Porter Recipe Feedback

[Lampy]

Looking for some feedback on an American Porter I plan on brewing sometime in the next month (hopefully). I have never made this style before, so I want to see if what I've come up with makes sense. Trying to keep it simple.

2-Row 83%
Brown Malt 11%
Chocolate Malt 6%

Mash at 152-154 for 90 min.

Cascade hops at 45 min for calculated 35 IBU.

Calculated to start at 1.050 and end at 1.012 for 5% ABV

 

[Bramling Cross]

Hell yeah! That will make a porter that I would very happily drink. A good porter should have a meaty portion of brown malt in the grist. You are a good person!

However, I'm not sure that I would call it an American version of the style. I learned to brew in the early 90's during the micro explosion that happened in the Pacific NW. I can assure you, brown malt wasn't available when the style was created. At the time, there seemed to be an agreement that black malt was the defining feature of a porter and black barley made stouts stout.

That is complete rubbish.

At the time, nobody knew anything about anything. And that's the key thing to know about American Porter--it's kinda made-up BS. Why? Because the knowledge, malts, sugars, etc needed to make an actual porter weren't available.

Your grist suggests that you've done your porter research, your big dose of brown malt proves it. Unfortunately, an American Porter isn't a proper Porter, so I would suggest that your current grist will shoot wide of your mark.

I would suggest googling the recipe for Anchor Porter. It is, after all, the original (modern) US Porter, and I'd argue one of the best.

Deschutes Black Butte Porter is another widely available recipe that defines the style.

My personal favorite was Bridgeport Porter. But their quality control was all over the place. When it was good, it was amazing.

 

[day_trippr]

I would want to have some roasted barley in there. Check out this clone recipe for Anchor Porter...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/anchor-porter-clone-all-grain-recipe.288615/#post-3590791
Cheers!

 

[easttex]

Looking for some feedback on an American Porter I plan on brewing sometime in the next month (hopefully). I have never made this style before, so I want to see if what I've come up with makes sense. Trying to keep it simple.

2-Row 83%
Brown Malt 11%
Chocolate Malt 6%

Mash at 152-154 for 90 min.

Cascade hops at 45 min for calculated 35 IBU.

Calculated to start at 1.050 and end at 1.012 for 5% ABV

Looks good to me. Brew it and see if you like it. If you want more color or roast flavor, you can rebrew it and add some roast barley other darker malt to the grist.

If you want to make it an English porter, sub Maris Otter for 2-row and use an English yeast.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Or a 50/50 blend of 2 row and UK Vienna as base (basically mild malt) for a fuller base flavour, in higher amounts it also gives a subtle toffee flavour.

 

[dmtaylor]

This is one beer style where you can use pretty much any malts you want, as long as the color turns out deep brown to black. The original recipe looks great. If you want to tweak it, great. You can play around over several batches to try to figure out what you like best. If the original recipe seems right to you, brew it up first and see how it turns out.

 

[AlexKay]

For American porter, I’d think about adding a later Cascade addition.

And you didn’t mention yeast. Something off the beaten path that has worked for me is a Kolsch yeast.

 

[Lampy]

Hell yeah! That will make a porter that I would very happily drink. A good porter should have a meaty portion of brown malt in the grist. You are a good person!

However, I'm not sure that I would call it an American version of the style.

I can live with that! I just slapped the American label on there because of the hops.

 

[Lampy]

Or a 50/50 blend of 2 row and UK Vienna as base (basically mild malt) for a fuller base flavour, in higher amounts it also gives a subtle toffee flavour.

I had considered doing something like that, but I will probably stick with just 2-row base malt so I can get a good feel for the flavor of the brown malt (never used it before).

 

[Lampy]

For American porter, I’d think about adding a later Cascade addition.

And you didn’t mention yeast. Something off the beaten path that has worked for me is a Kolsch yeast.

Good point! I will probably pitch onto a US-05 yeast cake.

 

[Albionwood]

Yeah the grist and hops look good for a Porter, and 35 IBU is perfect.
My usual Robust Porter grist is 80% 2-row, 8% CaraMunich, 8% Brown, and 4% Midnight Wheat. No roasted barley; save that for a Stout. Or if you don't have Midnight Wheat, use a tiny amount of Black Roasted Barley (like 1%) for color.

Your choice of yeast will have a big effect on the outcome. Mangrove Jack's M15 Empire leaves a lot of body and some residual sweetness - it is not a good attenuator so don't use it in a high-gravity beer, but in the 5%-6% ABV range it is fantastic. An English ale yeast like S-33 is great. My favorite Porters were made with Tormodgarden kveik, it ferments fast and clean and contributes just a bit of dark fruit character, and great mouthfeel.

 

[BrewMan13]

I had considered doing something like that, but I will probably stick with just 2-row base malt so I can get a good feel for the flavor of the brown malt (never used it before).

I'm currently drinking my first take on an English porter, which uses a decent amount of brown malt and I love the character! It's quite different from my American porter though, which is just shy of a stout in character; this one could almost pass as a brown ale. Also I would never throw cascade in one of my porters, but if you want to follow that suggestion, go right ahead.

 

[Lampy]

@BrewMan13
I am going to give the Cascade a go. I don't plan on doing any late additions, so I am not expecting it to really "show". Even if it does, this is a hop I like.
My overall feeling from this thread is that I will land somewhere between American and English on style.