Robust Porter question

Brewed a robust porter about 5 days ago. Messed up the recipe and added a lot more maple syrup then was intended last 10 min of the boil. Anyway my OG was 1.091. Yikes I know. I added another packet If Nottinghams 12 hrs later because I knew that it would need a lot of help. I'm racking to a secondary in another week or so. And assuming I hit my FG or get it below a 20. I wondering if I should add anything to this beast coffee, oak chips, ect... Or just leave it alone. I'm just afraid it's not going to hit it's mark and it's going to be sweeter than I would like it perhaps I could add something to offset this possibility. Thoughts?

 

I would leave it alone at this point. Nottingham will chew through just about anything so it's really the best yeast as far as attenuation for your situation. Of course you could always experiment with a gallon or two.

 

Best thing you can do is provide an optimal environment for the yeast. If you can control temp, slowly raise the temp throughout the ferment. If you can't do that, try to insulate to avoid temp fluctuation. You don't want those yeast dropping out early.

After the ferment is done, you can taste and see whether you want to add anything.

 

Agreed. Just replaced blow off with an airlock it's still burping. Checking the gravity on sat to see how much work the yeast has done.

 

with that much sugar in the receipe, you might have a bit drier porter than you prefer. I would rack it to the secondary and taste it then. If you think its too dry, then I would add something like bourbon or oak chips to change the taste. If it comes out well, then let her be.

 

I sniffed the airlock today and it smelled different.. before it was a sugar smell which i understood because of the maple syrup...now i get this banana type smell...it took me awhile to place it but thats the best as i can describe it..is this normal has anyone else come across this smell?

 

ya i guess i wont know too much until i get a reading and taste it...you think it will be that dry?..what would be a good FG to avoid this...like i said before as long as it taste good im happy...

 

I am not an expert, but I would say that it would take a LOT of extra sugars to dry out a porter too much. As for what a good FG would be, that is unfortunately kind of irrelevent in this situation. A: it will finish where it finishes, stopping early will just break glass in bottles. B: the difference between OG and FG will tell you ABV. So, if you started high and ended high, you will have the same ABV as you would have if you were "on target"

However, if you started really high and ended on target or slightly lower, it will have more kick and could be a bit thinner and drier. Being that a Porter is a flavorful beer, I don't think you will dry it out too much. But that is my opinion and I am not an expert in beer tasting.

 

Whether it's dry or not will not depend on the extra sugar added, only how much malt was replaced by the sugar. If your grain bill had a reasonable % of malts w/ lower extract potential (i.e. crystal malt or other highly kilned malt) your FG should still finish close to intended, regardless of the added sugar (assuming the sugar completely ferments out).

 

6.6 lb. Porter LME
64 ounces of pure maple syrup

4 oz De-bittered black
4 oz of Caremel 120L
4 oz Chocolate
2 oz total of assorted hops

note that the maple syrup was only supposed to be 2 lb not 4..hence my mess up

 

Well I guess I'm not to worried from the above recipe if it was bad im sure I would have heard about it by now.. I'll post pictures when I pop it open on sat to taste and take a reading. One more quick question... if I was to add some coffee to the secondary how much and by what method to add a subtle coffee taste?

 

There's no definitive answer to this one. You could find the recipe for a beer whose coffee flavor matches what you're going for, but even then you're trying to match volume added, strength of the coffee, etc. You may find it's easier to brew some coffee, take a sample of the beer, and just combine measured amounts till you're happy. Then match the percentage in your conditioning tank.

 

I'll try it out. Depending what it tastes like. 7 days primary and its still perking strong