English Porter Black Pearl Porter (AG)

I want to make this again but only have nottingham yeast. Has anyone used it or have any opinions?

RugenBrau said:

I want to make this again but only have nottingham yeast. Has anyone used it or have any opinions?

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Try it and let us know.

Have been bottle conditioning for over a month and it gets better. Making this again.

I brewed this Saturday as a 5.5 gallon batch. 1.065 into the fermenter and pitched London Ale yeast at 67 degrees, reducing to 65. Had blow off activity at about 20 hours and bubbling stopped at about 40 hours. Could active fermentation have finished that quickly? I won't open it up for a hydro reading until I'm 3-4 weeks in.

That is awfully fast but it could have. You can't be sure without a hydro sample.

jmf143 said:

I brewed this Saturday as a 5.5 gallon batch. 1.065 into the fermenter and pitched London Ale yeast at 67 degrees, reducing to 65. Had blow off activity at about 20 hours and bubbling stopped at about 40 hours. Could active fermentation have finished that quickly? I won't open it up for a hydro reading until I'm 3-4 weeks in.

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It could have but why not let it sit 3 weeks to clean up. Mine sat 3 weeks primary. It keeps getting better with age. Noticeable difference between week 2 in bottles and 2 months in bottles.

Wow, 17 pages and only one picture of the actual finished product? Post 'em up! I wanna see what kind of body/head color/lacing this thing has!

Took a hydro reading on day 18. Down to 1.024. Can I expect it to drop any more? I used 4 oz. lactose and WLP013 London Ale yeast in my 5.5 gallon batch.

How would this do with fruit added to it? Recipe looks awesome.

Brewed with the Nottingham and it was fantastic. I'll use it again. My numbers were a little off. OG 1.055 but had 5.5 gallons instead of 5. FG ended up at 1.012.

I brewed this three weeks ago, on Labor Day. It has been in the primary until today. I racked it to a keg today and took a hydro sample. It tasted so good uncarbonated at 70* that I went back and took another sample. I had a og of 1.070 and an fg of 1.022. I am very pleased and cannot wait for this weekend...thanks for the recipe, BM!

I'm thinking to use this as a basis for a Christmas spiced porter. Maybe go a little crazy on the spice with ginger, allspice, vanilla and orange peel. I want people to know it's Christmas. Too much?

riromero said:

I'm thinking to use this as a basis for a Christmas spiced porter. Maybe go a little crazy on the spice with ginger, allspice, vanilla and orange peel. I want people to know it's Christmas. Too much?

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This beer stands strong on it's own. Maybe split the batch, but your guests should have the opportunity to taste a cleanly brewed porter.

Hovering at 1,000 feet via my Droid powered HBT Mobil App.

I'm going to be giving bottles as gifts to friends that aren't necessarily beer aficionados. I was thinking to add the spice as a tea at bottling time anyway. Taking your advice to split the batch, it might be cool to give out both spiced and unspiced versions to each person for comparison. Thanks.

BierMuncher said:

This beer stands strong on it's own. Maybe split the batch, but your guests should have the opportunity to taste a cleanly brewed porter.

Hovering at 1,000 feet via my Droid powered HBT Mobil App.

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Been giving this the eye for some time and I'm going to go ahead and get to brewing it today. Probably going with notty cuz I haven't made a starter so I hope this does well with a clean dry yeast

Wish me luck

I use notty with this all the time. It will be great

RugenBrau said:

I use notty with this all the time. It will be great

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Thanks, I just went to the store and bought some s-04 too so I have both. I'm brewing it right now so what does everybody think? Notty or 04?

split the batch and report back

Well, never mind. After laboring through a 5 hour brew day, I decided to chill half of the batch in my carboy. BIG mistake. When I put it in its ice bath the carboy shot a hole out of its side. Before I could do anything the entire side split down the middle and the bottom fell out.

Batch ruined. I did save about a gallon and a half that I hadn't put it the carboy yet. So I pitched my s04 and we'll see if I can rescue a 6 pack out of it

I got the ingredients for this tonight. I'm planning on brewing Saturday. BM thanks for your great recipes. I will post some pictures while brewing.

If using S-04, would this be alright fermenting around 64? I have a pumpkin ale in the fridge at 64 ( started it at 61 and ramped to 64). It is still active and don't want to lower the temp and stall the yeast. Any suggestions? I was going to start brewing here shortly but then thought to hold off a week until the pumpkin ale is done and the temp on it could be lowered.

64 will be fine for S O4.

Thanks for the reply. I'm mashing now!

We were drinking this the other night and and someone brought up that this reminded him of beer we used to drink back in the 70's called Prior double dark(on tap). They stopped making it sometime in the late 80's. I think someone bought the name and started to make it again but it is no where near the same as it use to be.

This really gets better with age

planning to brew this with a little modifications , i dont think i want to add the lactose since my mother inlaw and gf is intolerant what will the impact on the beer be? im also thinking of adding 200g of café light malt to add some coffey flavor.

My first post on hombrewtalk! I have been reading a lot of your recipes as well as EdWort's, they must do something right in Texas. I did just one extract brew before switching to AG because it is just so much more interesting. I have a an IPA modeled aftered EdWort's in the primary and am about to do your porter. Thanks for freely giving so much advice! It is much appreciated by us new to the hobby and eager to learn.

Cheers,
Steven

Had a hard time with the temp this time i ended upp mashing at around 67C :/

started on 1064 and stoped at 1022 and it tastes great thanks for the inspiration Beermuncher

I just wanted to add 1 year bottle conditioning notes. I just approached 1 year and have about 4 bottles left from a 10 gallon batch. The Black Pearl Porter was a big hit for my wife and I. It lends a sweet finish that many were suprised to see in a porter, hence their skepticism. Overall it was a fantastic brew but I have noticed 1 year of aging is the absolute maximum I would age this beer. Its becoming acidic in flavor. It was great 'green' and was great 6 months later, but it is diminishing in its quality 1 year out.

My comments are not to be rude in any way, but to just to lend information for any one interested in this great brew!

endie said:

planning to brew this with a little modifications , i dont think i want to add the lactose since my mother inlaw and gf is intolerant what will the impact on the beer be? im also thinking of adding 200g of café light malt to add some coffey flavor.

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My experience with the lactose was not good. The beer hit all its marks while brewing, had the correct FG, conditioned in good time, and everything was great (wonderful porter!) until I was in the middle of my third-to-last six. I started to get more and more foaming, and by the time I was down to the last six I couldn't pour a 12 oz bottle into an Imperial pint and not have it foam over. Consensus at the time seemed to be a late fermentation involving the lactose and, maybe, lactobacillus.

Brewing this as is today and am really excited based on all the comments! However, I thought about doing a half batch of this later in order to experiment with using some toasted coconut in the secondary to make a coconut porter.

Any thought on using this as a base for a coconut porter?

Hoping to brew a batch of this up tonight.

-Steve

Making this today, totally forgot the flaked oats. I upped the Dextrine to hopefully add the body that was lost. Smells fantastic in the boil kettle, although I think all beers do!

Thanks for the recipe!

Just kegged this. Tasted great but finished at 1.024!!!!!! Anyone else finish this high with this?

I think mine finished at 1.022. It's that lactose and malto dexteine.

Mine finished at 1.024 when I used London yeast and 1.020 when I used Notty.

BM-
What kind OG/FG are yours coming too?
Thamks, Jeff

With the high ratio of unfermentables in this, I was never too concerned with the gravitites. I recall the OG being somewhere in the mid 1.060's and like everyone else, the FG was high...usually in the mid 1.020's.

Sounds good. I'm nervous about the low IBUs, but putting my faith in you! Got the starter going last night, hope to brew this weekend.

My batch is going into keg tonight after exactly a month in primary. Hydro taster is good and finished around 1.020. I forget but I think I used notty for this one.

-Steve