Alternative Sugar Beer Island 17 Brewing - "The Strap" Blackstrap Molasses Porter

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ajbram

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Here is the recipe:

Grain Bill
9lb Canadian 2 row
8 oz Chocolate malt
8oz Crystal 77
8 oz Carafa Type 111
7oz Black Patent
8oz toasted barley flakes

Mash Schedule
Mash at 158F for 1 hour
Sparge 170F 10 min

Boil:
1oz First Gold @ 60 min
0.5oz Mt. Rainier @ 20 min
10oz Blackstrap Molasses @ 10 min
0.5 oz Mt. Rainier @ 5 min

Fermentation:
Starter of Safbrew T-58 pitched at high krausen when wort had cooled below 90F
Primary 9 days at 65F
Secondary 7 days at 60F

Tasting Notes:
ABV: 5.2%

Appearance: Pours almost black, really dark and opaque with a little ruby shimmer around the edges. Head is creamy tan, very thick and dense. Head retention is pretty decent, and a thin layer of foam remains until the end of the drink. Lacing is good to very good. Love the way this thing looks 5

Aroma: Loads of dark chocolate and some malty roastiness. 5

Taste: Very complex. Again chocolate is the dominant flavour with some malty roastiness and coffee. There is a noticeable molasses tang that I really like that lingers towards the finish. Molasses sweetness is nicely balanced with hoppy bittnerness and chocolate, so not overpowering at all. Finish has a nice spiciness to it. It's pretty clean overall, but will be better with some age on it. 4

Mouth Feel: Head imparts a very impressive creaminess which is present to a lesser extent in the body. Plenty of carbonation, but bubbles are small and unobtrusive, giving this a very smooth texture. Not grainy at all. There is a slight astringency in the finish that leaves my mouth wanting another sip. This stuff is way too easy to drink a lot of in a hurry. 5

Overall Impression: I'm surprised at how well this turned out. It looks nice, smells nice and is really nice to drink. It's very very sessionable and a lot of this disappeared over the holidays! 4.5

porter.jpg
 
I used blackstrap in a RIS recipe, and just with 8oz, the molasses flavor is still a bit overwhelming two years later. What brand/source did you use for the molasses? They can vary quite a bit.
 
Bought it at the local organic bulk food store. Sorry I don't know what their source is, but I will look into it and keep you posted.
The molasses in this is detectable, but definitely not overwhelming. Personally I attribute this to the overall complexity of the beer from other ingredients. I think the astringency of the rather large amount of black patent coupled with the bittnerness of the hops and the spiciness of the T-58 cut the molasses thickness nicely. I also mashed at a pretty high temp, so the unfermentable portion of the molasses doesn't make up the bulk of unfermentables here.
 
By weight. As a note, the molasses taste was quite noticeable when this aged a while, you may want to cut it back to ~7oz.
 
Hmm... this could get interesting... I already brewed this recipe last weekend, and I assumed it was by fluid ounces (I asked the question after I had finished.), which means the weight was probably closer to 15oz for 10 fl oz. Soooooo.... it's going to be VERY molasses-y. Ooops.

Was the molasses flavor more subdued earlier on? Maybe I can just drink it up before it gets too overpowering.
 
Hmm... this could get interesting... I already brewed this recipe last weekend, and I assumed it was by fluid ounces (I asked the question after I had finished.), which means the weight was probably closer to 15oz for 10 fl oz. Soooooo.... it's going to be VERY molasses-y. Ooops.

Was the molasses flavor more subdued earlier on? Maybe I can just drink it up before it gets too overpowering.

It was even pretty subdued after aging, but just slightly more pronounced. I like the molasses flavour, so I liked it anyways. Early on, that dark molasses sweetness really contributes more to chocolate flavours with a slight molasses tang. Later, it was just more noticable. The last bottle of this I had I drank after about 6 months aging and it was delicious. I just assumed most people didn't like the molasses as much as me, so i recommended tuning down just a bit. Not sure what it will be like with almost double the molasses.
 
Just to follow up on this, the 10 fluid ounces of molasses turned out to be a bit strong, but still tasty. I plan to brew this again using the 10 ounces by weight (or just a little less), and then adding bourbon-soaked oak chips to secondary. Something tells me that this could be...... *puts on sunglasses*... epic! Yeaaaaaahhhhh! :D
 
Brewed this beer over New Year's with a buddy of mine. I used the 10oz of Molasses, by weight, this time. I also used oak chips and bourbon in the secondary. I soaked 2oz of chips for a week in about a pint of Elijah Craig bourbon, then added them to the secondary for 4 days. It came out pretty good, but a bit oaky. I'm thinking that next time I would only soak the oak overnight before adding it, and again only add it for a few days, at most. Maybe only 2 days. (Or use less oak.)

But it's definitely drinkable and potent. With less molasses and the addition of the oak and bourbon, this isn't a sweet beer at all. There's a little sweetness, but it's mostly flavor. If the original recipe is too sweet for your liking, maybe give this combo a try.
 
I cooked up this recipe yesterday. Instead of First Gold, I used E.K. Golding, and I pitched a Belle Saison yeast as well. I'll post back here in a few weeks.
 
6 days and fairly uneventful primary action. 65 degrees in the fermenter, very little foaming up top, and low airlock activity. There's a good yeast cake at the bottom, though. I've shaken it every few days to give it a kick, but it's persistently boring. This yeast claims vigorous fermentation, but I'm not seeing it. Otherwise, it looks great.

LkUBhd7l.jpg


This photo was taken post-shake.
 
I had similar results on the fermentation. I think the molasses doesn't kick up the year as much as expected. But I had a ton of yeast on the bottom as well. I'm sure it'll be delicious.
 
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