Ale to the Chief - Modified Honey Porter

[mdautry]

I've been making Alcohol for a couple of years now but no beer. Thanks to EdWort for your Apfelwein recipe,you got me hooked on home brew. With that said, for my first beer I was feeling important and thought: I deserve to drink what the president of the free world drinks, I'm kind of a big deal an all.

Brew: White House Honey Porter
Recipe: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe



These are some pictures of the exact ingredients that I used.

Ingredients:











Process:

I began by bringing 1.5 gallons of bottled drinking water up to temp (168 F). I then placed the recipe grains in muslin bags and steeped for 45 minutes at 155 F. The only change I made to the grain bill was that I used 1 lb of Munich malt instead of the recipes 3/4 lb. Then I continued to follow the recipe exactly with the only deviation being that I used 2 lbs of honey as opposed to the recipes 1 lb.


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[mdautry]

My Original Gravity was about 1.074 Which has initially concerned me as I thought that was quite high. I did some research into my yeast strain and was reassured by several home brewers that it could easily handle the 8 - 9 % potential alcohol level.



After I pitched my yeast into the 70 F wort it took approximately 12 hours to notice air lock activity and bubble movement in the fermenter.



I placed my wort/yeast mix in a better bottle with both a 3 piece air lock and a blow out tube inserted into a bucket of sanitizer. Glad that I added to blow out tube, the krausen is much more intense than wine making.



This is the happy yeast bubbling away at 68 F.



After 1 day the activity has been substantial in the air lock as I have had to clean it out and replace several times now.

The aroma is nice with a distinct hop smell...

Updates to follow.

Cheers,
Michael


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[mdautry]

Secondary 5 days later:



Great hoppy aroma, very dark and cloudy appearance. The fermentation has slowed appreciably over the first 4 days.


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[ChelisHubby]

Looks fine! give it some time, you will enjoy it.

 

[mdautry]

Thanks for the boost of confidence...


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[ProfessorWoland]

I'm going to try this the brew after my next!


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[mdautry]

This turned out really good, my wife loves beer and really likes this one. Makes it easier to brew when she helps drink...

I used 5 oz to bottle and I had about 5.5 gallons total.

Here is a picture 1 week into bottle conditioning, I will go 2 weeks or more until consumed.

Very easy to drink and around 7.5% est ABV