Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Chocolate Oatmeal Porter

[Ridire]

Another 10 days in the fridge did wonders for this beer. It was perfect on Christmas day. Thanks for the recipe, FATC1TY.

 

[FATC1TY]

You are very welcome. Thanks for making it and reporting back!

 

[Flipadelphia]

My version is a week old now. Krausen has totally dropped and I'll let it sit another 2 weeks before kegging.

 

[Ridire]

If you were inclined to add lactose to this, when do you add it? Secondary? Bottling? Boil?

 

[jakeasaur]

I'd say with 10 min left in the boil. Thats what I've done with other beers with good results

 

[rideincircles]

This porter is fantastic. I added extra chocolate to the boil and cocao nibs after primary and it is smooth creamy and chocolatey. Hope this keg lasts a while. May just go grab one now.

 

[Flipadelphia]

If you were inclined to add lactose to this, when do you add it? Secondary? Bottling? Boil?

I prefer adding it with about 10 min remaining in the boil to burn off any possible contaminants.

 

[13ONK]

Reporting in. I brewed this in november. LHBS was out of chocloate malt so I used all pale chocolate instead. Probably tastes a little lighter then the original recipe but it's still pitch black. I gave a bunch away for x-mas and it was well recieved. Great portor recipe, I'll revisit it again and hopefully lhbs have stock of all the grains.

 

[nathan33]

I'm thinking about brewing this with cocoa nibs and pb2 in secondary. I also thought about a flameout hop addition for just a little aroma. Anyone have any thoughts about this idea. Maybe a 1/2 oz of galaxy? Or perhaps somethin like fuggles. Mayne its a bad idea

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[FATC1TY]

I'm thinking about brewing this with cocoa nibs and pb2 in secondary. I also thought about a flameout hop addition for just a little aroma. Anyone have any thoughts about this idea. Maybe a 1/2 oz of galaxy? Or perhaps somethin like fuggles. Mayne its a bad idea

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If you want some hop aroma on the finish, I'd stick with something like willamette, or fuggles, or EKG or something like that.

galaxy would bring a citrusy melon that just... wouldn't belong. It's your beer so do as you please, but it's something I would consider a bad idea.

Adding the nibs is good, and the PB2 is good as well. You'll need quite a bit to make it noticeable, IMO. I'd add it at flameout while it's still boiling, and then make sure I got everything from the kettle into the primary, so don't whirlpool it.

I'd plan for a rather large fermenter loss, so I'd plan ahead and make atleast another half gallon more so you'll end up closer to 5 than 4 gallons when you rack off the nibs and PB2.

 

[nathan33]

You are probanly right about the hops. Boil the pb2 and nibs. I did a kit chocolate covered bevr nuts imperial stout a while back and it was in secondary. Pb flavor was peetty decent. I may do some at boil and secondary. I have pb2 and chocolare pb2. May make it really chocolaty. Mmmmm

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[FATC1TY]

You are probanly right about the hops. Boil the pb2 and nibs. I did a kit chocolate covered bevr nuts imperial stout a while back and it was in secondary. Pb flavor was peetty decent. I may do some at boil and secondary. I have pb2 and chocolare pb2. May make it really chocolaty. Mmmmm

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Dont boil nibs.

Add them to the primary when fermentation starts, or add them when it's about to end but not quite at terminal gravity.

PB2 I'd add to boil, and have heard adding to secondary is good, it's rather hard to get into solution so using some beer or a little bit of boiled water would be the best idea.

 

[Larzean]

I used a jar of pb2 in a 2.5g batch, it wasn't very noticeable - it's there if you're looking for it, more in the nose than anything. Added it with like 10mins left in the boil. Not in this recipe specifically but a porter anyways.

 

[nathan33]

When I added my pb2 to secondary in my imperial stout I added some corn sugar to get slight fermentation going and pb2 was swirling around happily. Really looking forward to te ying it in this more sessionable beer instead of the IS

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[Flipadelphia]

My version is a week old now. Krausen has totally dropped and I'll let it sit another 2 weeks before kegging.

Keg kicked at a party I hosted Saturday. Easily the best homebrew I've ever had. I added a couple more ounces of cocoa and added 1/2 lb lactose, and it was just wonderful. Making again in 2 weeks, this time with Denny's 50 yeast .

 

[brewnewb1]

Hey guys. Quick question about this recipe. I'm trying to scale it down to a 2.5 gallon batch because 1) it's my first all grain and 2) I only have a 5 gallon kettle. I scaled it down and came to the conclusion that my pre-boil water would be about 4.66 gallons. Does that seem right? Also, would my 5 gallon kettle even be able to fit that much when I add in all the grains? If not, is it just because of the style? Should I choose a lighter style with less grains?

Edit: Forgot to say, I will be doing BIAB.

 

[bolus14]

If you're doing BIAB, which is what I do, I would put 3gal of water in your kettle, then add grains. That will leave with some space in the kettle after adding grains. Grains will absorb close to 1gal based on my calculations of .15gal per pound. That will leave you with around 2 gal when you're done mashing. You could then top up to 4.66 gal, that would mean you're losing around 2 gal due to boil off and trub which seems about .5gal high to me but your system may work out this way.

 

[brewnewb1]

If you're doing BIAB, which is what I do, I would put 3gal of water in your kettle, then add grains. That will leave with some space in the kettle after adding grains. Grains will absorb close to 1gal based on my calculations of .15gal per pound. That will leave you with around 2 gal when you're done mashing. You could then top up to 4.66 gal, that would mean you're losing around 2 gal due to boil off and trub which seems about .5gal high to me but your system may work out this way.

Thanks Bolus. So you're saying top up to that before my boil, right? Is this a technique you use on all of your biab batches?

 

[FATC1TY]

Keg kicked at a party I hosted Saturday. Easily the best homebrew I've ever had. I added a couple more ounces of cocoa and added 1/2 lb lactose, and it was just wonderful. Making again in 2 weeks, this time with Denny's 50 yeast .

Sucks that it kicked!!!

Always hits the best part and then... foam!

I might have to try the lactose one day. Maybe make it a shade bigger, mash a little lower, and do the lactose.

 

[bolus14]

Thanks Bolus. So you're saying top up to that before my boil, right? Is this a technique you use on all of your biab batches?

I have never had to do this since I use an 11gal kettle. I have used less than full water amounts for the mash and then sparged to get the full preboil volume, I do this on grain bills around 13lbs or more because I start to get very clsoe to spilling over. If you read through the extensive BIAB thread on here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f244/biab-brewing-pics-233289/ others do this regularly.

One of the main reason to add prepoil is that boiling the water will ensure you kill any contaminates, adding after the boil leaves you open to infections from the top off water.

 

[DapperDan15]

Thinking about trying this as a partial. I would like to add blueberry to make a Chocolate blueberry porter. Any advice on adding the fruit? Fresh or extract and when? I'm new to home brewing and trying to line up my first few batches.


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[FATC1TY]

Thinking about trying this as a partial. I would like to add blueberry to make a Chocolate blueberry porter. Any advice on adding the fruit? Fresh or extract and when? I'm new to home brewing and trying to line up my first few batches.


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I tend to avoid any and all fruit extracts.

So I would get some fresh blueberries, or frozen ones, puree them, and add them to the beer in primary after fermentation is slowing down. Or add to secondary if you so choose.

It'll cause extra fermentation, so the beer will dry out more, so I'd suggest mashing a little higher if you can to keep it from getting too dry.

Also, keep in mind you'll lose some volume due to the fruit in the beer, so you won't be able to rack all the beer out. So plan to make atleast another gallon more, IMO.

 

[christobrew]

so i tried punching this into beersmith to convert it to partial, and pale chocolate malt didn't come up. which i guess isn't a huge issue, but i'm still a little confused. it's telling me to use 7lb 11 oz. of....pale liquid malt extract? so i wouldn't actually need any pale malt grain? and it's saying to replace flaked oatmeal with carafoam?

 

[FATC1TY]

so i tried punching this into beersmith to convert it to partial, and pale chocolate malt didn't come up. which i guess isn't a huge issue, but i'm still a little confused. it's telling me to use 7lb 11 oz. of....pale liquid malt extract? so i wouldn't actually need any pale malt grain? and it's saying to replace flaked oatmeal with carafoam?

Beersmith is notorious for doing really bad conversions between AG to Extract.

Pale chocolate is just a lighter SRM chocolate. Most LHBS's have it. The color difference is minimal if it matters, but the flavor is different.

You can't steep the oatmeal, so maybe thats why it's saying to use carafoam for some body?

I'd use another calculator, and see what it'll do for ya. You can mini mash some base malt, with the oats and other grains if you want. Everything in there I think you can steep, except the flaked oats.

 

[christobrew]

well, now that i've moved on to BIAB....I can forget about that last post...
have you, or anyone reading, ever turned this into a pumpkin beer? i wanna give pumpkin stouts/ porters a shot, and this recipe is up my alley.

 

[FATC1TY]

well, now that i've moved on to BIAB....I can forget about that last post...
have you, or anyone reading, ever turned this into a pumpkin beer? i wanna give pumpkin stouts/ porters a shot, and this recipe is up my alley.

I've added pumpkin to the mash.. It doesn't really follow through to the taste of the beer though. Pumpkin beers are mostly about spicing.

So you could spice the porter after fementation and save yourself the trouble, time and cost associated with the pumpkin.

 

[sparkshooter]

I've got this sitting in primary at the moment, more or less as the original recipe is written (couldn't find two types of chocolate malt so just went with 1 type for both).

Brew day was pretty uneventful, although I did get a slightly higher volume/less boil off than expected because my old, crazy-powerful stove blew a fuse sometime after 45 minutes into the boil and I didn't notice until I came back to put in the immersion cooler. Annnnyways...

My question is: how big of a difference do the vanilla beans in secondary make? Amazon/ebay is not a good source of cheap beans in Canada, so I would be looking at spending some good money on the beans. Obviously I will do it if the result will be worth it, but I don't want to add the beans just for the sake of saying there were vanilla beans in it. Thoughts?

 

[FATC1TY]

I've got this sitting in primary at the moment, more or less as the original recipe is written (couldn't find two types of chocolate malt so just went with 1 type for both).

Brew day was pretty uneventful, although I did get a slightly higher volume/less boil off than expected because my old, crazy-powerful stove blew a fuse sometime after 45 minutes into the boil and I didn't notice until I came back to put in the immersion cooler. Annnnyways...

My question is: how big of a difference do the vanilla beans in secondary make? Amazon/ebay is not a good source of cheap beans in Canada, so I would be looking at spending some good money on the beans. Obviously I will do it if the result will be worth it, but I don't want to add the beans just for the sake of saying there were vanilla beans in it. Thoughts?

Check out beanilla online. Best price I've found for very good quality beans.

I think the vanilla beans make a great difference in the beer, but it's not a NEEDED thing. The base recipe is a good porter to stand alone. The vanilla with the chocolate take it to another level.

 

[sparkshooter]

Wow, thanks for the link! Great prices, and shipping was only $2.75 to Canada (despite current "free shipping" promotion, lol). I'll definitely be racking into a few beans.

 

[Ridire]

I might have to try the lactose one day. Maybe make it a shade bigger, mash a little lower, and do the lactose.

This is exactly what I'm planning to do for my Christmas beer this year. I did this (pretty much) to recipe for 2013 Christmas and it was good. I want it a little higher OG and a bit thicker, so your thoughts here are exactly what I'm planning. I am also planning to brew it in May and let it age until Christmas. The first batch just kept getting better and better...until it was gone.

How much lactose do you think would be good? I am thinking I'll get the OG up to the 1.075 - 1.080 range, if that matters as far as how much lactose would be good. A pound of lactose for a 5 gallon batch too much?

 

[bolus14]

I used a pound of lactose in a Cream Stout with an OG of 1.052 and FG of 1.016 and I think it came out pretty good. I brewed it on 1/4 and just now it's starting to have the creamy mouthfeel I was expecting. Until the point it's at now some bottles had a thinner feel than others, but now they're all consistent and have turned into what I was looking for. As a lot of things go in home brewing, time tends to change things for the better!

I would start with 1lb and see how it turns out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[FATC1TY]

Id start around a pound and see what you think. I would probably say to use a slightly more attenuative yeast to help. The lactose will give you a higher finishing gravity, so you'll have a fair bit of residual sweetness.

I haven't done it, I'm not a huge fan of lactose as it stands, but it could probably be good in a bigger beer.

 

[phoney]

I've brewed this one several times now. Fantastic!!!

Though I sub NB for Magnum and Willamette for Fuggles, or even EKG. Yeast I use WY1099 Whitbread.

I've added two scraped vanilla beans to secondary, as well as oaked it on bourbon barrel chips. I also up the cocoa to 100g (3oz)

The next time I'm planning on subbing half of the MO with Weyermann smoked malt, and adding 3 -4 dried chipotle peppers at flameout. (or sanitizing them in boiling water for 1 min and adding to secondary). Thoughts?

 

[Ridire]

I'm going to brew this beer this up coming weekend and age it until Christmas. I'm upping the base malt, adding a pound of lactose and pitching yeast I harvested from Bell's Porter. Thoughts: if I'm making this bigger by adding the additional 2-row, should I increase the darker malts, too.

 

[Savage1005]

You definitely need to scale up the dark malts too if you are upping the abv. I made an 8 % version and I uswd more dark malt but it came out not as dark as I wanted

 

[Ridire]

You definitely need to scale up the dark malts too if you are upping the abv. I made an 8 % version and I uswd more dark malt but it came out not as dark as I wanted

Here is what I plugged into Brewers Friend, and got a SRM of 40.

13 lbs Maris Otter
2.0 lbs Flaked Oats
0.75 lbs Crystal 80L
1.0 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Black Patent

EDIT: and, yes, I realize that I have now gone way off the reservation of this recipe and perverted into an imperial stout.

 

[Hanso]

Made this according to OP on Sunday. Smelled great going into the fermenter. Slightly worried the cocoa powder is too much as it was very strong smelling in the boil and cooling but I have faith that is just the nature of using cocoa powder in a beer... first time for me.

 

[Ridire]

Made this according to OP on Sunday. Smelled great going into the fermenter. Slightly worried the cocoa powder is too much as it was very strong smelling in the boil and cooling but I have faith that is just the nature of using cocoa powder in a beer... first time for me.

If you went according to the OP recipe, do not worry about the cocoa. It is not overwhelming, by any means. This is a good beer as written. I gave it out as Christmas presents last year and people did not believe I made it in my garage with a 5 gallon plastic bucket.

 

[inkman15]

Will this be okay doing a 60 minute boil? If I do that, should I move my bittering hops to like 40 minutes or so? Or just go with 60 min?

 

[Hanso]

The hops should go in at 60 regardless of the total boil time. I actually didn't realize that it was a 90 minute boil and did a 60 recently as well.