Is this a Porter or a Stout?

[Soazmedic]

Hello all! New member here and I am loving all of the information! I am new to home brewing and jumped right into all grain. Like most, I was excited to start brewing and went to my local brew shop and tasted a bunch of grain and with the help of the staff at the shop, I came up with a recipe. Porters are my favorite and I was really excited to make my own. I have learned that I should probably brew a good amount of prebuilt kits before I dive too much into experimentation. However, I have brewed this batch and it is now on day 7 of fermentation. I have been searching and reading posts and I need help understanding if I have created a porter or a stout (sweet stout more specifically). Based on the numbers and descriptions, I am in both categories or at least very close to each category. Can you all take a look at my recipe and offer your opinions and critiques? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

5 gallon batch

Grain-
8.0lbs Maris Otter
0.5lbs Roasted Barley
0.5lbs Black Patent
0.5lbs Crystal 90
0.5lbs Light Munich
0.25lbs Chocolate

Hops-
East Kent Golding 1.0oz @60min

Yeast-
WLP004 Irish Ale pitched (yeast starter) at 70 degrees and fermenting currently at 67degrees

I mashed at 154 degrees for an hour and fly sparged at 168 for 30min. I had a preboil volume of 6.25 gallons and began fermentation with 5 gallons with no extra water added.

Per my app, the numbers are as follows.

OG(target/actual)- 1.052 / 1.055
FG (target/actual)- 1.014 / not obtained yet
SRM- 32
IBU- 19
A.B.V. (predicted)- 5.2%

I tasted the wort prior to yeast pitch and it was very flavorful. Lightly sweet with subtle chocolate and coffee notes.

I have attached a picture of my work at time of yeast pitching. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

 

[3gbrew]

I would call that a porter, myself. I usually put roasted barley and flaked barely in my stouts. Soun

 

[3gbrew]

Sounds tasty to me, call it whatever you want and make more.

 

[cswis86]

If it didn't have the roasted barley I would definitely call it a porter. With the roasted barley it's a bit of a hybrid. If you think it tastes like a stout, it's a stout.

 

[Mainer]

I like this argument that the difference is mostly which you prefer to call it.

However, stout used to be just short for Stout Porter, that is, a brewery's highest ABV, and often darkest, porter. For that reason, at 32 SRM and 5.2%, I'd probably be tempted to call it porter, but I'd say whichever one you want to call it, you're right.

 

[Yooper]

I think that having a decent percentage of roasted barley in the recipe is what makes a stout. Without roasted barley, I think of the beer as a porter. That, combined with a higher ABV, is the most "stout-like" beer to me.

 

[Soazmedic]

Thanks everyone! I checked on it today and the color is seems to be a dark dark brown, not quite black. One more week till moving it to bottles/keg. Can't wait for it to finish! Now what to brew in the meantime.....🤔

 

[Chanoc]

Send to a competition on both categories

Call it whatever gets a better ranking.

 

[Capslock]

Hey Soaz, nice recipe! I brewed something similar about a month ago, added coffee to a secondary and ended up with a dry Irish stout (unintentionally).

I also am new to brewing, and dove face first into the deep end of all-grain and am learning my way. Just finished my 2nd beer and may have pushed my system a little far lol...I think because home brewing is supposed to be a fun hobby you should make your own recipes and learn from your mistakes. There's nothing like making a beer you designed on your own and everyone loving it.

As far as porters and stouts go, I did a ton of research on the difference between the two because I'm only brewing stouts to serve on beer gas out of my keezer but also like Porters and wanted to know the difference. So I did some googling...I suggest you read this article, I found it interesting to read for more than just the differentiation between the two so similar of beer types, there are some history lessons in there too that are quite interesting...Roasted Barley was a banned ingredient? Yep. : https://beerconnoisseur.com/porter-versus-stout

Anyway, there really isn't a significant difference these days and many wouldn't be able to tell you which is which if you did a triangle test subbing roasted barley and roasted malt...some may claim to however.

Best advice, make stuff, try it, tweak it, make stuff, try it, tweak it....Cooking is fun, brewing is more fun.

 

[Calder]

Stout is a Porter.

But for the purpose of this discussion I would say it is a Stout. It is all a preference thing, but to me it has too much of the dark roasted malts (Roasted Barley and Black Patent), and no way enough Chocolate for a Porter.

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Is this a Porter or a Stout?

Yes.