for my friends birthday. I get 5 gallons and so does he. This is one amazingly good porter, and always goes really fast. Thanks again BM!

Plugged this into Beersmith and I'm getting a FG of 1.031 which seems pretty sweet, especially with the low IBUs in this guy. I was thinking about kicking up the hop additions to get a bitterness ratio of around .6ish.

I guess I'm looking for advice on whether to leave the recipe as is, or to kick the bitterness up a notch to try and balance out the sweetness.

makubex said:

Plugged this into Beersmith and I'm getting a FG of 1.031 which seems pretty sweet, especially with the low IBUs in this guy. I was thinking about kicking up the hop additions to get a bitterness ratio of around .6ish.

I guess I'm looking for advice on whether to leave the recipe as is, or to kick the bitterness up a notch to try and balance out the sweetness.

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Mine ended about 1.015 if I remember. Maybe you have the default yeast date on there? I think default is about 3 years old or something weird like that. Definitely did not come out too sweet at all.

1.015 seems awfully low for this recipe. It calls for a mash temp of 158, uses a pound of flaked oats, and users both lactose and maltodextrine.

Don't think oats affect FG at all? I think it was more around 18-22 or so if I remember correctly. I opened my first bottle last weekend, it was definitely sweet and creamy mouthfeel. I think I would cut the lactose a bit personally if I were to make again for my own consumption and aim for 1.016 FG.

Put the taste somewhere between a creamy porter and a milk stout. Too sweet for me, but the gallon I added coldbrew coffee to was pretty good.