Porter Help

[brennanj11]

I am looking to create two final batches of porter/stout out of the remaining roasted/specialty malt I have. I've put together a sample recipe below. I understand this is a bit of a Frankenstein beer, but I am trying to clear out these specialty grains. I'm basically looking for well-rounded roasty/chocolately/coffee/malt sweetness flavors. Please let me know if the roast character ratio to base malt is acceptable for a Robust Porter or Dry stout. Also please comment if you have experience using chocolate/pale chocolate and coffee malt in a dark beer. Thank you for any advice you can provide!

Stouty McStoutFace
STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV (standard): 3.79%
IBU (tinseth): 23.48
SRM (morey): 28.89

FERMENTABLES:
6 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (62.3%)
2 lb - American - Munich - Light 10L (20.8%)
0.5 lb - American - Chocolate (5.2%)
0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Coffee Malt (5.2%)
0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Pale Chocolate (5.2%)
2 oz - German - Carafa III (1.3%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Nugget, Type: Pellet, AA: 14, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 23.48

Yeast : Nottingham, Dry yeast packet

 

[Desertbrewer]

I am looking to create two final batches of porter/stout out of the remaining roasted/specialty malt I have. I've put together a sample recipe below. I understand this is a bit of a Frankenstein beer, but I am trying to clear out these specialty grains. I'm basically looking for well-rounded roasty/chocolately/coffee/malt sweetness flavors. Please let me know if the roast character ratio to base malt is acceptable for a Robust Porter or Dry stout. Also please comment if you have experience using chocolate/pale chocolate and coffee malt in a dark beer. Thank you for any advice you can provide!



Stouty McStoutFace

STATS:

Original Gravity: 1.040

Final Gravity: 1.011

ABV (standard): 3.79%

IBU (tinseth): 23.48

SRM (morey): 28.89



FERMENTABLES:

6 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (62.3%)

2 lb - American - Munich - Light 10L (20.8%)

0.5 lb - American - Chocolate (5.2%)

0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Coffee Malt (5.2%)

0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Pale Chocolate (5.2%)

2 oz - German - Carafa III (1.3%)



HOPS:

0.5 oz - Nugget, Type: Pellet, AA: 14, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 23.48



Yeast : Nottingham, Dry yeast packet

Do you have any more base malt to bump up the OG?

I just brewed a porter recipe I created with .75 lb Pale chocolate, .5 lb chocolate and 4 oz of blackprinze. The roastiness is perfect for my taste for a robust porter; smooth chocolate. However, my OG was closer to like 1.060.

Also because you aren't using any crystal the roastiness may come off as being harsh. Never used coffee malt so I can't speak from experience.

If you're thinking dry and sessionable then I'd think to reduce all the roasted grains by at least like 30%, or if you're trying to get into the robust porter territory, keep them and bump up the OG.

 

[Desertbrewer]

Just searched that coffee malt is only 150L... maybe your recipe is fine then [emoji3].

 

[brennanj11]

Also because you aren't using any crystal the roastiness may come off as being harsh. Never used coffee malt so I can't speak from experience.

This and your other comments are pretty spot on. The thought here was to keep the roast character subdued with the pale choc and coffee malt (~150-200Lovibond), so they can stand alongside the chocolate malt (350L) and Carafa 3 (550L).

Do you have any more base malt to bump up the OG?

This and your suggestion to up the base malt to balance the roast character are making me wonder if crystal (or the sweetness is imparts) is necessary. The abv is a bit low, so I'm thinking of just throwing in a # of 2row or 20min roasted 2 row and seeing how it turns out.

 

[Yalc]

Dial your coffee down to 3% and all your dark grains to around 9-10% total and should be a great porter. Jack up your base to compensate.
Good luck!

 

[JKaranka]

Looks fine to me. For that OG around 15% roast malts is fine! I wasn't sure about it but a few years ago I brewed a stout at around 1.035 and nearly 20% roast barley and it was absolutely fine. I've done other small porters and stouts, with one the year before last being around 1.035, about 15% brown malt and another 8% patent malt on top. We drunk the 5 gallons between six or seven people in one evening over dinner. At least two people in that group didn't even like beer!

 

[brennanj11]

Just a quick note about this,
I messed up my efficiency calculation, should have been 85%, yielding an OG of 1.049 and estimated abv of 4.6%. This still doesn't affect the roasted grain ratio at about 15%.

 

[stpug]

I think the recipe is fine to brew as-is; no changes needed. However, it won't be a "sweet" roasty beer; more of a dry roasty beer. It will likely come off more porter-like than stout-like (assuming you use american porters/stouts as your baseline). My only caution would be the pH of the mash dipping too low.