Mason's Smoked Porter

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masonsjax

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Location
LaGrange, GA
Size: 5.5 gallons
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.4%
IBU: 36
Color: 38 SRM

11.0 lbs US 2-row malt
1.75 lbs Chocolate malt 350L
0.75 lbs Crystal malt 60L
0.25 lbs Black malt
3.0 oz peated malt

0.75 oz Columbus (14.0%) @ 60
0.50 oz Willamette (4.5%) @ 10

Safale US-05 yeast (I pitched onto a prior cake)

Mash at 154F for 60 mins. Boil 60 mins.


This recipe was formulated by a friend who based it on the Stone Brewing Co Smoked Porter recipe published in BYO Magazine in the December 2008 issue.
I then tweaked it further, and this is what I came up with. This beer is very, very good. Creamy, chocolatey, with subtle but noticable smoke. Thanks to the black malt, the flavor is more like semi-sweet chocolate than milk chocolate. Oh so tasty, enjoy!

Note: You need to be careful with peat malt, it can be very overpowering if you use too much. I wouldn't use more than 4 oz in a 5 gal batch. You can substitute rauchmalt, but you will need to use more, prob close to double [edit: Double is not enough. You will need to use several lbs in place of some base malt] for the same level of smoke. This beer should also work well with an English yeast, like Safale S-04 or Wyeast 1098, which is what my friend uses.
 
Thanks! love stone smoked porter.

about to order ingredients my shop has german smoked malt. no peat smoked. comes in 8oz bag will probably use 7-8oz. as I am also upping this to an imperial smoked porter (thoughts?):

3lb Maris Otter
1.5lb choc malt
1lb crystal 60 lvb
.25 black patent
7-8 oz german smoked malt
6lbs Light DME
.75 oz columbus hop 60 min
.5 willamette 10min

s-04 yeast

1.083 OG
1.021 FG
44 IBU
50 SRM
8.0% ABV
 
Sounds good. The maris otter should give it a little more character. I'll prob use german rauchmalt and S-04 next time too, just to see the difference. I'm sure it will turn out great. Good luck.
 
Posted out in Recipe forums.


Got reply:
You'll not get any smoke character with 8 oz, I'm afraid.
Should you replace the Maris Otter with Rauchmalt, then we're getting somewhere.
 
Briess makes a smoked malt now that is somewhere in between Weyermann Rauch and Peat as far as smokiness. I agree that 8oz of rauch is like waving a smoky stick at the boil kettle. My last smoked porter used 5 pounds of it that's just about right. You need about 2 pounds before it's detectable.
 
might up it by a pound go to 4lbs.
Don't want a smokey kick in the head, but do want the smoke in there. stone is a nice balance.
 
I didn't realize that rauschmalt was so much less smokey than peat. Looks like to substitute for the peat in this recipe, you would just omit the peat, and use rausch in place of some of the 2 row, maybe half of it or more.
 
that's my plan w/ the partial mash. this is about 2 or three brews down the list, but will post when I brew,,, it should be just a few weeks.
 
4lbs of rauchmalt gave a good amount of smoke flavor.
bottled and aging as we speak... Mine's a big imperial porter so it's taking some time to carbonate.

tasted great at bottling! looking forward to this one, might need to "check one" tonight.
 
Oh man! this is nice now! nice 8% alcohol warmth smoke flavor is present, but not over the top. thick & creamy with some residual sweetness. slight fruitiness with a pepper back bite from the yeast. needs a bit more aging to blend flavors, but this may be my best imperial porter yet! going to be great with dinner at summer BBQs~

8% smoked goodness! Happy Happy!
 
So happy with this one I shipped it off today to the "Carolina Brewmasters 2010 US Open Competition" in Charlotte.

My first judged competition in over 10 years (last was before I started brewing again in 08. entered in the 22B smoked other cat. since I made it Imperial and it is a porter.

I will post how I did. had 1 new (brewing for 1 1/2) and 2 people who "don't like beer" and a fussy (loves Stella) beer drinker really like it!
 
got my results back 26.8 overall in smoked other catagory... not bad but hoped for better. scored 28 from certified judge and 26 from apprentice judge, and 26 from non-certified judge. trying again in another category in next competition. too much going on for the smoked other category since i bumped it to imperial. will try category 24 specialty/experimental since it is multi style entry ( it's better than a 28) just has too much going on with the yeast I used. I think some of the atringeny they where picking up on was the Safbrew # T-58 pepperiness which really came through, one judge asked if it was oaked! just need a different catagory since it does cross more lines than I thought. will brew with a thames valley next time for competition. but WILL brew w/T-58 for me! LOVE IT woody and complex yet dry!
 
Size: 5.5 gallons

11.0 lbs US 2-row malt
1.75 lbs Chocolate malt 350L
0.75 lbs Crystal malt 60L
0.25 lbs Black malt
3.0 oz peated malt

0.75 oz Columbus (14.0%) @ 60
0.50 oz Willamette (4.5%) @ 10

Safale US-05 yeast (I pitched onto a prior cake)

Mash at 154F for 60 mins. Boil 60 mins...

I made a similar recipe to this yesterday that had 12lbs malt. I assumed it meant grain, but all that grain soaked up my 3 gallons of boil water. Do you mean DME for this recipe? If you do use grain, how do you get the liquid out of the grain?
 
This is an all grain recipe, so the grain is mashed, not boiled. Use the search button on this site to read more about AG brewing techniques. Good luck.
 
Hey Mason. First off I must say your profile picture is awesome. That movie is great! I plan on brewing this tomorrow. I was wondering what your efficiency is. Mine is around 77% so I was thinking of cutting back on the grain bill to get around the 6.5% ABV.
 
I'm more of a artist than a scientist when it comes to brewing. I create the recipes using Qbrew software to get in the ballpark, but from there on out I kinda just wing it. I don't think I've used my hydrometer once in the last couple of years. I think Qbrew defaults to 75% or so, but I found that the yeast generally attenuates more than what's estimated. Sorry I don't have more helpful recommendations. I'm sure your beer will be awesome though. Cheers!
 
There are a lot of variables, but you could add up the potential fermentables for the mash schedule and adjust for your system's efficiency, boil off rate, etc. There is a lot of brewing software out there to help you do all of that. Yeah, you could just reduce the base malt, but you might want to also slightly reduce the specialties accordingly so you keep the intended flavor profile.
 
I have 8oz. of Briess Cherry-wood smoked malt and 8oz. of rauch. Think I can shoe-horn one/both into this sort of smoked porter? It was free, as was 5lbs. of Maris Otter and 2lbs. of both Honey and CaraMunich 60. I want to make a "bigger" beer for the winter out of the free stuff (or as much of it as I can).

I'm not well-versed in the porters/stouts...primarily brewed pales, ipa's, ESB's, wits, and belgians.
 
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