Brewing Again - Porter

It's cooling down some so I'm ready to get back to brewing. Next year I'll be ready to brew all summer .... Looking to break away from the kits and try following a recipe. Planning on starting with Palmer's Port O' Palmer Porter. Anyone tried this? Any suggestions? How long should I steep the grains?

Port O' Palmer Porter

Malts
6 lbs. of Pale Malt Extract (syrup)
1/2 lb. of Chocolate Malt
1/2 lb. of Crystal 60L Malt
1/4 lb. of Black Patent Malt

BG for 3 Gallons 1.079
OG for 5 Gallons 1.048

Hops
1 oz of Nugget (10%) at 60 minutes
3/4 oz of Willamette (5%) at 40 minutes
1/2 oz of Willamette (5%) at 20 minutes

Total IBUs 39

Yeast: American Ale

I've made it, substituting Columbus for the Nugget. Steep the grains for 45 minutes in a gallon of water at 150F. Don't over-fill your grains bags.

I would steep for 30 mins.

If you really want a good Porter then try this. It has the roasted bite, but it finishes nice and smooth. This is the perfect porter!


Ingredients:
6 oz. chocolate malt
6 oz. black patent malt
8 oz. honey malt
8 oz. 10L crystal malt
4 oz. toasted barley (buy it pre-toasted, or DIY @ 350 deg./10minutes)

8 oz. malto-dextrin
6 lbs. Light malt extract syrup
1 lb. Light dry malt extract

1 1/2 oz. Galena hops (60 min. bittering)
1 oz. Cascade hops (1/2 hour bittering/finishing)
1 oz. Tettnanger hops (5 min. aroma)

Wyeast #1338 European Ale yeast or White Labs #WLP011 European Ale

2 tsp. Burton Water Salts

Procedure:
Add salts, to 1 1/2 gal. H2O. Steep grains for 1/2 hour @ 158 deg. Sparge with 1/2 gal. 170 deg. H2O, and strain out any loose grain. Mix in extract and malto-dextrin, and top off with H2O to desired optimum level for your brew pot. Bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes before adding Galena hops. After 30 more min., add Cascade hops. Last 5 min. add Tettnanger hops. Cool wort with hops in it. Remove hops at pitching temp., and pitch yeast. Ferment to completion according to your desired method.

My porter tastes good even though its still in secondary so I still have a good 10 days to really get a good pint of that stuff in me.

The recipe at the top looks OK. I found some good stuff at my supermarket called molasses cane sugar (92% carbohydrate). I recommend adding 250-500g of that in but ofcourse its entirely optional.

You wont be disappointed, Porter has an excellent smell, taste and general mouthfeel.

Ha, funny you should open this thread today. I just bought my own porter ingredients. We're brewing tonight- a Baltic Porter (based on a commercial recipe from Finland). I'll post it in a little while.

ive used the port o palmer recipe as a guide before, I liked it alot, i uped the black malt to 1/2 lb though and substituted the hops for northern brewers and goldings. my latest recipe I used 3/4lb crystal 1/2 chocolate, 1/2 black, 3/4 rye malt for my steeping grains. its in just about ready for secondary

THANKS for all the comments. Decided to stay true to Palmer on my first attempt. Probably experiment later. The brew went pretty good except for a boil over with the first hops.... Darn new turkey fryer. Took a little getting used too. Oh well, it's in the primary. Can't wait till the bubbles start ....