American Porter Bee Cave Brewery Robust Porter

[EdWort]

This will be our July 4th brew. Just got the ingredients from the LHBS here in Albuquerque. Just about $70 for the 5gal extract version. Sounds pretty high. Could I have done better ordering online?

Are you going to do a full boil? That would be best!

Steep your grains in 2 gallons of RO water at 155 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove grains, top up kettle to 7 gallons with RO water and then you can add your DME. Add the Maltro Dextrin during the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Good luck!

 

[AirRageous]

Yes a full boil in an 8 gal brew pot. I may have to keep the volume down to 6 gals to prevent boil over but will add more water as needed. What is "RO water". I am thinking it means Run Off. I was going to steep in 2 gals. then rinse the grains through a stainer with preheated sparge water to bring the volume up.

 

[MarsColonist]

RO water is reverse osmosis filtered water.. water stripped of minerals

 

[AirRageous]

RO water is reverse osmosis filtered water.. water stripped of minerals

NOOB ALERT!!! Why RO water? Are porters different than ales? For the ales I have brewed so far, I have been using Albuquerque tap water or bottled drinking water from the store. I have read here on HBT that if your tap water tastes good then use it.

 

[EdWort]

The extract already was made with proper water and minerals. Why add more to mess it up. I find that using RO or distilled water works best when making extract brews.

I use filtered tap water for my all grain brews, but I use RO water from the Glacier dispenser at my local grocery store.

 

[AirRageous]

Thanks Ed. We will get some RO water for today's cookin'.

 

[FailureDrill]

I added about 2oz of Maker's Mark to my final product, not a strong flavor, but brought out more awesomeness of this recipe. Definitely will brew again.

My buddy said "wait, you combined liquor and beer, well that can only become the greatest thing ever." Him passed out on the couch was testimony enough I think.

 

[EdWort]

Did you add 2 ounces to 5 gallons?

 

[AirRageous]

Well, we brewed this on the 4th but had some issues. I had to pack up all my brewing equipment and take it to my daughter's house about 40 miles away so we could brew there along with a cook-out and kids fireworks later in the street. But I forgot the grain steeping bag. We thought about just dumping the grains in the pot for steeping but we had no good way of straining them out later. So, we used a leg from my daughter's pantyhose. She says they were clean. The grain in the hose made a long skinny tube kinda like a sausage. We just coiled it into the pot and stirred it around a few times. Seemed to work great but we changed the name for this beer to Toe Jam Robust Stout.:cross:

So after the steeping time we removed the panty hose grain steeping bag and topped up the volume and brought it to a boil. When I grabbed the extract cans, then I noticed the bag of flaked barley that we forgot to add to the steeping grains. This is where we might have screwed things up. I used the other leg of the pantyhose and added the flaked barley and tea bagged it into the wort for about 10 minutes. The temp was about 190*. We probably should have just left it out at that point but oh well, too many beers by then to use our common sense. The rest of the brewing went fine. For the 9# of LME we used 3 - 3.3# cans of Munton's. So we added almost 10# of LME. The OG came out to 1.072. for the 5.5 gal. final volume.

So, what should I expect from the flaked barley screw up?

 

[EdWort]

RDWHAHB. Sounds like a nice big beer! Give it plenty of time to age.

 

[RC0032]

RDWHAHB. Sounds like a nice big beer! Give it plenty of time to age.

How long is plenty? 6 months?

 

[EdWort]

How long is plenty? 6 months?

Sounds good, but taste it as it ages.

 

[FailureDrill]

Did you add 2 ounces to 5 gallons?

Approximately, I didn't measure it but it was enough to fill two shot glasses at least and I added it to five gallons.

 

[Aneurysm9]

Brewed a batch of this yesterday. Things went mostly okay, but there were high winds that kept blowing out my burner and a boilover blew a bunch of my hops over the side of the kettle. Thankfully I had .5oz Cascade and .5oz American Goldings around, so I threw them in hoping things will work out. I hit my gravity target right on at 1.064 which was gratifying as I was almost 10 points short on my Alaskan Amber clone two weeks ago. I collected a bit more than 5.5gal and pitched a rehydrated package of Nottingham. About 18 hours later my airlock was overflowing with krausen so I replaced it with a makeshift blowoff hose from my racking cane and tube. Couple hours later the blowoff container was nearly full with black wort/water mixture. Am I correct in thinking that this most vigorous period of fermentation will only last a few days?

 

[Shwagger]

finally got around to brewing this. added 1 oz of cascades only because i can only get it in 1 oz packages.

anyway, I hit, for the first time, all my numbers exactly! perfect 150, perfect pre boil and OG gravitys!

cant wait

 

[Shwagger]

haha good yeast, blew through my airlock and filled the top of the bucket lid with porter

 

[user 30639]

I've been looking for my first porter recipe and I think I'm going to try this one. Any thoughts as to what White Labs yeast would work for this? I was thinking WLP002 English Ale.

 

[lehr]

I just brewed this again I'm going to add bourbon oak and vanilla after fermentation. Also my og was 1.069.

Pat

 

[keelanfish]

I just brewed this again I'm going to add bourbon oak and vanilla after fermentation. Also my og was 1.069.

Pat

I just added light toasted oak chips I soaked in Maker's Mark and was amazed at the vanilla notes that have developed. I've never used actual vanilla, but would be careful not to overdo it. Also, go light on the bourbon. We added 4 oz. to about 5 gallons in secondary and I think that was a little much. The beer is still aging, but the first bottle opened after about 1 month was promising, but a little too much bourbon nose and taste.

 

[petep1980]

Ed Wort I want to tweak this into a Christmas Ale with some spices I think. I have some Belgium Ale 1214 from a buddy and would like to use that. Any suggestions?

 

[lehr]

I just added light toasted oak chips I soaked in Maker's Mark and was amazed at the vanilla notes that have developed. I've never used actual vanilla, but would be careful not to overdo it. Also, go light on the bourbon. We added 4 oz. to about 5 gallons in secondary and I think that was a little much. The beer is still aging, but the first bottle opened after about 1 month was promising, but a little too much bourbon nose and taste.

From what I've read they say to add 375 ml per 5 gallons when you keg I'll add a little at a time until I get it where I want it.

Thanks Pat

 

[AirRageous]

Bottled my Toejam version (steeped in pantyhose) of this over the weekend. This has to be the best beer at this stage that I have brewed so far. This is brew number 8 for me. Even flat, it is great. Very dark but clear with really nice coffee and chocolate notes and a nice roasty finish. I usually just take a taste of the hydro sample for monitoring purposes. But this was so good, I drank the entire sample and the half bottle at the end that we did not quite get filled.

 

[EdWort]

Ed Wort I want to tweak this into a Christmas Ale with some spices I think. I have some Belgium Ale 1214 from a buddy and would like to use that. Any suggestions?

I would not use the Belgium Ale yeast. I would recommend using my Oktoberfest Ale recipe with some spices for a Christmas Ale.

 

[MX1]

Ok, My Coffee/Chocolate version of this is on the boil.
Had to make a few changes, and was pretty upset about it.
1st had no flaked barley, thought I did, really really thought I did
2nd had to use Target in place of Fuggels
3rd as per Ed added 8oz more of the Chocolate malt.

Tim

 

[MX1]

Well, pitched the Notty last night around 9pm (local) yeast was at approx 70f wort was at aboit 74f....

I could not get the temp to drop anymore that that with my chiller due to no ice and warm tap water temp....

Woke up this morning and nothing......just what was left from the foam when I aerated the wort.

Gonna give this until I come home from work tomorrow night, so almost 48, and if no dice I will re-pitch.

Tim

 

[Paco]

From Ed's original recipe, what is the IBU we're aiming for? Say I intend to use another hop (Phoenix - 10%).

I'm brewing this tomorrow (16/08/2009). Thanks!

 

[chefchris]

Well, pitched the Notty last night around 9pm (local) yeast was at approx 70f wort was at aboit 74f....

I could not get the temp to drop anymore that that with my chiller due to no ice and warm tap water temp....

Woke up this morning and nothing......just what was left from the foam when I aerated the wort.

Gonna give this until I come home from work tomorrow night, so almost 48, and if no dice I will re-pitch.

Tim

A lot of people have been experiencing problems with Notty. There's a thread about it. Took 3 days for my last batch to take off with it. It did, however, do it's job and took it down to 1.011. I just kegged this batch 10 minutes ago so I can't say how it tastes (some people have experienced some off flavors). I'm also in the middle of washing this yeast. I'd like to see if I get the same lag time when it's repitched.

Be patient, it will take off. As long as you were clean and sanitary it should be fine.

 

[smellysell]

From Ed's original recipe, what is the IBU we're aiming for? Say I intend to use another hop (Phoenix - 10%).

I'm brewing this tomorrow (16/08/2009). Thanks!

I was wondering the same thing. I'm planning on using Magnum for mine.

 

[chefchris]

Should be close to 50 IBUs. 47 is what I have in beersmith the first time I brewed this. Then again, I don't know if I really knew what I was doing as I had just gotten the program.

But hey, it placed in a comp!

 

[blebo33]

Notty worked fine for me, actually, a little too good! Brewed on 8/22, airlock bubbling happily within 12 hours. Checked on it this morning and the top had blown off my Ale Pail! I was using a 3 piece airlock, it got clogged, boom. Nothing hit the ceiling but it made a pretty big mess around the bucket. I just hope nothing nasty got in there while the lid was off...

 

[BNVince]

What kind of attenuation are people getting on this beer? I've only got around 68% attenuation after 8 days and I'm a bit worried.

 

[EdWort]

Mine finishes around 1.020-1.022 because of the malto dextrin

 

[smellysell]

Mine finishes around 1.020-1.022 because of the malto dextrin

What do you think about using Magnum in it Ed?

 

[BNVince]

Mine finishes around 1.020-1.022 because of the malto dextrin

Man I wish I knew that. It would have saved me a lot of worrying this week.

I've never used malto dextrin before and I suspected it was the culprit when my batch stopped dead at 1.020.

Thanks Ed. I'm looking forward to chewing on this one.

 

[BNVince]

Disregard this. I submitted twice like an idiot. I suck.

 

[petep1980]

I got this kit again from BM Warehouse and cannot wait. It's doubling as my holiday cheer and winter warmer.

 

[MX1]

Mine is down to 1.023 today, but I had crappy Eff. only started at about 1.052....

I am thinking this is just about done.

Tim

 

[KopyKat]

Should be close to 50 IBUs. 47 is what I have in beersmith the first time I brewed this. Then again, I don't know if I really knew what I was doing as I had just gotten the program.

If you are using Beersmith and are using the default as Tinseth you should be around 33 IBU. 47 IBU sounds more like Rager although when I switched to Rager it came out as 44 IBU. My Cascades are at 7.5% AA and Northern Brewer are 7.4% AA. I doubt your AAs are much higher on either of those hops.

Ed, perhaps you will chime in on this and let me know if I am off base on this.

 

[Beernewb]

I brewed this thursday night and came to 1.072 OG. I pitched two packets of wyeast and aerated with oxygen. I had a crazy blow-off in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and it's still bubbling albeit alot slower.

My question is this. I don't plan on racking to a secondary, should I just age it longer in th promary or bottle it after a few weeks when I reach the target gravity and then age it in the bottles?

I could rack to a seconday, but I plan on using my other 6.5 gallon glass carboy for an octoberfest ale this weekend and I just lost a better bottle to a crack on the bottom.

 

[MX1]

Mine is down to 1.023 today, but I had crappy Eff. only started at about 1.052....

I am thinking this is just about done.

Tim

I wanted to edit this information, I was at 1.013 not .023...

Ok, after I racked to secondary yesterday, the Porter did not have enough chocolate to cut through the roasted barley, which has given it a great earthy coffee flavor.

I am going to add a few oz of cold brewed coffee to the secondary, and did not know if there was any way to add coco powder to the secondary as well. Can I boil some water and make a coco paste and add that?

Tim