1st Brown Porter Recipe Design...

[RachEAlex]

First recipe design and wanted to do a brown porter. I will be doing a 5 gallon batch. Was hoping a more experienced eye could give me some feedback...

6lbs. Maris Otter
.75lb Special Roast
.75lb Crystal 120L
.65lb Victory
.50lb Pale Chocolate

1.35oz EKG @ 60
.25 oz EKG @ 10

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[bierhaus15]

A few things. First, you do not need both special roast and victory. If you are indeed using a good quality UK Maris Otter I would drop the victory entirely and use the special roast at no more than 5% - maybe 0.25lbs. Special roast can have a bready-tartness in higher amounts that some equate to a sourdough bread type of flavor.

Also, you need more dark malts here. As is, you got more of a nut brown ale than a brown porter. I try to incorporate 'brown malt' into all my b.porters as it gives both those toasty flavors and some light chocolate/coffee type flavors that add complexity. As for the crystal, 120L is good, though I would probably go with something a bit lighter like 60 or 80L to get more toffee flavors than raisin/prune. Pale chocolate is a great malt and 0.5lbs is fine. However, I might back it up with a quarter pound of chocolate malt to add some of those darker roast flavors.

Also, yeast choice is a big part of this style as much of the flavor and malt profile will come from the yeast. I would recommend staying away from s-04, notty, and the whitbread strains with this type of beer, as they are really too dry and neutral when fermented properly. Yeasts like wy1968/wlp002 and wy1318 are great choices for this type of beer.

 

[RachEAlex]

Took your advice, and reworked the grain bill...how does this look?

6.50lbs Maris Otter
.75lb Brown Malt
.75lb Crystal 80L
.50lb Chocolate Malt
.25lb Special Roast

Dropped the pale chocolate, added a bit more chocolate because I felt like I had too many things going on using both. As for yeast, I was thinking of using Wyeast 1945 because I already have it, do you think that'll work?

And also, thanks for the help!!

 

[Airborneguy]

You can use a lot more brown malt. That amount won't be very apparent. I use 2.5lbs and honestly may up it in the future.

Take a look at my recipe. Minus the special roast, its fairly close. I don't use crystal because I like my porter to be less sweet than most.

 

[bierhaus15]

Your new recipe looks good. I would have no problems brewing that. Wy1945 is a fine choice for a brown porter.

Also, I think you are just about right with the brown malt %. You can go as high as 20%, but there are trade-offs in flavor. At 8-10% you get a nice toasty-roast flavor that goes well with the crystal and lighter roasted malts. Think milk chocolate. At higher amounts it will impart much drier roast flavor that may need extended aging to mellow out. Most historical porter recipes are just pale, brown, and black malt.

 

[RachEAlex]

Thanks for all the help! Going to stick with the .75lb of brown malt, I was looking for more of a "toasty/roasty" chocolatey feel than a dry roasty flavor. Going to brew this up and see what happens...