Baltic Porter recipe help

I'm trying to devise a Baltic porter, since it's a style I love but have never brewed. I'm not specifically looking to clone Baltika #6, but if it came out close to that I'd be pretty darn content.

Here's my thoughts so far:

15# mild malt
1/2# C60
1/2# C120
1# midnight wheat

2oz molasses
3.5oz Lublin 60'
1oz Lublin 15'

Wyeast Bohemian Lager yeast or similar.

I'm showing this at an estimated 39 IBU (Tinseth), 1.079 OG. Comments?

I think I may brew one porter for my wife, and Baltika 6 is one of our favs. There are others that have more of this and that, but they are too sweet or thick or whatever for me. Baltika 6 seems like a really tricky one to get right. I'm only in the gathering stage, getting ingredients list and reverse engineering the recipe, but interested in what you have done so far. After I narrow this down a bit, I'll post what I've come up with.

I've always been somewhat fascinated by Baltika 6 and Negra Modello. Every time I drink one of either beer, I'm always thinking . .hmm this is really good.

My swamp cooler is full right now with a pale doppelbock, so it'll be a couple weeks before I can do a Baltic porter (since the authentic versions are lagered), but I'm currently planning to use exactly the recipe I started this thread with unless anyone has any particular suggestions.

teucer said:

My swamp cooler is full right now with a pale doppelbock, so it'll be a couple weeks before I can do a Baltic porter (since the authentic versions are lagered), but I'm currently planning to use exactly the recipe I started this thread with unless anyone has any particular suggestions.

Click to expand...

So after looking at a bunch of recipes, and my personal preferences, I'm going to do somthing sort of like this:

I'm going to use ale yeast, and ferment lower. Possibly a Kolsch yeast, some mention Nottingham for this.
I'll formulate to hit 7%abv, somewhere around a 1.060-1.065?
Base malt bill will be split evenly with Munich/Vienna/Pils.
Some crystal malt, 60L or 120L
Some flaked wheat.
Some Carapils.
I'll use Tettnang and Saaz or Hallertau, shoot for about 30 IBU.

Just after main krausen, I'll add some muscavado sugar to the primary. This will dry it out, add some alcohol and help it to finish lower. Plus add some dark complexity. I've got some D2 as well, but I'm leaning against that as it seems to add some dark fruit that I don't want in this.

That sounds tasty, but I can't see it getting much darker than about 20L without a color malt. That isn't out of style, but for mine I'm aiming a bit darker.

Yeah, I'm not done yet, this is a rough first pass. The muscavado is actually almost black and should add a bit of color, I also forgot chocolate malt. Jamil mentions using Carafa 2 in his, which sounds like a great way to go.

Ok, here's my final, note my batch size is smaller. All my Belgians just get a number, but since this one if for my wife I'm naming it Fudgesocks. If anyone has read Christopher Moore this will make sense.

Batch Size: 4.25 Gal
OG: 1.073
FG: 1.018
ABV: 7.20 %
IBU's: 32.38
Color: 43.0 SRM

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name
3.00 lbs 27.27 % Munich Malt
3.00 lbs 27.27 % Vienna Malt
2.00 lbs 18.18 % Pilsner (2 Row) Ger
1.00 lbs 9.09 % Chocolate Malt
0.50 lbs 4.55 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0.50 lbs 4.55 % Wheat, Flaked
0.25 lbs 2.27 % Carafa II 60 mins
0.75 lbs 6.82 % Muscovado, Dark

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.00 ozs 24.03 Santiam 60 mins 6.00
1.40 ozs 8.35 Saaz 15 mins 3.00

Yeasts
Munich Lager Wyeast Labs 2308

Here's my final recipe, for 5gal:

15# Vienna
1/2# C60
1/2# Caraaroma
1# Carafa II Special

1.5oz Perle 60'
0.5oz Perle 20'

Wyeast Munich Lager yeast, fermented at a constant 53F. (I did this in a temp-controlled fridge rather than the swamp cooler I used to use, so that number is more accurate than the first low-temperature beers I made.)

Roastier than Baltika, but not so much I wouldn't count it as a reasonable take on the style. If I had it to do over again, I'd adjust the balance of the two crystal malts to skew more toward the Caraaroma (which I might replace with Special B), to bring out more of the dark fruit flavors. I love the rich body from the high-kilned base malt, and the head retention is quite nice as well.

Nice, I might have to try this recipe as I enjoy Baltic Porters. I haven't had Baltika #6 in a long time. My personal favorite commercial example is Synebrychoff.

I have a BP that I recently bottled and it lacks the roast character I was hoping for. I followed Jamil Z.'s recipe, so maybe I screwed something up. I notice your recipe has much more carafa II than the recipe I followed where carafa II was less than 2% of the grain bill.

Pie_Man said:

Nice, I might have to try this recipe as I enjoy Baltic Porters. I haven't had Baltika #6 in a long time. My personal favorite commercial example is Synebrychoff.

I have a BP that I recently bottled and it lacks the roast character I was hoping for. I followed Jamil Z.'s recipe, so maybe I screwed something up. I notice your recipe has much more carafa II than the recipe I followed where carafa II was less than 2% of the grain bill.

Click to expand...

Baltika 6 is the only commercial BP I've had, and it's only got a minimal roast character; this is much more in line with other porters in that regard, though not to the point of having the ashen character I dislike in some.

The amount of carafa II was because nothing else is providing very much color; I used the carafa instead of a different color malt because that much of one of the others would be overwhelmingly roasty or even burnt. I'd be happy dialling it back a bit, but as little as you used is unlikely to contribute any noticeable roast flavor at all, so you'd need to get it from a different ingredient if it's desired. I like having at least some of that taste in there - it is a porter, after all - but this recipe gives rather more of it than my reading of the BJCP style guidelines say is expected for the subcategory. (It's not burnt, though, which would be a fault in a 12C.)