Pilsener as base malt for porter?

[Ali01]

I've never done porters or anything dark before but I've liked the flavor and I wanna try making some of my own
As for the base malt, I can only get my hands on pilsner malt or Vienna malt
I wonder if I can use Vienna malt as the base malt since I like my beer to taste as malty as possible, but I've heard it has less diastatic power, I just don't know if that's enough to cover all the starches from the specialty malts too
And as for specialty malts, I can only get black patent, pale chocolate and crystal malt
One more thing, I have a 8L container which I'm going to use as fermentations vessel for this project, I'll fill it up to about 7L
How much water and malt do I need to mix in together to get a rich 7L mash in the container? And by rich I mean malty and sugary

 

[day_trippr]

Welcome to the forums @Ali01

I would go with the Vienna malt as it actually has easily enough Diastatic Power for self-conversion plus some 0 DP adjuncts. Weyermann claims their Vienna has a DP of 90, while Briess says 130 for theirs, while most plain two-row base malts are in the 120 area...

Cheers!

 

[JohnSand]

Welcome aboard Ali01!
I think for a Porter I might use the Vienna as well, though I have used Pilsner as the base for many styles.
Do you intend to ferment 7l in an 8l container? Or just mash it there? That might lack enough headspace for fermenting.
Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[Ali01]

Welcome aboard Ali01!
I think for a Porter I might use the Vienna as well, though I have used Pilsner as the base for many styles.
Do you intend to ferment 7l in an 8l container? Or just mash it there? That might lack enough headspace for fermenting.
Good luck, keep us posted.

Thank you!
Does Vienna malt have enough enzyme power to do the conversation of other malts in the mash too?
Actually it's a 10L container, that's what the manufacturer says, measuring the actual volume, I realized it's about 8.7
1.7 L still too low for headspace?
One more thing I don't know is how much material I should use for 7L, I can get Vienna malt, pale chocolate malt, black malt and crystal malt

 

[rmr9]

I think you would be ok using just the Vienna, but if you’re worried you could swap a small percentage of the Vienna for Pils. I think the change in flavor would be negligible.

 

[day_trippr]

The OP should get familiar with this tool as it will help figure out if a mash will fully convert based on the "Net Lintner" rating for the grain bill. Plug in all the grains both malted and not with their weights and their respective Lintner ratings and it'll come up with a value that if over 40-something should fully convert.

https://www.topdownbrew.com/diastaticPower.html
And yes, Vienna carries enough enzyme potential to self convert plus convert a respectable mass of zero Diastatic Power adjuncts. Use the tool...

Cheers!

 

[JohnSand]

Thank you!
Does Vienna malt have enough enzyme power to do the conversation of other malts in the mash too?
Actually it's a 10L container, that's what the manufacturer says, measuring the actual volume, I realized it's about 8.7
1.7 L still too low for headspace?
One more thing I don't know is how much material I should use for 7L, I can get Vienna malt, pale chocolate malt, black malt and crystal malt

I think 1.7l is enough for 7l ferment. To calculate how much grain you need, find a proven recipe in the style you want to brew. You won't find any seven liter recipes, but you can simply divide a a five gallon (19l) recipe. You can also find substitutes for grain in the recipe if you can't find them.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Use Vienna, Crystal and chocolate to make a Baltic Porter type beer, strong and savoury. They usually need a bit of aging though.

 

[Steveruch]

I recently brewed a porter with 3 lbs of munich, out of a 5.5 lbs grainbill (3 gallons), that turned out great.

 

[z-bob]

My favorite grain bill for a porter is 90% pale malt (any pale malt should work), 5% crystal malt (20L or 40L), and 5% Black Patent malt.

 

[kevin58]

Yes and yes. You can use either malt to make a porter. Since it appears you are limited to the specialty malts you can get I would use the pilsner as your base malt... the Vienna to add the extra malti-ness you desire and the black patent for color. The traditional grist of London porter is sometimes called the holy trinity or London trinity of pale malt, brown malt and black malt. You would simply be substituting pilsner for pale malt and Vienna for brown. I would hazard to guess that no one will know that you used pilsner instead of pale malt unless you tell them. While the two should be different 8 times out of 10 most tasters will never be able to tell the difference.