Please advice on my Robust Porter Recipe. Thanks!

[FVillatoro]

Firstly, thank you for your time!

I have been brewing a porter recipe that I came up with and I am currently on revision 2.
What I am looking for is a porter with a nice malty back bone, not too thin, with hints of toffee/caramel and a good roast without going over board.

On my recipe below I get the following taste notes:
It comes across as very sweet despite 38IBUs (mashed it high at 155)
There is a raisin-like taste that's probably from the #.5 of 120L
It's not roasty enough.
Overly thick and busy palate and not one thing really stands out (aside from sweetness).

For revision 3, I plan to only use #.5 of 80L and mash at 152 with WLP002 yeast.
For a more roasty taste I'm wondering if I should increase the chocolate malt, or the black malt by #.25

Here is the recipe that I just brewed:

9.75lb 2 row (69.6%)
2.5lb Dark Munich 10L (17.9%)
.75lbs American Chocolate 350L (5.4%)
.50lbs Crystal 120 (3.6%)
.25lbs Crystal 40 (1.8%)
.25lbs Black Patent 525L (1.8%)

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.015
IBU: 38

Yeast: Safale US04
I'm thinking the majority of the sweetness is coming from the dark munich. I've had much better success with stouts using WLP002 years and I am thinking that this yeast is not working well for me as I am just getting a really thick mouthfeel, and despite the amount of dark Munich, I am not getting that nice malty taste- just a really busy beer.

I am thinking of going for this next time:
Revision 3:
9.75lb 2 row (69.6%)
2.5lb Dark Munich 10L (17.9%)
.75lbs American Chocolate 350L (5.4%)
.5lbs 80L (3.6%)
.5lbs Black Patent 525L (3.6%)

OG: 1.059
FG: (we'll see )
IBU: 38

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciate it! Rock on!:rockin:

 

[rwing7486]

Firstly, thank you for your time!

I have been brewing a porter recipe that I came up with and I am currently on revision 2.
What I am looking for is a porter with a nice malty back bone, not too thin, with hints of toffee/caramel and a good roast without going over board.

On my recipe below I get the following taste notes:
It comes across as very sweet despite 38IBUs (mashed it high at 155)
There is a raisin-like taste that's probably from the #.5 of 120L
It's not roasty enough.
Overly thick and busy palate and not one thing really stands out (aside from sweetness).

For revision 3, I plan to only use #.5 of 80L and mash at 152 with WLP002 yeast.
For a more roasty taste I'm wondering if I should increase the chocolate malt, or the black malt by #.25

Here is the recipe that I just brewed:

9.75lb 2 row (69.6%)
2.5lb Dark Munich 10L (17.9%)
.75lbs American Chocolate 350L (5.4%)
.50lbs Crystal 120 (3.6%)
.25lbs Crystal 40 (1.8%)
.25lbs Black Patent 525L (1.8%)

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.015
IBU: 38

Yeast: Safale US04
I'm thinking the majority of the sweetness is coming from the dark munich. I've had much better success with stouts using WLP002 years and I am thinking that this yeast is not working well for me as I am just getting a really thick mouthfeel, and despite the amount of dark Munich, I am not getting that nice malty taste- just a really busy beer.

I am thinking of going for this next time:
Revision 3:
9.75lb 2 row (69.6%)
2.5lb Dark Munich 10L (17.9%)
.75lbs American Chocolate 350L (5.4%)
.5lbs 80L (3.6%)
.5lbs Black Patent 525L (3.6%)

OG: 1.059
FG: (we'll see )
IBU: 38

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciate it! Rock on!:rockin:

For porters i find the simpler the better. If you think you are getting too much sweetness I'd knock down your munich % down to around 10%. I would also go with a cleaner fermenting yeast like US04, but that is just me. What hops are you using in your brew? Also below is a good article from Jamil on brewing a porter - great starting point. I brewed a similar version of it using both american chocolate and pale chocolate and it came out fantastic! I just submitted it to the National Home Brew Comp this past weekend

http://byo.com/mead/item/2506-robust-porter-style-profile

 

[bransona]

From your flavor description and apparent goal, I think you made some wise changes. I really like using 1-2% black malt in my robust porter. I also use a much higher portion of chocolate malt, however, and melanoidin to buffer it.

 

[FVillatoro]

For porters i find the simpler the better. If you think you are getting too much sweetness I'd knock down your munich % down to around 10%. I would also go with a cleaner fermenting yeast like US04, but that is just me. What hops are you using in your brew? Also below is a good article from Jamil on brewing a porter - great starting point. I brewed a similar version of it using both american chocolate and pale chocolate and it came out fantastic! I just submitted it to the National Home Brew Comp this past weekend

http://byo.com/mead/item/2506-robust-porter-style-profile

Thank you for the article (I will read it).
For hops I use:
18grams of Warrior @60 mins for bittering (my favorite bittering hop)
14grams of Willamete @20
14grams of Northern Brewer at 5 mins for flavor/some aroma.

Both version 1 and 2 were fermented using Safale US04 at a temperature of 61 degrees via a submerged probe. This yeast goes absolutely WILD but my fermentation chamber has no problem keeping it under control.

I just brewed a brown ale with WLP002 fermented at 67 degrees and it tastes so Clean. Since I have so much yeast from the cake I'll use it for revision 3.

Thank you!

 

[FVillatoro]

From your flavor description and apparent goal, I think you made some wise changes. I really like using 1-2% black malt in my robust porter. I also use a much higher portion of chocolate malt, however, and melanoidin to buffer it.

I have used melanoiden once and unfortunately it was an infected batch so I could not taste it.
What flavor contributions do you get from it? What percentage do you use?

 

[bransona]

I have used melanoiden once and unfortunately it was an infected batch so I could not taste it.
What flavor contributions do you get from it? What percentage do you use?

It's kinda like munich...but a lot more. It's an assertive rich malty flavor, akin to the richness shared by a great cup of coffee and a well cooked steak (I hope that makes sense). It's like malty umami. However, I use little enough of it that it's a background player to enhance the chocolate and coffee notes I get from ~10% pale chocolate malt and a pinch of black malt.

Occasionally, I find it can also bring out some bread flavors, which I've described as cracker and toast. This has usually been in lighter beers. YMMV