American Porter Bee Cave Brewery Robust Porter

LeeF said:

I also had to switch to the blow off. Woke up to a small mess this morning.

Click to expand...

The nottingham is making this beer go crazy! I really don't think I've ever had a beer that has fermented this vigorously.

HalfPint said:

The nottingham is making this beer go crazy! I really don't think I've ever had a beer that has fermented this vigorously.

Click to expand...

The key is to ferment cold. I did this recipe as my first and even at 65 it still blows off like crazy. I recently used it on a oktoberfast and fermented at 56-57 and had no troubles.

I realize this clean of a profile may not be desirable in a porter though.

humann_brewing said:

The key is to ferment cold. I did this recipe as my first and even at 65 it still blows off like crazy. I recently used it on a oktoberfast and fermented at 56-57 and had no troubles.

I realize this clean of a profile may not be desirable in a porter though.

Click to expand...

I've got it in my cooler with water bottles at around 60* (+ -) 3*.

I put 5.5 gallons in a 6 gallon better bottle and I bet I've lost 1/4-1/2 gallon of brew!

I just went with an open fermentation. I had a pretty high OG I think 1.072, I actually should have prob pitched (2) packages of Notty. I ended @ 1.022 I believe, I'm thankful I omited the malto dextrine.

Question, I am naturally priming the keg and it's been 1 week. I am going to cold condition until tap room is available. Consider the gravity and size of the keg should I extend priming past (1) week?

I always condition a primed keg for at least 3 weeks for proper carbonation before chilling - 1 week is not usually enough, especially for a higher gravity beer. It will condition quicker at room temperature anyway, I guess I don't see the point of cold conditioning at all unless it's going to be months before you get an open tap, but either way I'd condition at room temperature for at least 3 weeks first.

It will be (2) months before I tap it.

I've got 10 gallons and considering adding cherries to 1 gallon in the secondary to see how it tastes. Has anyone tried it with this recipe? I've also read where roasted barley and fruit may not compliment each other. Any advice?

LeeF said:

I've got 10 gallons and considering adding cherries to 1 gallon in the secondary to see how it tastes. Has anyone tried it with this recipe? I've also read where roasted barley and fruit may not compliment each other. Any advice?

Click to expand...

I think if I added anything to this recipe it might be some makers mark and some vanilla. Cherry porter just doesn't sound so good to me. Have you tasted the porter yet? If so, don't you think cherries might not be so tasty?

I've only tasted the unfermented wort. I may rack to secondary this weekend and give it another taste.

I have tasted a cherry porter before that I liked and was wondering if anyone had tried it with this recipe. This is an after thought and I would only try 1 gal. and leave 9 gals. unscathed.

So bourbon soaked oak chips or vanilla bean may be more appropriate?

LeeF said:

I've only tasted the unfermented wort. I may rack to secondary this weekend and give it another taste.

I have tasted a cherry porter before that I liked and was wondering if anyone had tried it with this recipe. This is an after thought and I would only try 1 gal. and leave 9 gals. unscathed.

So bourbon soaked oak chips or vanilla bean may be more appropriate?

Click to expand...

Ooh, oak chips sounds good. I'm already planning on leaving 5 gallons regular and the other five vanilla bourbon, but I may add oak chips now that you mention it.

this beer is super roasty. i am not sure how much cherries would need to be added to make a "dent" in that flavor profile... but do 1 Gal test and let us know!

I tasted this at one week in the primary and it tastes good. First All Grain Brew, can't wait to get it bottled. I added an ounce of Vanguard Leaf hops at the end of the boil for some more aroma because we had them laying around.

Could I double or triple the patent malt and the roasted barley?

I'll chime in: You could, but IMO that would likely make it a stout.

It depends on your reasoning for changing up this great Porter recipe.

+ it is already super roasty and dark; Ed calls it a Storter or something (porter/stout combo).

oparea said:

Could I double or triple the patent malt and the roasted barley?

Click to expand...

midfielder5 said:

I'll chime in: You could, but IMO that would likely make it a stout.

It depends on your reasoning for changing up this great Porter recipe.

+ it is already super roasty and dark; Ed calls it a Storter or something (porter/stout combo).

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've got 10 gallons of this stuff and I just racked 5 gallons of it onto 8 oz of Hersheys cocoa today after 2 weeks in the primary. It's very very good, but If you went with any more patent it would most probably ruin the recipe. Like he said, if you want something more roasty, go with a stout.

HalfPint said:

Yeah, I've got 10 gallons of this stuff and I just racked 5 gallons of it onto 8 oz of Hersheys cocoa today after 2 weeks in the primary. It's very very good, but If you went with any more patent it would most probably ruin the recipe. Like he said, if you want something more roasty, go with a stout.

Click to expand...

I was wondering, so I could get away with a bit more roasted barley and take it a little more into Stout territory. Don't get me wrong I love the recipe as is, I am just interested to see what the roasted barley does for the beer.

oparea said:

I was wondering, so I could get away with a bit more roasted barley and take it a little more into Stout territory. Don't get me wrong I love the recipe as is, I am just interested to see what the roasted barley does for the beer.

Click to expand...

Only one way to find out.

I'm sure Ed won't mind if you alter his recipe a bit. That's one of the beautiful things of brewing.

If you do it, let us know how it works out.

From left to right, Chocolate Porter and Regular Bee Cave Porter

I'll be brewing a double batch of this next weekend. However, I only have 17 of the 22 lbs of 2-row(Maris Otter) needed. I do have a 10 lb bag of Vienna, would subbing 5 lbs of that be OK? or would it be a waste?

I tapped mine today (with my tweaks I posted earlier), and holy hell it's impressive. I'm eager to give some to my sister who's been staying in Latvia to have her compare it to their baltic porters.

Despite the flaked barley though my head retention sucks.

petep1980 said:

I tapped mine today (with my tweaks I posted earlier), and holy hell it's impressive. I'm eager to give some to my sister who's been staying in Latvia to have her compare it to their baltic porters.

Despite the flaked barley though my head retention sucks.

Click to expand...

How long did was your Primary fermentation/aging in keg or secondary? I bottled 4 the other night that I had left over from racking it into secondary and we drank em tonight. Even though they were only a few days in the bottle, they were perfect, but had a bit of an alcohol sting (not bad and I think only I could tell b/c I brewed it.) Mine finished at around 6.4% abv.

Mine are 6.7% alcohol.

Primary 1 week @ 68°F, then 4 days @ 50°F to crash
Primed 1 week @ 68°F
Then in the spirit of Baltic Porters I actually did a quick lager for conditioning, 2 weeks @ 35°F.

There is 1 week missing from my notes, it had to be either an extra week priming or conditioning.

It's weird though the last two times I made this batch at this point it still tasted a little off & grainy. This time it's perfect. It doesn't taste young at all. This one is even bigger than the others too. I think the cold crashing & conditioning helped.

I think next time I'm going to just make it a real oatmeal stout. I'm going to scale back on the cascades up front, swap out some of the black patent & chocolate for roasted barley, and since I did a partial mash, scale back all the DME to fit into the Oatmeal Stout Gravity guidelines.

petep1980 said:

Mine are 6.7% alcohol.

Primary 1 week @ 68°F, then 4 days @ 50°F to crash
Primed 1 week @ 68°F
Then in the spirit of Baltic Porters I actually did a quick lager for conditioning, 2 weeks @ 35°F.

There is 1 week missing from my notes, it had to be either an extra week priming or conditioning.

It's weird though the last two times I made this batch at this point it still tasted a little off & grainy. This time it's perfect. It doesn't taste young at all. This one is even bigger than the others too. I think the cold crashing & conditioning helped.

I think next time I'm going to just make it a real oatmeal stout. I'm going to scale back on the cascades up front, swap out some of the black patent & chocolate for roasted barley, and since I did a partial mash, scale back all the DME to fit into the Oatmeal Stout Gravity guidelines.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I plan on lagering mine in the keg for a couple of weeks. I have 5 gallons of it with 8 oz of cocoa powder in it and the other five gallons are plain. I think I'm either going to do a vanilla porter on the plain one or oak it for a few months. I'm having a hard time deciding since this is my first Bee Cave porter and I haven't even tasted it plain.

Update:

I couldn't take it anymore and the samples I pulled from the carboy tasted great (in 1 oz portions,) so I kegged and carbed this morning. This is definitely not a beer that's good without some age. It's rough as a mother fvcker. I'm drinking one right now and it's not that the beer is bad, it's just that the beer is green. It actually has a bit of an alcohol bite. However, I bottled a couple of them without the cocoa and they were great. I think I'm going to take it off of the tap for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

I need some advise. I brewed this today for Teach a Friend to Brew Day. The boil was completed at about 6:00 PM. I cooled it down to about 80, then put it into the fermenter in an ice bath so that I could get it down to the low 60s. A few hours later when I went to grab the Notty, I realized I had grabbed Windsor by mistake at the LHBS yesterday.

I also have US-05 and a couple of other american ale yeasts (washed). I don't have time for a starter. I would rather wait until I can get some Nottingham on the way home tomorrow, but it means that it would be more than 24 hrs after boil. The wort has been in a sterilized fermenter with an airlock since 40 minutes after boil.

Am I risking infection if I wait, or should I pitch the US-05? I will check in the morning before I go to work to what some of you think. I stocked up on US-05 and what I thought was Notty to prevent these types of problems, but I was in too much of a hurry.

pitch the us-05.

Thanks for the advice HalfPint. I had just left home. I decided to wait until I got some Notty. No signs of anything bad when I pitched it. I hope there is no problems.

From all I have read on here, US-05 and Notty are fairly similar in characteristics. They are both high attenuating yeasts that don't have a large flavor profile.

Somebody with more experience in comparing these, please chime in.

This is going to be my next brew, and I have both yeasts available. Any compelling reasons to use one vs. the other?

This was asked before. I think EdWort stated in an earlier post that the Nottingham has some estery characteristics that are more to style with this being an English porter. This is the reason that I took a small risk and waited to get some Notty.

OLB said:

This was asked before. I think EdWort stated in an earlier post that the Nottingham has some estery characteristics that are more to style with this being an English porter. This is the reason that I took a small risk and waited to get some Notty.

Click to expand...

I used whitbread yeast on one of my 5 gallons and nottingham on the other. They're both delicious, but the Nottinham finished a bit dryer.

If you can lager this I highly recommend it!!!! I tapped mine, then put it aside at 35-40° for a couple weeks, then tapped it again today. Holy hell it's perfect!!!!!!

petep1980 said:

If you can lager this I highly recommend it!!!! I tapped mine, then put it aside at 35-40° for a couple weeks, then tapped it again today. Holy hell it's perfect!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Yeah I couldn't resist, I tasted mine after one week in the bottle and it's soooo tasty I wanted to drink them all. Nice lacing, great flavor, and great aroma. Only thing I did dif was add an extra ounce of Vanguard hops to the last 5 minutes of the boil because I forgot to add the maltodextrine, restarted the boil and just happened to have them laying around.

petep1980 said:

Mine are 6.7% alcohol.

Primary 1 week @ 68°F, then 4 days @ 50°F to crash
Primed 1 week @ 68°F
Then in the spirit of Baltic Porters I actually did a quick lager for conditioning, 2 weeks @ 35°F.

There is 1 week missing from my notes, it had to be either an extra week priming or conditioning.

It's weird though the last two times I made this batch at this point it still tasted a little off & grainy. This time it's perfect. It doesn't taste young at all. This one is even bigger than the others too. I think the cold crashing & conditioning helped.

I think next time I'm going to just make it a real oatmeal stout. I'm going to scale back on the cascades up front, swap out some of the black patent & chocolate for roasted barley, and since I did a partial mash, scale back all the DME to fit into the Oatmeal Stout Gravity guidelines.

Click to expand...

Interesting, I did three weeks primary on this one and then left in on the porch in the cold (around 40 degrees) for three days. At one week in the bottle mine tastes excellent.

Making 5 gallons of this tonight after work. (Thanks Brewmasters Warehouse) I must say, after reading this 28 page thread I'm pretty freaking excited for this one!!! I will add my own impressions in a month or 2.

skeeordye11 said:

Making 5 gallons of this tonight after work. (Thanks Brewmasters Warehouse) I must say, after reading this 28 page thread I'm pretty freaking excited for this one!!! I will add my own impressions in a month or 2.

Click to expand...

Your going to enjoy this one.

Enjoyed one of the custom six pack bottles I made with the leftover 1/2 gallon I had when I brewed this 13 months ago.

I added a bit of coffee to the 1/2 gallon, a bit too much actually but it is still mighty tasty and since this was my first all grain and had no idea about efficiency, this stuff is 8% and the 13 months of aging has treated it nicely

My effort

Brewed this on Saturday. I doubled up the recipe and did my first ever 10 gallon batch. I also somehow screwed up the transcription of the recipe to my shopping list and bought 23.6 lbs of 2-row rather than 22.

The session wasn't without hiccups; I had to mash thicker than usual (1.17 quarts/lb) because my MLT is only 10 gallons and 29 lbs of grain is a LOT. I used 8.5 gallons of strike water, the MLT was brimming and closing the lid nearly caused it to overflow. After lautering the soaked grain filled the MLT to about an inch below its edge. I then did a double batch sparge, 4 gallons at a time.

Final pre-boil volume was 13 gallons and during the boil it came down to about 11.5 or so. 5.5 gallons went into my carboy, 5.5 into a bucket for a buddy of mine who chipped in on ingredients, and the last half gallon got dumped off the deck.

Starting SG of 1.070. I used about 5% more grain than the recipe calls for, but got a SG that's ~7.5% higher than EdWort reported. Apparently this means I'm ever-so-slightly more efficient than the man himself

Pitched yeast 24 hours ago, still waiting on the krausen. Little bit of CO2 bubbling out in the meantime.

Ok, I finally brewed this tonight. I think I added double the Roasted Barley at 2 oz. I hope it's OK. Might be a Robust Stouter, I don't know. My OG was 1.063.

Thanks Ed.

Made a few changes.. Can't resist throwing more hops in... LOL Going to be 55.4IBU, maybe a little hoppy for a porter but hell it may be classic... Sprinkled S04 directly on the chilled wort @ 75 degrees, bubbling nicely this morning!!

11.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.87 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 6.99 %
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.99 %
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.49 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.49 %
0.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 1.75 %
0.06 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 0.42 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 15.9 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 24.6 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (20 min) Hops 14.9 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.069 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.65 %
Bitterness: 55.4 IBU Calories: 315 cal/pint
Est Color: 35.0 SRM Color: Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge

Total Grain Weight: 14.31 lb
Sparge Water: 4.50 gal
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
TunTemperature: 72.0 F
FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description
Step Temp 45 min Mash In Add 17.89 qt of water at 170.5 F hold at 158.0 F