Porters

[Ster]

I've brewed 2 extract porters from 2 different companies (True Brew and Midwest), and both never hit the expected FG, falling under 4% abv.

One I tried a re-pitch and an extra week in the primary. The other I just did an extra week.

Every other non-porter extract recipe hit the expected FG. (IPA, APA, Red, Brown and Blonde)

Any guesses to why?

 

[buzbey]

Do you have the recipe? Its hard to say with out it. One thing you could do is add a little simple sugar if you don't hit the final gravity your looking for. Simple sugar will dry it out further

 

[Ster]

include: 6 lbs. Dark liquid malt extract, 8 oz. Carapils, 8 oz. Black malt specialty grains, 1 oz. Willamette, 1 oz. Fuggle pellet hops, yeast, priming sugar

 

[Bradyfumbled]

What type of yeast? Was it the same type of yeast you used in your other beers which reached their expected FG?

 

[Ster]

Yes. I only ever used SF05 or 04. 04 here I think, the english version.

 

[buzbey]

And what was your final gravity?

 

[Ster]

Expected was 1.012

Actuals were:
1.019 and 1.023

The last one:1.019 did not drop at all from the previos reading 7 days earlier.

 

[buzbey]

and your originals where somewhere around 1.037 ish?

 

[Ster]

Lost my notes on the first one.

Last one was 1.048 to 1.019

 

[buzbey]

So you got 47 percent attenuation. And ya that is pretty low for that yeast. What I'm guessing is that dark lme isn't very fermentable if it happened on both batches. What you could do if you brew it again is if it stops short add some simple sugar. It will raise your og but also dry it out further or add some beano or enzymes to it to break down the unfermentable sugars in it.

 

[Ster]

Nice.

How Much is "some" sugar (5 gal batch)?

Is it possible to get a nice dark roasted tasting porter using only light extract with dark specialty grains. I am assuming not because all porter kits I have found have Dark LME.

 

[buzbey]

Yes it is. When I was doing extract I wouldn't buy anything besides lite or extra lite extract as I wanted all my color to come from the specialty grains, and you don't know what else is in the dark extracts to make it dark. I wouldn't do more than a pound of simple sugars as you can get some crappy flavors from them if you use to much but that also depends on the gravity and grain bill. For yours I would start around a half pound and see where that brings you.

 

[Yooper]

Nice.

How Much is "some" sugar (5 gal batch)?

Is it possible to get a nice dark roasted tasting porter using only light extract with dark specialty grains. I am assuming not because all porter kits I have found have Dark LME.

Yes, it definitely is. The kits were the dark LME are cheaper to make (less specialty grains) so if you buy a better quality kit (or make your own "kit" by buying individually), you can have a great porter.

 

[Ster]

Playing Devil's advocate:
I just don't see how you could use light malt extracts to achieve anything nearly as dark roasted tasting as 6lbs of Dark LME plus specialty grains.

Yes... I believe I could achieve a comparable color.. but taste??? Really?

 

[buzbey]

Your dark extract is basically a lite dme except they add some sort of dark grain. Chocolate malt, roasted barley etc, you won't know exactly. That's why I suggest you get a lite dme and add in the color malt that you want instead of have the extract maker do it for you.

 

[Yooper]

Playing Devil's advocate:
I just don't see how you could use light malt extracts to achieve anything nearly as dark roasted tasting as 6lbs of Dark LME plus specialty grains.

Yes... I believe I could achieve a comparable color.. but taste??? Really?

Well, let me explain it this way.

I make All grain beer, no extract at all in any of my beers.

I use US two-row for my base malt. It doesn't come in "dark". It's light- very light, lighter than light DME as a matter of fact.

But I can make a great stout and an awesome porter.

It's because you use the base malt (light DME or LME) and specialty grains to get the recipe.

 

[Beernik]

Yes it is. When I was doing extract I wouldn't buy anything besides lite or extra lite extract as I wanted all my color to come from the specialty grains, and you don't know what else is in the dark extracts to make it dark. I wouldn't do more than a pound of simple sugars as you can get some crappy flavors from them if you use to much but that also depends on the gravity and grain bill. For yours I would start around a half pound and see where that brings you.

I made the same switch to extra light DME for the same reason. I wanted to start from as bank of a canvas as possible with the only colors and flavors coming from the specialty grains I added.

 

[Bensiff]

Well, let me explain it this way.

I make All grain beer, no extract at all in any of my beers.

I use US two-row for my base malt. It doesn't come in "dark". It's light- very light, lighter than light DME as a matter of fact.

But I can make a great stout and an awesome porter.

It's because you use the base malt (light DME or LME) and specialty grains to get the recipe.

Same here...its pretty easy to kill a porter or stout with too much roasted character. Making a great beer that includes roasted grains isn't about quantity, its about balance, and one that I believe to be one of the hardest to strike in brewing because you not only have malt to balance malt and bitterness, you have to add roasted character into that balance.

Anyway, if you are getting bad attenuation with US-05 you do have a problem. Extract doesn't attenuate as well as all grain; but, you should be doing much better than 50%. So, the laundry list of possibilities off the top of my head are that you have bad extract, have yeast health issues (could be underpitching, not oxygenating the wort, no yeast nutrients...US-05 shouldn't matter for the yeast nutrients though), or temperature dropped during fermentation.