First Porter. Critique please

[kpd85]

I really love porters, but I live in Korea and they just don't exist here. I was hoping to use a proven recipe, but the ingredients in them are either not available or sold-out at the small home brew shop I have access to. I also have a random assortment of grains from a bulk order I jumped in on. Anyways, here is what I have come up with given what I have and can get. I'm still new and have no experience with beer design so let me know what is right and what's wrong with it.

Batch size: 5 gallons
SG:1.058
7lbs belgian pale malt
2lbs munich
1lb caramunich ii
12oz briess dark chocolate malt
8oz carapils
1oz perle @ 60mins
1oz saaz @ 30mins

Mash at 156F and fermented with US-05 Ale yeast

 

[Ølbart]

It doesn't look bad, but I'd use less caramel malts and more chocolate malt, and maybe mash a bit lower. Unless you want it sweet.

 

[BigEd]

Agree with Olbart. I think it's a little light on dark malt and a bit heavy on the caramel. About 10% dark roasted is a good starting point and your recipe is at 6.7%. You could add more chocolate or bring in another dark roast like Carafa to get a total of ~1.25 lbs and knock the CaraMunich down by a 1/4 lb.

 

[kpd85]

Got it. Since I have to buy grains by the half kilo, I'll try bringing up the dark chocolate to 1.25lbs. My impression is that it will impart a very strong coffee flavour, but I haven't found much on other peoples' experience using the dark chocolate malt. If that ends up being the case, I can get carafa II on the next brew. So It's looking like this:

Batch size: 5 gallons
SG:1.06
7lbs belgian pale malt
2lbs munich
.75lb caramunich ii
1.25 briess dark chocolate malt
8oz carapils
1oz perle @ 60mins
1oz saaz @ 30mins

Mash at 154F and fermented with US-05 Ale yeast

 

[BigEd]

Got it. Since I have to buy grains by the half kilo, I'll try bringing up the dark chocolate to 1.25lbs. My impression is that it will impart a very strong coffee flavour, but I haven't found much on other peoples' experience using the dark chocolate malt. If that ends up being the case, I can get carafa II on the next brew. So It's looking like this:

Batch size: 5 gallons
SG:1.06
7lbs belgian pale malt
2lbs munich
.75lb caramunich ii
1.25 briess dark chocolate malt
8oz carapils
1oz perle @ 60mins
1oz saaz @ 30mins

Mash at 154F and fermented with US-05 Ale yeast

I think you will be happier with the color from the revised recipe. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[markstache]

1oz perle @ 60mins
1oz saaz @ 30mins

Mash at 156F and fermented with US-05 Ale yeast

British hops would be more traditional. Fuggles, east Kent holdings, or derivatives like Willamette.

S04 would be an alternative dry yeast.

 

[kpd85]

I wanted to pick up some fuggles but the homebrew store is sold out. These things tend to get held at customs
from what I've heard so I'd rather not wait around. I've got the perle and saaz on hand so I'll go with those for now and try the fuggles to compare when they come in. I read that perle lends itself well to porters. The saaz I'm not so sure but I'm mostly after the bitterness aren't I?

 

[markstache]

I think you'll make a fine beer with the hops you have. I just wanted to make sure you were making an informed choice.

Good luck!

 

[kpd85]

Thanks for your help guys. Everything went well but I missed my og by a bit. It came in at 1.054. I decided to test this with a small batch biab which I have never done before. The colour is great like you said. Now the waiting game....