Robust porter recipe thoughts?

[porterguy]

I do a lot of clones, but very few original recipes, so just looking for some feedback. I want to make a fairly low ABV, but still flavorful robust porter. Any thoughts on this recipe?

Mild malt 6.0lbs.
Munich malt 1.0 lb.
Amber 1.0 lb.
Carared 1.0 lb.
Special roast .5 lb.
Brown malt .5 lb.
English chocolate .25 lb.
Black malt .25 lb.
Fuggles or EKG 1 oz.

WLP 005 Br. Ale yeast
Mash at 152.

Thanks!

 

[Pappers_]

Have you thrown it into some brewing software yet? You've got a lot of different malts there. I wonder if you need a little more chocolate and black malts to get to a porter?

 

[rhys333]

I do a lot of clones, but very few original recipes, so just looking for some feedback. I want to make a fairly low ABV, but still flavorful robust porter. Any thoughts on this recipe?

Mild malt 6.0lbs.
Munich malt 1.0 lb.
Amber 1.0 lb.
Carared 1.0 lb.
Special roast .5 lb.
Brown malt .5 lb.
English chocolate .25 lb.
Black malt .25 lb.
Fuggles or EKG 1 oz.

WLP 005 Br. Ale yeast
Mash at 152.

Thanks!

I agree with Pappers that you have a lot of malts in there. For my tastes, I would remove the amber, carared, and special roast. I'd go with all black patent malt, around 5% of total grist. Then 10% brown malt. If you want some crystal sweetness, perhaps keep the Carared and drop the munich.

 

[Steveruch]

I do a lot of clones, but very few original recipes, so just looking for some feedback. I want to make a fairly low ABV, but still flavorful robust porter. Any thoughts on this recipe?

Mild malt 6.0lbs.
Munich malt 1.0 lb.
Amber 1.0 lb.
Carared 1.0 lb.
Special roast .5 lb.
Brown malt .5 lb.
English chocolate .25 lb.
Black malt .25 lb.
Fuggles or EKG 1 oz.

WLP 005 Br. Ale yeast
Mash at 152.

Thanks!

is a fairly low ABV porter a robust porter?

 

[Dgallo]

Every post above is accurate. I’d go much more simple.

80% pale malt
10% brown malt
7% chocolate malt
3% Carapils or Flaked wheat/Barley

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Depends what you define as a "robust porter" - even the BJCP don't recognise it as a style any more. If you're going for something British, then the Fuller's porter is pretty much the benchmark - 1.5% UK chocolate, 10% brown, 14% UK crystal 60L and UK pale malt to 1.056 OG, with 37IBU from Fuggles.

As so often, beers are generally much simpler than you think.

 

[Robert65]

My gold standard is even simpler: ~5-6% black patent, ~13-14% brown, pale the remainder, OG and hopping just as @Northern_Brewer recommends -- Basically just Ron Pattinson's 1880 Whitbread porter recipe, and one of the finest beers I've ever made, or set my lips to.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

You have to remember that in 1880 the pale malt would have been made from Chevallier which is sweeter than modern varieties, so adding crystal is a bit of a hack to replicate the taste of Chevallier.

But a good slug of brown is a requirement for London porters, nothing else is quite the same.

 

[Robert65]

You have to remember that in 1880 the pale malt would have been made from Chevallier which is sweeter than modern varieties, so adding crystal is a bit of a hack to replicate the taste of Chevallier.

But a good slug of brown is a requirement for London porters, nothing else is quite the same.

Fair enough. I do use Crisp Chevallier in that one!

 

[Steveruch]

Depends what you define as a "robust porter" - even the BJCP don't recognise it as a style any more. If you're going for something British, then the Fuller's porter is pretty much the benchmark - 1.5% UK chocolate, 10% brown, 14% UK crystal 60L and UK pale malt to 1.056 OG, with 37IBU from Fuggles.

As so often, beers are generally much simpler than you think.

I just looked that up and you are correct. By going back to 2008 guidelines it looks like robust porter wasn't all that much stronger than brown porter anyway.

 

[Steveruch]

My gold standard is even simpler: ~5-6% black patent, ~13-14% brown, pale the remainder, OG and hopping just as @Northern_Brewer recommends -- Basically just Ron Pattinson's 1880 Whitbread porter recipe, and one of the finest beers I've ever made, or set my lips to.

That's not too different from the porter recipe that I came up with trying to mimic an 1800s porter from the time shortly after the switch from all brown malt. I used 15% brown malt and 3% black patent with a base of maris otter and hopped with goldings from my back yard.. It was by far my best porter.
I brewed it and a version of an IPA for a Zymurgy article back in 2018.

 

[couchsending]

I would google the BYO Hill Farmstead Everett clone. Again it depends on what your definition of “robust” is but Everett is 7.2-7.5% that finishes at 1.030 and is amazing.

I’ve been trying to make my own version of this beer that takes inspiration from Everett and Tree House Catharsis which to me is way more chocolate forward but is essentially a very similar beer.

My latests attempt goes something like this:

67.5% Maris Otter
7.8% Chit Malt (or flaked Barley)
5.2% Bairds Chocolate (500 srm)
- added at Vorlauf
5.2% Chocolate Rye
- added benefit of mouthfeel from the rye Betaglucans
5.2% Simpsons DRC
5.2% Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate
3.9% Bairds Carastan

I also cold steeped some Belgian Black malt overnight and added that to the end of the boil. I tested some English roasted Barley and the Belgian Black by cold steeping both. The Belgian Black was crazy dark chocolate. The English (fawcett) Roasted Barley sucked. Just burnt and bland.

I actually tasted it tonight and I’m pretty pumped. It’s probably the 10th batch of this beer I’ve brewed. I keg conditioned it with some extra dark maple syrup for the hell of it.

1.088
1.032
Wyeast 1968 at 64

The brand of roasted malt makes a big difference. I really love the Bairds Chocolate and mostly English roasted and crystal malts for this beer.

Water chemistry plays a big roll too.

 

[kevin58]

I'm going to vote with @Robert65 . I have made a supposed Founder's Porter clone which has a huge malt bill (unnecessary IMO) and then I have Ron Pattinson's 1880 Whitbread Porter which turns out far superior. I simply bump up the 1880 recipe when I want it stronger. It's one of the best Porters I've made and now use it as the base for my specialty Porters.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/1880-whitbread-porter.666707/

 

[porterguy]

Thanks all. Made some adjustments. we'll see how it turns out