Caramel Porter

[OsbornBrewing]

My homebrew club is doing an Iron Brewer competition and my secret ingredient is Woerther's. I am challenging myself in two areas: can I build a recipe from the ground up that fits in style, 2 can I get the caramel of Woerther's from beer ingredients so that if this turns out well I can submit it NOT in category 23.

Style: Brown Porter
Fermentable:
10.5# Pale Malt
1.0# Crystal 90L
1.0# Light Munich Malt
.5# Special B
.5# Honey Malt
.333# Chocolate
.25# Caraffe II
Hops:
2 oz Cascade bittering
.5 oz tettenang aroma

.5 lb lactose

English Ale Yeast (White Labs 002)

I think will get the caramel taste I'm looking for while staying true to style. What do you all think?

 

[pkeeler]

If you are going for caramel flavoring, I wouldn't use a citrusy hop like cascade. I'd go for something European.

 

[HopHead24]

What about an Octoberfest?

 

[OsbornBrewing]

Hadn't thought of an Octoberfest, it may have potential though.

I still would like any feedback on the Porter.

 

[dirty_martini]

my thoughts are simplify your recipe. plus, without specifying batch size I would guess that this is a 5 gal recipe...and if so you are way too high in gravity

you dont need the munich...drop it and add to the pale malt
you dont need crystal, special b, and honey malt. use mainly medium crystal and a touch of darker crystal. special b will give you too much burnt sugar/raisin notes and the honey malt while giving sweetness, its not really the caramel/toffee notes of a werthers
try using more traditional english hops...bitter with something like challenger and finish with EKG or fuggle (but dont use much as hop aroma and flavor isnt really part of the style)

so taking your recipe and simplifying, heres how I would go

assuming 70% efficiency
OG - 1.047ish
FG - 1.013ish
IBU 26-27
SRM 24

8# 2-row
1# crystal 60
.25# crystal 120
.33# chocolate
.25# carafa II

.75oz challenger 60min
.5oz fuggle 15min

english ale yeast (WLP 002)


Ill admit I know nothing of how to use lactose. I do know it will add sweetness to the beer so maybe its a good idea to add it before bottling a little at a time to get the flavor you want. I could see it bringing out the crystal malt sweetness a lot. Like I said though, someone else might need to help you with this.

Im not saying you should use this recipe per se, but based on what you are doing this is how I would do it. Oh, and given that lactose boosts gravity you may need to drop some of the 2-row so as your gravity doesnt become too high. Right now the recipe I posted puts you right square in the middle of the guidelines. Good luck.

 

[SAMPLER]

Opppps! Sorry!