Brewed my first porter last weekend

So I brewed my first Porter last weekend (Jan 11th). It was an American Honey Porter kit I got from MoreBeer (this was the 1st kit I ever purchased from them. I was very pleased at the quality of the kit itself.) I went with the White Labs - California Ale yeast on this kit as recommended by Morebeer. Nothing to note on this brew except the fact that I did not hit my mash temp. I was shooting for 152 but only hit 151. I decided to leave it there instead of adding any more water to see how it goes. Anyway... I wanted to take a moment to share some pics of my brewday. Enjoy...


The Mad Brewer's Lab:


The yeast starter:


The grain bill:


1.5 lbs of honey. This stuff smelled amazing!


Grain temp after sitting in my pantry for 24 hrs:


First runnings:


Slowly bringing 6.75 Gal to a boil:


Tucked away out of the cold to help brew faster:


Cooling the wort to 66F for pitching. A little cooler than I wanted but it was damned cold out and it cooled faster'n Hell!


Racking it:



... to be continued.

 

And some followup photos for your enjoyment....


Still racking into primary:



All tucked in and ready to ferment:



Obligatory Instagram post :



I hope you enjoyed. I will be sure to update ya'll on how it turned out.

 

Looks great! Let us know how it turns out!

 

Update on the Honey Porter...

I kegged it this weekend. It finished with an FG of 1.009 which is what Beersmith listed the expected FG would be. I'm loving the color, smell and taste so far. As I said, this is my first porter so I am really excited to have a pint of this.


Pictures for your enjoyment:

In the keg she goes...



Obligatory sample glass after FG reading was taken...




Again, I'll post a follow up after the first pint is poured.

 

Looks great!

 

Brewed my first one in December, it was 3 weeks in the Keg before it started even tasting like a Porter (actually tasting like beer). So don't give up on it!

 

Very nice! I just brewed a second batch of porter, and yes it took a few weeks in the keg for the first one to really "come together".

In other news, is that a miniature trebuchet in your first pic?

 

I only have about 9 bottles of my first porter left. I made the 'Bee Cave Brewery Robust Porter' recipe that is given in the recipes section on this site. I would highly recommend brewing that beer. I'm trying to hold out drinking the last ones so that I can share them with people during the Super Bowl.

 

Aye, it is. Good eye! I built it as a little office competition that never came to fruition. I'm thinking I should take it into the office and initiate the attack anyway. What do you say?

 

I concur.

I've been wanting to build one for a while now. Maybe this summer, now that we have a bit of property to sling crap around on.

Not literally crap, lest anyone get concerned.

 

Here it is in all its glory. It tastes just as good as it looks. Maybe even better.

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