Alaskan smoked porter recipe

[Mx750ktm]

Alright guys I'm really wanting to try to clone this Alaskan smoked porter and this will be my 3rd brew and thanks to all the forum members here the first two came out somewhat good haha.

Alright here's what I've got to work with from info around the forums.
I'm seeking help in choosing the correct recipe for my abilities. Or possibly one of these recipes will stand out from the others.
From the 2007 BYO magazine Alaskan Smoked Porter recipe.

8.75 lbs american 2row
4.0 lbs american munich malt
1.25 lbs american chocolate malt
.5 lbs american black malt

11aau chinook hops (60 min)
1.0 oz willamette (10 min)

Wyeast 1272 or white labs WLP051

Smole entire grain bill over alder wood. (as an alternative you an substitue Weymermann rauchmalz for the pale malt and munich malt. Mash at 153 f in 18 qts for 60 minutes. Boil for 60 minutes and ferment at 66f.

2005 BYO Alaskan Smoked Porter clone
OG = 1.065 FG= 1.015
IBU = 45 SRM = 58 ABV = 6.5%

8.25 lbs 2 row
4.0 lbs munich malt
12 oz crystal (45 lov)
11 oz chocolate malt
7 oz black patent
10.75 AAU Chinook hops (60 min)
3.75 AAU Willimette hops (15 min)


Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White labs WLP002 (English Ale Yeast)
.75 cup of sugar for priming

Smoke 1.0 lb of the munich malt with alder wood. Mash at 154 F. Boil for 90 minutes and ferment at 68f

So a little background on my previous two beers. One was a pumpkin porter recipe and the other was a Christmas ale. Both were bought as kits and I followed the instructions and didn't venture out to try my own spin on the recipes. Both of the beers came out pretty good but there both missing a good head and when you drink the beer it just does not give you that full body feel it's like the beer just seems to thin for the style. So I would like to shoot for this smoke beer be a little more full.

Also I'm not sure if either of the recipes mentioned above will work for me?? I don't have an all grain set up. Both recipes I've done so far would be considered a mini mash.

both recipes want you to smoke the grain bill over alder wood if someone can give me some insight to what this means or how to accomplish this task I would appreciate it.

And lastly in your opinions is the smoked malt in these recipes enough to make a very smoky flavor? I would really like it to be pretty smoky!!!!

Thanks so much in advance for anyone who takes on the task of helping with all these questions.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Those are both all-grain so you'll want to convert it to extract or extract + specialty grains. To smoke the grains you need a smoker. I prefer cold smoking (less than 100F) because the heat from hot smoking can start to roast the grain a bit. If you don't have a smoker, consider using rauchmalt or Briess cherrywood smoked malt. I'd steer clear of peat-smoked malt. The Briess CSM is pretty intense. I used it in a smoked robust porter at 13% of the grain bill and it's very noticeable. Be sure to treat your water to remove chlorine/chloramine so that you don't end up with band-aid beer.

 

[Mx750ktm]

Thank you for the advice. Below is an extract recipe with specialty grains. Does this look Like an ok recipe for me to try out. And lastly when ordering these specialty grains do I want to order milled or un-milled grain. Thanks again.

Extract post I ran across.

Alaskan Smoked Porter clone
[extract with grains version - there is also an all grain recipe too]

5 gallons
OG = 1.065
FG = 1.015
IBU = 45
SRM = 58
ABV = 6.5%

Ingredients
- 2.25 lbs dried malt extract (light)
- 4.75 lbs liquid malt extract (light)
- 1.25 lbs Munich malt (crushed grain)
- 12 oz Crystal 40 L (crushed grain)
- 11 oz Chocolate Malt (crushed grain)
- 7 oz Black Patent Malt (crushed grain)
- 0.9 oz of Chinook hops (assumes 12% alpha acids) - 60 min of boil
- 0.75 oz of Willamette hops (assumes 5% alpha acids) - 15 min of boil
- Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) or White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) yeast
- 075 cups corn sugar for priming

Steps
- Smoke 1.0 lb of the crushed munich malt on a smoker over a light hardwood (Alaskan uses alderwood). You could use oak, hickory, or beechwood. This is the hardest step, as you really need the Munich to be smoked, and you cannot really substitute smoked malt, as it is just 2 row or pilsner malt
- Heat 4.7 quarts of water to 165 F and steep all of the crushed grains in a grain bag in the heated, water (when you add the grains, it should drop the water temp to 154 F).
- Maintain this temp of 154 as best you can for 45 min. This is effectively a mash, which is what all grain brewers do with all their grains.
- Put the grain back in a large colendar over the steep water and rinse it with 3.5 quarts of 170 F water, which is effectively sparging.
- Add your DME to the brew pot and stir, which should bring your total liquid volume to 2.5 gallons.
- Boil this for 60 min, adding the hops using the times specified above.
- Add the LME with 15 min to the boil, making sure to pull the pot off the stove to stir it in, to reduce the chance of scorching it to the bottom of the pot
- Cool the wort and transfer to the fermenter, with enough water to bring the total up to 5.5 gallons.
- Aerate and pitch the yeast
- Ferment at 68 F until complete

 

[microbusbrewery]

That looks like a pretty good recipe to me. The only thing I might consider changing is maybe swap out some of the pale LME for some Maris Otter LME. I just love the flavor of MO.

As for the specialty grains, it's been a long time since I switched from extract to AG, but I think I almost always milled mine. With milled you just want to make sure you use them in a timely manner as they tend to stale faster than un-milled grain.


http://microbusbrewery.org

 

[Mx750ktm]

Thanks for you replies. I just found a kit on AHS for the Alaskan Smoked Porter. The problem I see is it does not specify what the OG should be but I would assume it would be close to the recipe I posted above. This would be the first brew I've ever had to make a starter or double pitch. Which option would you go with the starter or double pitching? I checked out mrmalty.com to use his yeast starter calculator but not sure if im using the right settings. Any help on the amont of dme to use for a a target of 1.065?

 

[microbusbrewery]

I always use liquid yeast and I always use a starter (except for sour blends). It just helps ensure your yeast hit the ground running. I don't use dry yeast very often but the cell count is much higher, so you can usually direct pitch.

I built a stir plate for my starters, but you can get pretty good results from periodically shaking/swirling it too. Per mrmalty, for a 1.065 beer using a stir plate and fresh ale yeast, you'd go with one package of yeast in a 1.09 liter starter. Intermittent shaking requires a larger starter at 1.67 liters.

For the starter, I use 100g DME per 1L total volume. So with a stir plate I'd use 109g DME then top up to a total volume of 1.09L. I give it a few days, then cold crash for a day or two, then decant off most of the starter wort before allowing it to come up to pitching temps.


http://microbusbrewery.org

 

[Mx750ktm]

I'm sorry I am trying my best to follow all this and appreciate the help. So when ordering the kit i should purchase two vials of the liquid yeast. Since I do not have a stir-plate I will want to periodically shake the starter? For in intermittent shaking method I need a starter of 1.67 liters of what? So if im reading this correctly I would need to use 167 grams of dme? And what exactly is a cold crash? Before this cold crashing does this starter just stay at room temp.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Sorry, I probably could have explained it better. Here's the options I'd go with:

Option A - no starter and pitch two packages/vials of yeast. Mrmalty actually shows 2.4 vials, but if it's really fresh I think you can go with two without any issues.

Option B - One vial with a starter. Make a 1.67L starter using 167g of DME and enough water to give you a total volume of 1.67L. Boil (the DME and water) then chill to pitching temps and add 1 vial of yeast. For ales, allow it to ferment at room temp for a few days and give it a shake/swirl several times a day. After 2-3 days, put it in the fridge for a day or two (this is the cold crash part). The cold temps in the fridge encourage the yeast to flocculate so that you can pour off the starter wort but leave the yeast behind. On brew day, take your starter out of the fridge and decant most of the starter wort (leave a little bit so you can swirl up the yeast when you pitch). Allow it to warm up to pitching temps then pitch.

I normally go with option B because I don't have to buy as many vials of yeast, but as you can see it's a little more labor intensive. Hopefully that makes sense.


http://microbusbrewery.org