Robust Porter Recipe Help

[porter1974]

I worked up this recipe on Brewer's Friend. A first time brewer wants to make a mid 6 ABV Robust Porter. Just wondering what people's thought on it are. Thanks.

Robust Porter
OG 1.064
FG 1.016
ABV 6.31
IBU 42.99
SRM 32.71

9 lb Maris Otter
3 lb Crisp Brown Malt
1 lb Simpsons Medium Crystal
1 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
Total 14 lb

At 60
1 ounce fuggle
1 ounce east Kent Goldings
At 10
1 ounce fuggle
1 ounce east Kent Goldings

Safale 04

Mash at 154 for 60 minutes

 

[RM-MN]

This is your first time all grain so you don't know what your brewhouse efficiency will be. Be prepared to take a gravity reading before you begin your boil and have some DME on hand in case your efficiency is lower than expected as you can then add DME to bring the OG where you expect it. This is where a refractometer is handy as it only takes a couple drops of wort and it can be hot when you put it on the refractometer. With the refractometer you get an instant reading and can quickly change the OG by adding DME (unless you overshoot like I did on my first few)

I think your recipe will be fine. It does look a bit heavy with the Brown Malt though. Are you using a conventional mash tun or BIAB? One trick that may be able to raise your OG if low is to mash longer. 60 minutes for the mash is typical but nothing says you can't change that. 90 to 120 minute mashes can get more conversion if your grains aren't crushed as well as they could be. On the flip side of that, if you BIAB (which allows it) and mill the grains really fine, you can shorten the mash period.

 

[porter1974]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I have about 5 all grain brews under my belt. My system runs at about 71% efficiency. I have a friend who is interested in home brewing and wants to make a robust porter. So, I made up this recipe. I use a conventional mash tun, a 10 gallon cooler. My projected numbers are usually very accurate.

The high amount of brown malt is what concerns me the most. I am ordering from Northern Brewer so I want to make sure all the grains are in 1 pound increments.

I had been reading about historical porter recipes and was inspired by this blog: http://perfectpint.blogspot.com/2012/04/whitbread-1836-porter-tasting.html

 

[RM-MN]

The rule of thumb I heard is no more than 10% and your recipe is closer to 20 but I have broken those rules and found that I liked the resulting beer. How gutsy are you?

 

[Leadpencil]

this is the recipe I found on here a few years ago.
11.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM) Grain 64.7 %
2.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 14.7 %
1.50 lb Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 8.8 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5.9 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %

For my next porter I am going to simplify it, I just finished reading Porter in the Classic Series. The original recipes were very simple but the brown malt was different back then.

 

[porter1974]

The rule of thumb I heard is no more than 10% and your recipe is closer to 20 but I have broken those rules and found that I liked the resulting beer. How gutsy are you?

It's scaring me now!

 

[Leadpencil]

Start with a pound of the brown malt, sample it during the mash. If you don't like the taste or color add some more.

 

[corax]

I agree about dialing back the brown malt. Also, I like Robust Porter to be darker and roastier, so I would split the roast grains between a half pound each of chocolate and black patent malts.

 

[jerbrew]

I love Brown Malt in a porter, I'd dial that back to 2 lbs tops though, especially with another pound of crystal. For the roast malts, I like to use either chocolate rye, midnight wheat, or carafa. Anything without a husk to avoid the astringent roast malt flavor that tends to push a porter into stout territory but keeping those coffee/chocolate flavors present, unless you like that in a porter. Midnight wheat being a favorite.

 

[couchsending]

Look for the BYO Everett recipe, the highest regarded Robust Porter out there. Copies of it are posted in a thread here somewhere.

FG is 1.030 FYI

Higher FG means more roasted malt and more hops to balance = more flavor and depth as well.

I still can’t get one to finish that high but if you’re going for Robust I’d shoot for north of 1.020 gravity for sure.

 

[chickypad]

In a brown porter that I make I use 16% brown malt plus 7% pale chocolate and 2% midnight wheat and it's quite smooth. Like corax pointed out though robust porters usually have bigger roast, so if that's the style you want I agree with swapping out some brown and going with black patent (you can also use some roast barley).