Baltic Porter Recipe - Tips/Suggestions

[jmichalicek]

So I have been wanting to brew a baltic porter with a bit of a twist and basing some of the flavors on a favorite Russian Black Bread recipe which uses Rye, fennel, cocoa powder, coffee powder, and dark molasses. I also really like Komes Baltic Porter which is heavy on the anise/licorice flavor so the fennel seed fits well with that. I did some looking through some of my books and decided to start with the Danzig baltic porter recipe from Gordon Strong's book Modern Homebrew Recipes as the base. My biggest concern here is getting a bit too much going on and just having a muddy mess of flavors. I brew 2.5 gallon BIAB batches on the stovetop so my measurements are aimed at that.

I reduced the original recipe's light munich and vienna by 0.5 lb each and added 1 lb of rye, then added the dark molasses.

My main questions are on the amount of fennel, cocoa powder, and molasses. From research I've done on other recipes this looks to be a solid amount to give flavor without being overpowering. I was also considering maybe chocolate rye rather than light rye. I'm not against flaked rye, either, but I've brewed with rye malt and chocolate rye malt. Research on flaked rye shows people saying it doesn't effect gravity, but brewtarget certainly has flaked rye bump my gravity up. Should I consider anise rather than fennel since that seems to be far more commonly used in brewing?

Should I possibly bump up the bittering hops a bit to account for additional sweetness from added molasses and additional gravity from the rye addition?

2.5-ish Gallons into the fermenter:

4.4 lb (54%) Weyermann Light Munich
1 lb (12%) Weyermann Rye Malt
12 oz (9%) Vienna
10 oz (8%) Carafa III special the original recipe does not specify Special, the dehusked variety, but that is what I can get at my local shop
10 oz (8%) Caramunich II
6.8 oz (5%) Munich 20L
4 oz (3%) Dark Molasses

Hops (originally had these backwards on times):
0.227 oz Czech Saaz at about 4AA for 20 mins
0.45 oz German Magnum at about 14.4 AA for 60 mins

Yeast:
I'm a dry yeast guy - so probably either Saflager S-23 fermented in the mid to upper 50s F or US-05 in the low 60s F. I'm open to other suggestions, but a packet of dry yeast of varying varieties depending on beer style has served me well on these small batches.

Other Ingredients:
2.5oz Low fat, unsweetened cocoa powder at last 10 mins of boil
0.071 oz (2 grams - about 1 tsp according to a website, but I will measure myself to be sure) Fennel seeds in boil

Coffee? Not sure if I need it here with the carafa III or how I'd want to do it - cold brew at end of boil, rough ground beans at some point, etc.

 

[AlexKay]

That’s really interesting. I’d never thought about fennel in beer before, but it sounds better than, say, coriander. My favorite spice in the licorice-tasting family is fennel pollen. To me it tastes sweeter and smoother than fennel, and I bet it would extract better in a boil. It is expensive, though a little goes a long way.

 

[jmichalicek]

I'll have to look into fennel pollen. My wife and I do a lot of baking and other cooking, so we can certainly find a use for it. The fennel seed idea is because that is used in the bread recipe and I know we've always got that around anyway and of course isn't too far of a stretch from the more common anise usage.

 

[sibelman]

Cool recipe idea. My much simpler Baltic Porter uses 8 oz. of blackstrap molasses (5 gal. batch), with 8 oz. each of chocolate malt and Carafa III. In the result, molasses flavor is present but reasonably subtle. The fennel in your more interesting recipe may amplify the molasses character a bit. Or may conceal it? Let us know how it comes out!

 

[NTexBrewer]

Don’t know enough about the ingredients you are using to comment on those but on the hops and yeast I can give some input.

Hops: Seems a bit strange to use Saaz to bitter and Magnum for ”Aroma”. Usually Magnum is used for bittering and Saaz for late additions.

Yeast: I’ve had good success with using Lager Yeast for Baltic Porters. Even with temperature control, I once had US05 ferment hot and added unwanted esters. I have since used 34/70 for my Baltic Porters but I think S-23 would work well.

 

[jmichalicek]

I'll check the recipe, I might have reversed the hops when typing. If I went US-05 I'd be aiming for lower 60s but I have no issues with S-23. I've used S-23 in the past for tropical stouts. That will just come down to what my local shop has available, they've been having availability issues on some stuff lately just due to when their suppliers get shipments out.

That got me on Munich Classic a few weeks ago and then I got to learn all about WB-06 (and reading many discussions about it on here) - but I've got a pretty cool experiment on tap now. 1 dunkelweizen, 1 roggenbier based on that dunkelweizen but using wb-06, and the same roggenbier but with the correct Munich Classic yeast.

Update- just checked, I reversed the hops. Fixing them now.

 

[jmichalicek]

Well, brew day went horribly wrong due to no fault of the recipe and just a few poorly timed completely unrelated emergencies of my own. I ended up tossing the batch, but at least had not yet added hops, so I've still got the hops and yeast to try again. I've decided to go back and reformulate for a simpler base recipe as long as I have to start over anyway.

Right now I'm looking at
54 % Vienna
25% Munich
12% Rye
3% Chocolate malt
2% Dehusked Carafa II
3% Dark Molasses

And then the fennel seed and cocoa powder and the magnum bittering and saaz aroma hops. Not sure if I really want aroma hops here now that I think about it, though... we'll see, I plan to need to do this a few times and possibly even pretty much scrap it a couple times before I nail what I am wanting.

I also feel like something in the caramel malt style is missing based on many other recipes, but the initial base I started with does not use any and I really do want to keep it a bit simpler. The molasses may make up for that sweetness anyway.

 

[jmichalicek]

Brewed this second version successfully. Smells great, but the fennel seed sure was strong in my pre-fermentation sample. Hopefully it'll mellow out a bit over several weeks here or the flavors will generally meld better as fermentation goes on. As it currently stands, I could have used 1/2 as much fennel seed probably and probably could have gotten by with less cocoa powder as well.

I guess I'll know for sure in a few weeks.

 

[AlexKay]

jmichalicek, how did yours turn out?

I tried a stout using fennel pollen. For a 2.75 gallon batch, I used

4 lbs. Maris Otter
0.5 lbs Munich
0.5 lbs. flaked barley
0.2 lb Chocolate
0.3 lb. Pale Chocolate
0.25 lb. roasted barley
0.1 lb. Caramel 120L

4 g fennel pollen @ 60 min
4 g fennel pollen @ 20 min
12 g Fuggles (5.2% AA) @ 60 min
12 g Fuggles (5.2% AA) @ 20 min

US-05

The fennel pollen has a good taste and a lovely smell, but this is too much of it, and it overpowers everything else. Next iteration will use a third to half the fennel pollen, and maybe half again more character malts.

 

[jmichalicek]

The simpler recipe turned out really good and everyone who has tried it has been impressed (and asked for more, the true test of if they liked it or not), but the fennel did not come through as much as I want. I believe I should have crushed the fennel seed plus I used a tea/spice infuser ball and forgot to move it to the fermenter when I transferred the wort. I also did a version with slightly less chocolate and 2 Tsp of fennel seed,but made the same mistakes.

I'm going to change it up and do a different brew tomorrow and then next brew will probably be about 2g fennel seed but actually crush it so that more oils are released and it stays in the wort when I transfer to the fermenter.

I'm also going to modify the base recipe into a stout, maybe even leave the chocolate in.

 

[AlexKay]

Still tweaking the recipe. Now I've got:

4 lbs. Maris Otter
0.5 lbs Munich
0.5 lbs. flaked barley
0.2 lb Chocolate
0.5 lb. Pale Chocolate
0.2 lb. roasted barley
0.1 lb. Caramel 120L

12 g Fuggles (5.2% AA) @ 60 min
12 g Fuggles (5.2% AA) @ 20 min
0.5 g fennel "pollen stand" for 20 minutes @ 160 F

US-05

It's still too much, though no longer overpowering. Drinkable. Next iteration I will try 0.1-0.2 g of pollen with the recipe otherwise the same. Closing in on it...

 

[jmichalicek]

I never followed up on my last attempt at this, either. The final batch I used 2 Tsp fennel seed, crushed it, and added directly to the wort with about 15 minutes left in the boil. It definitely needed to get a little age on it. I am always impatient and keg after 2-3 weeks and force carb hard so that I can try it by the next day then just have a small glass every 1-2 weeks until its good if it is a beer I know generally needs to age to get good.

I brewed that last batch on Feb 27, kegged on March 14, and the flavors have only really melded and gotten good in the last 1-2 weeks. Prior to that the fennel was a bit harsh. Now it is there, and it may be a love it or hate it kind of beer, but I enjoy it. I thought I had recorded the actual weight of 2 Tsp fennel for accuract when I start playing again, but I sure don't have that in brew target or my website.

As much as I don't want to complicate the recipe and grain bill further, I am very tempted to try this with Fawcett Crystal Rye in place of the fennel seed or along with it when I start playing with it again later this year. I may try the Crystal Rye in my super simple Dark Mild recipe I have been using as a playground - it only has marris otter, crystal 80, and a tiny bit of chocolate malt and so works well for single grain additions or swaps to see what flavor they contribute.

 

[AlexKay]

Still tweaking. I think I got it this time:

4 lb. English pale
1 lb. Munich
0.75 lb. chocolate rye
0.5 lb. flaked barley
0.25 lb. roasted barley

2 g Magnum (15.1% AA) @ 60 min
0.3 g fennel "pollen stand" @ 160 F for 20 minutes

Lallemand Nottingham

The chocolate and the licorice flavors are nicely balanced, and there isn't the feeling that one has been mugged in a dark alley by a box of Good 'n Plenty.

 

[sibelman]

Still tweaking. I think I got it this time...

Congrats! How big a batch is this?

 

[AlexKay]

Congrats! How big a batch is this?

Oops. 2.5 gallons.

 

[sibelman]

Thanks for sharing the results of your experimentation, AK.

My current fermentation is based on a simple Baltic Porter-oriented malt bill, but it's going to become Mole Porter with infusions of the dried peppers and aromatic spices I use to make Mexican mole sauce. Maybe next time I'll snag some fennel pollen and give your recipe a go.

 

[Protos]

Fennel... Used it in a Tuborg Guld clone one day, as per recipe.
An interesting flavour. Won't rebrew it again, however.

 

[z-bob]

Have y'all thought about using actual brewer's licorice instead of fennel or anise? It's a traditional ingredient for dark beers. (I've never tried it) Looks like Twizzlers but *much* stronger.

 

[AlexKay]

Have y'all thought about using actual brewer's licorice instead of fennel or anise? It's a traditional ingredient for dark beers. (I've never tried it) Looks like Twizzlers but *much* stronger.

I like the specific taste fennel pollen brings: it’s delicate, maybe a little floral on top of the licorice. Works great in spaghetti sauce, too.