Porter recipe critique

I tried to forumlate a porter recipe that would be full in mouthfeel and rich in caramel and chocolate flavor without being too ashy. What I ended up with is a sort of watery, almost dry stout taste. What do you think of my recipe and how can I adjust it to get closer to my original goal?

US-05 yeast
OG 1.062
FG 1.023
App Att 63% (Beersmith expected 74%)
156F mash

% Ingredient SRM
67.8 Crisp Pale Ale malt 3.6
8.0 Weyermann Caramunich I 34
7.1 Weyermann Munich I 7.1
7.1 Crisp Pale Chocolate 225
3.6 Muntons Chocolate 355
2.2 Muntons Black malt 550
1.8 Weyermann Carapils 1.5
1.4 Weyermann Melanoidin 30
0.9 Muntons Roasted Barley 550

What yeast and what mash temp? A higher mash temp (154F or so) and/or a lower attenuating yeast will get you a fuller brew. What were your OG and FG? You could also bump up the black malt and roasted barley. Use a debittered black to avoid the burnt ashy flavor. I don't know how long since you brewed this but I had a stout that tasted watery for the first month or so and then the flavors melded and filled out well.

BlueHouseBrewhaus said:

What yeast and what mash temp? A higher mash temp (154F or so) and/or a lower attenuating yeast will get you a fuller brew. What were your OG and FG? You could also bump up the black malt and roasted barley. Use a debittered black to avoid the burnt ashy flavor. I don't know how long since you brewed this but I had a stout that tasted watery for the first month or so and then the flavors melded and filled out well.

Click to expand...

Ah, good point. I updated that info above.

With the mash temp and FG I would have expected a fuller mouthfeel. Give it some time for the full flavor to develop. Sometimes a weaker flavor translates in one's mind as a thin mouthfeel. If it doesn't improve I'm not sure what the issue was. Maybe water chemistry?

seanppp said:

I tried to forumlate a porter recipe that would be full in mouthfeel and rich in caramel and chocolate flavor without being too ashy. What I ended up with is a sort of watery, almost dry stout taste. What do you think of my recipe and how can I adjust it to get closer to my original goal?

US-05 yeast
OG 1.062
FG 1.023
App Att 63% (Beersmith expected 74%)
156F mash

% Ingredient SRM
67.8 Crisp Pale Ale malt 3.6
8.0 Weyermann Caramunich I 34
7.1 Weyermann Munich I 7.1
7.1 Crisp Pale Chocolate 225
3.6 Muntons Chocolate 355
2.2 Muntons Black malt 550
1.8 Weyermann Carapils 1.5
1.4 Weyermann Melanoidin 30
0.9 Muntons Roasted Barley 550

Click to expand...

Is this what you brewed, or what you plan to brew?

It would be easier to understand if you gave actual weights and volume brewed.

1.023 seems high to me and I expect would be sweet. I don't know how you could call it watery.

I don't use any black or roast in a Porter, but love lots of Chocolate, which it seems you have.

Why so many different specialty malts. Anything with a couple of percent will not do much. Just keep it to a few specialty malts.

Maybe you could add a half lb of oats.

This is the recipe I brewed. It's a 5 gallon batch.

seanppp said:

I tried to forumlate a porter recipe that would be full in mouthfeel and rich in caramel and chocolate flavor without being too ashy. What I ended up with is a sort of watery, almost dry stout taste. What do you think of my recipe and how can I adjust it to get closer to my original goal?

US-05 yeast
OG 1.062
FG 1.023
App Att 63% (Beersmith expected 74%)
156F mash

% Ingredient SRM
67.8 Crisp Pale Ale malt 3.6
8.0 Weyermann Caramunich I 34
7.1 Weyermann Munich I 7.1
7.1 Crisp Pale Chocolate 225
3.6 Muntons Chocolate 355
2.2 Muntons Black malt 550
1.8 Weyermann Carapils 1.5
1.4 Weyermann Melanoidin 30
0.9 Muntons Roasted Barley 550

Click to expand...

I would personally drop the last four malts. It seems like you should have enough residual sugars there to give it some body. I would guess water chemistry is playing a role in the watery mouth-feel, but how much did you carbonate to in terms of volumes of co2? If you over-carbonated for this style it could possibly lead to the roasty/bitterness coming out more, and also a perception of less body.

One other weird thing is that if beersmith predicted that you should be getting an AA of 74%, and you only got 63%, you've either got the wrong yeast selected, or you've done something wrong with the fermentation. Another thing that could make a roasty flavor seem too much is if you fermented too warm and you got too much fusel alcohol.

I would go something more along the lines of this grain bill:
% Ingredient SRM
74 Crisp Pale Ale malt 3.6
7 Weyermann Caramunich I 34
7 Weyermann Munich I 7.1
6 Crisp Pale Chocolate 225
3 Muntons Chocolate 355
3 Flaked oats