Shupac Black Porter

We braved the weekend rainy weater and brewed outside on Sunday. We have high hopes for this recipe:

Shupac Black Porter
8lbs 2 Row
1.5lb Munich
1lb Caramel 10L
.5lb Black Patent
.5lb Chocolate
1oz Perle Hop Pellets 8.2% 60 min
.5oz Cascade Leaf 7.4% 60min
.5oz Cascade Dry Leaf 7.4% 5min
7 gallons Shupac Springs Water
WL P007 in 48 hour pitch using 1/4 cup DME
OG 1.044

This is a typical 60 minute all grain brew with a nice sweet wort, lower alcohol content, and great deep color. I did forget to add irish moss, oh well. I use a cooler mash ton and hit the following mash temps with directions:

3.5 gallons @ 150deg to ton
preheat ton until temp drops to 148deg
add grains and stir, temp should drop to 142
let rest for 30 minutes
add 1 gallon of boiling water, stir grain bed, temp should rise to 154
let rest for 30 minutes
drain approx 3.5 gallons of wort into boil kettle
add 2.5 gallons of boiling water to ton, stir grain bed, temp should rise to 177
let rest for 10 minutes
drain approx 2.5 gallons of wort into boil kettle
boil wort

I will post more as it comes out of the primary and we get another look & taste. I wanted to add 1/2lb of oatmeal but when I went for it, it was not in the cupboard...I also wanted leaf hops instead of pellets...oh well. The water is from a hand pump spring fed well in the Northern LP of Michigan - any bottled "spring" water equivalent should do.

This fermented differetly than I expected. It got busy right away for the first 24 hours and then died down to a very slow rate of one air bubble per minute. I just left it be and checked the gravity after a total of 7 days. It read 1.014 and that is fine by me. I don't think this needs to be too strong. The flavor was spot on the malt and the chocolate is going to be a nice mild sweet touch. I was not expecting to get much bitterness but it came through well. I think there is a small bit of acidity, but I will keep to my process and send it to the keg for some forced CO2 and cold weather clarity. AWESOME!!!