English Porter Black Pearl Porter (AG)

Thanks BierMuncher for the excellent recipe! In May I brewed this the second time with slight modifications (Golding instead of Fuggle, Crystal 40L instead of 30L, Safale S-04, OG 1.066/FG 1.031) for a friend's wedding. Entered two bottles into the NC Brewer's Cup and ended up getting the bronze ribbon in the porter category . My first ribbon

Last weekend brewed a third batch (this time with more modifications due to grains at hand) that I intend to age in a bourbon barrel.

I brewed this about 5 months ago. I just found a hidden 6 pack (thought I drank all of them a couple months ago) and WOW! This stuff really is awesome with a little bit of age. I would say the best beer ive yet to make in my year of home brewing (probably 20 batches). If your contemplating making some go for it.

I'd like to start a batch of this next weekend but the feed store where I bought my grains doesn't carry lactose. I see others have skipped it with acceptable results, but I was wondering if I could find a milk based substitute at the grocery store. What should I look for? Whole milk? Sweetened condensed milk? Non-dairy creamer? Buttermilk?
Should I stick to 4 oz?

Brewed this on 10/4/14 and just racked to a secondary today. I used Nottingham because LHBS was out of WLP013 (one of my favorites). I racked it on my vanilla solution (3 beans split and soaked in vodka for a week). The sample was delicious and I am really excited about this beer.

That's for great recipe BierMuncher. I have made 3 of your recipes and they have all been fantastic. I can't thank you enough!

YeastMode said:

That's for great recipe BierMuncher. I have made 3 of your recipes and they have all been fantastic. I can't thank you enough!

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I agree. You just can't go wrong with BM's recipes. I'm working my way slowly through them all. So far I've brewed:

Cream of Three Crops
Sacred Summit Pale Ale
Sterling gold
Six Shooter Pale Ale
Centennial Blonde
Oktoberfast
Aberdeen Brewery Session Haus Ale
Aberdeen Brown Ale
Nierra Sevada
SWMBO Slayer
Black Pearl Porter

They have all been excellent!

Another beautiful day to brew in SE TX and another awesome recipe from BM. Hope I like this one as well as the Outer Limits IPA! Not thinking that will be a problem... Thanks for the recipes man.


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Well I brewed mine and let it sit for 3 weeks for the yeast to do there thing. I tasted the gravity sample and was blown away at how good it taste. now if I can make myself wait till thanksgiving.

Just brewed this again, but my OG was 1.07, maybe used 1/2 lb extra two row, I was following last years notes. Must have improved my efficiency since then!

Question on this recipe if anyone can help. When I enter this into Beersmith it shows way low on IBUs for this style and clocks in at only 7IBUs. Seems really low. With basically only .5 oz of buttering hops at about 4.5 alphas I'm worried about it being too sweet. I want it to be more on the malty and sweet side and will be adding about 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate to the end of the boil and coffee in the secondary. Should the there be more bittering hops?


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myquestforbeer said:

Question on this recipe if anyone can help. When I enter this into Beersmith it shows way low on IBUs for this style and clocks in at only 7IBUs. Seems really low. With basically only .5 oz of buttering hops at about 4.5 alphas I'm worried about it being too sweet. I want it to be more on the malty and sweet side and will be adding about 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate to the end of the boil and coffee in the secondary. Should the there be more bittering hops?


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The IBU's are definitely on the low side. Under 10 to be sure. The addition of unsweetened chocolate should put a little bitterness back.

Thanks. Yeah I'm just wondering if the low IBUs and only 45 minute mash (is that enough time to extract fermentable sugars?) will make it too sweet. Plus .5 oz fuggles at 3 min will primarily give you hop aroma (do you want that in a porter?). So just wanted to see what the reason was for only .5 oz at 60 and only 45 min. If that's how you do it and it turns out great, who am I to argue that? Lol. Not trying to be contrary, really just wanting to learn from people and this one seemed confusing to me since it would seem too sweet at the end. Any insight you can share would be great since I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks!


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myquestforbeer said:

Thanks. Yeah I'm just wondering if the low IBUs and only 45 minute mash (is that enough time to extract fermentable sugars?) will make it too sweet. Plus .5 oz fuggles at 3 min will primarily give you hop aroma (do you want that in a porter?). So just wanted to see what the reason was for only .5 oz at 60 and only 45 min. If that's how you do it and it turns out great, who am I to argue that? Lol. Not trying to be contrary, really just wanting to learn from people and this one seemed confusing to me since it would seem too sweet at the end. Any insight you can share would be great since I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks!


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In all honesty this is a tried and proven low hop recipe that most BMC drinkers will like. This is a good recipe to bring in new craft beer drinkers and future brewers.

Brewed this up today.

Hit 1.066 OG (1.063 estimated). I also added a full ounce of Fuggles for 5 minutes as I had 1.5 ounces left and I didn't have any recipes calling for Fuggles anywhere in the future brew plans. The wort tastes awesome.

Can't wait for this one to be done.

Following original recipe brewing this tonight in Summerfield NC

So, I wanted to follow this recipe to the tee, LHBS was out of lactose. I brewed it last week anyway, and has been in the ferm chamber. Now the store has the lactose, is it too late to add it now? I took a gravity reading yesterday, its at 1.021, OG was 1.059, it tastes good, but i don't get the sweetness people are talking about.

BM, this is another winner in my book.
Kegged this on 9/14 and have been enjoying a glass now and then ever since.
I did add another 1/2 pound of the chocolate malt and two tablespoons of pure vanilla extract at keg time.
I love this recipe.

Mwhy71 said:

So, I wanted to follow this recipe to the tee, LHBS was out of lactose. I brewed it last week anyway, and has been in the ferm chamber. Now the store has the lactose, is it too late to add it now? I took a gravity reading yesterday, its at 1.021, OG was 1.059, it tastes good, but i don't get the sweetness people are talking about.

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You can just boil the lactose in a bit of water and then add it to your fermenter. Should be fine, but 1.021 with lactose added might be a tad sweet? I don't know where others are ending but anything above 1.020 seems sweet to me.

Well I tried this brew after just 3 weeks in the bottle and all I can say is WOW. I am going to have a hard time leaving this alone for thanksgiving!

Well, I screwed it up. Some of my bottles are flat and some are gushing. I think (hope) that when I racked on top of my priming solution it didn`t mix well enough before I started bottling. I usually give the bottling bucket a few gentle stirs with the auto siphon after racking. I seem to remember wondering if I had done it when bottling this batch. I guess I didn`t.

Anyway, the gushers are salvageable. I pop the cap, pour beer into a large glass, wait for the soda pop head to settle and then degas a little more using a syringe. Doing this works pretty good and gives me the head and mouth feel I`m looking for.

The flat bottles are just that... flat! Don`t care, I`ll drink them anyway.

Too bad I have no way of knowing which are flat and which are over carbonated. I could pour one of each into a pitcher to cancel each other out .

Despite frigging up the bottling, the beer itself tastes really good. I will be making it again (paying better attention to bottling on the next go round). Thanks to BierMuncher for the recipe.

Sorry to hear about your bottling issues, but all hope might not be lost. How long have they been bottle carbing? I've had some take much longer to get right vs. others etc. Thus why I now force carb, lol, but thats a different story. I'm glad the beer tastes good though!

I bottled in mid September. I think at this point they're finished.

Kegged tonight. OG 1.062. FG 1.030. S-04. Not sure what happened here. Brew regularly. 4.2%. Brew went well

This could be a driveway beer. That is - pour the keg out onto the driveway

What yeast did you use. At 1.030 you're high, but could try to build a starter of s-04 or s-05 and throw that in at higher temps to bring it down.
Or what I would try build a starter of a Belgian strain, maybe 3522, which can be an animal. I love Belgians and your high enough that you might still get some esters. I wouldn't dump it without trying to pitch something else first. Either that or blend it.

Dont Pitch the the beer out. Let it ride and try it in a month you will be glad you did.

Brewed ~7.5 gallons of this in 2 BIAB batches over the weekend. I followed the recipe to a "T," except I used Nottingham (I had 2 packets in hand). The wort tasted wonderful. The OG came in at 1.080 and dropped to 1.070 after adding a gallon of water.

I plan to put it in my bourbon barrel once the RIS comes out in a couple of weeks.

Had to share this pic before I drain the kegs...View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1416971474.300387.jpg. If you can't tell, I'm a bit of a fan of these recipes. Might have to place bets on which one I'll float first.


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Well I went to bottle this today, its been in the primary over a month, I dont really secondary. Its at 1.03, and has a slight grainy cereal smell. Fermented this in my basement that was too cold. Try to pitch more yeast?

Looking back through this thread, one poster put this recipe in beersmith and the expected FG is 1.030. So it is what it is. I have friends that like this beer. Myself no I've made many porters and stouts. This is in the bottom of the list

I have brewed this a total of 5 times. I did something wrong the first batch and it sucked. All the others have been awesome!

If you have brewed it and you didn't like it, you might have missed a critical temp. I feel like this one varies a lot based upon how well you hit and hold mash and ferm temps.


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I just found a 9 month old bottle of this that I must have misplaced. The rest was drank a looooooong time ago and very good. The 9 month bottle is unreal. Definately top two or three of my 30 or so batches.

I brewed this 11/09/14 and hooked the keg up to the co2 yesterday. It's even good flat. I can't wait to try it carbed up.

This beer is great I have been trying to figure out the best way to raise the alcohol % without greatly changing the flavors. I want to age this for several months!

Brewed this and forgot the oats. Even without the oats, I like it.

OG was 1.058 and FG was 1.020.

Brewed this on 11-24-14 and left it in the primary until today. Tasted very nice after 5.5 weeks. FG was a little higher than I expected: 1.024 finishing at 6% ABV. Now for the best part -- I racked it into my bourbon barrel after bottling the RIS that was in it!



My guess is that it will condition in the barrel for ~3 months before bottling. Looking forward to the finished product.

I made this back in November and it was the best beer I've made to date. I've decided I want to make this again and bring it to a local craft beer event. The only problem is the event is 5 weeks away. I think it's doable but another week or two would be ideal.

This will be my first beer to share with people who aren't close friends or family. I'm a little nervous about it but I think it'll be good enough.

There is a homebrew contest at the event bit it's by popular vote AKA the guy who brings the most friends wins.

I'm not too worried about the contest, I am worried about bringing a keg of "green" porter.

Do you guys think I should brew something else with a quicker turn around our will 5 weeks be long enough?

I was thinking letting is sit in primary for 4 weeks. Force carb, make sure the carbonation is good the last week (hopefully won't drink it all during sampling), and serve at the event.

Cutting it tight.

Well I bottled another batch of it the first batch is down to 5 bombers, I also put vanilla in 6 bottles!

With force carbing in a keg will this be a good drinking beer 3 weeks from brew day?

Anyone Nitro this one?

Ariando said:

Anyone Nitro this one?

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I have several times, it's fantastic!