American Porter Bee Cave Brewery Robust Porter

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Did this back in the end of February. I wasn't really impressed with it till about 2 weeks ago. I mean it was good, just seemed to be missing something. It's came together rather nicely here in the last few weeks. I'll definitely be adding this to my rotation.... Thanks for the recipe!
 
Kaze said:
I'm going to brew this on Friday. I plan on doing a 90min boil, and adding 4lbs of DME to get me around 9% ABV. I'll rack it on top of a healthy nottingham yeast cake and start the fermentation at 54*F and slowly raise it up. Once it is finished I'll keg and age it for six months or so.

Wish me luck!
Click to expand...

Brewed this on 5/12/17 with OG 1.078. FG 1.016 on 5/27 (around 8% ABV) so I kegged and started conditioning at room temp. Sample was coming along nicely... you can definitely feel the warmth of the alcohol, which will hopefully mellow over time. Still undecided on adding the malto. I feel the 4lbs of DME may have added enough body. I'm going to split off a few gallons and let it age for a couple days on some vanilla coffee beans.
 
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EdWort said:
This will make 5.5 gallons of Porter. Preboil is 7 gallons.

11# 2 Row
1# Chocolate Malt
1# Crystal 40
4 oz. Black Patent
1 oz. Roasted Barley
8 oz. Flaked Barley

Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes

Add 8 oz. of Malto Dextrin to boil at 20 minutes

Hops.

1 oz. Northern Brewer at 60 min.
0.5 oz Cascade at 60 min.

Hydrate a package of Nottingham.

This ferments vigorously, so use a blow off or be prepared to wipe up some beer. :)

Ferment for 2 weeks, then rack to keg or secondary.

BCBPorter.jpg
Click to expand...


Thinking of brewing this with some vanilla in Primary (maybe 1/2 Bean) and also some Vanilla Tincture in Bottling (1/2 bean on 1oz vodka)

How would Subbing the hops for Hallertau (1oz FWH + 1oz Boil 60) and some Fuggle (1oz Boil 45) sound like ? I have some Cascade but i would like to lower my other hops i have in stock !

Advice is welcome ! Looks tasty!
 
I've made both this porter and the bourbon vanilla porter that's from this site. I'd recommend this method for the vanilla:

Notes:
After primary, slit open 2 vanilla beans. Scrape the insides, chop the pods into quarters, add to secondary fermenter, rack beer onto vanilla. Taste periodically for the correct balance.
 
I would agree with the above about the vanilla, if you want a stronger vanilla presence use more beans and allow it to age on them longer.

As for the hops, they don't play much of a role, so I say go with the Hallertau and Fuggles if you want to use them up.
 
bolus14 said:
I would agree with the above about the vanilla, if you want a stronger vanilla presence use more beans and allow it to age on them longer.

As for the hops, they don't play much of a role, so I say go with the Hallertau and Fuggles if you want to use them up.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
Hello everyone, I brewed this recipe 2wks ago. I was thinking of bottling it, but I’ve never bottled before, just keg. Im also planning to use brown sugar. My question is, how much brown sugar should I use for priming? Thanks!!
 
I am thinking about brewing this for my wife.

I am going to add some vanilla bean to the secondary, per the previous suggestions.

The other thing I was thinking about doing a little different was instead of kegging this, bottling it and using a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup for priming this. Anyone ever done something similar that could give me a little advice? Not sure how to calculate so I dont end up with bottle bombs as the calculator in the previous comment does not appear to help.

Thoughts?
 
I brewed this about three weeks ago. . . . two weeks in the primary, then added two vanilla beans to the secondary and moved it there. Checked it last night after a week in the secondary and it smells and tastes GREAT!! I will be cold crashing this later this week then kegging it the day after. Cant wait to report back in a few weeks on how good this is. Thanks for the recipe.
 
https://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator
Homebrew4Scott said:
I am thinking about brewing this for my wife.

I am going to add some vanilla bean to the secondary, per the previous suggestions.

The other thing I was thinking about doing a little different was instead of kegging this, bottling it and using a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup for priming this. Anyone ever done something similar that could give me a little advice? Not sure how to calculate so I dont end up with bottle bombs as the calculator in the previous comment does not appear to help.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I've had good luck using Northern Brewer's priming sugar calculator
 
@EdWort Thanks for sharing this recipe. . . I just tapped this and it is honestly the best porter I have ever brewed. The wife loves it!

It tastes like a good base recipe I could build on. This could become my #2 to always have on tap.

Thanks again and Cheers!!

Scott
:mug:
 
Brewed 5G of this yesterday but mistakenly mashed @160 when it calls for 150. Not sure what I was thinking .. guess it was all the turkey. Anyways, hopefully it turns out ok. I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks.

Cheers!
Joe
 
EdWort said:
This will make 5.5 gallons of Porter. Preboil is 7 gallons.

11# 2 Row
1# Chocolate Malt
1# Crystal 40
4 oz. Black Patent
1 oz. Roasted Barley
8 oz. Flaked Barley

Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes

Add 8 oz. of Malto Dextrin to boil at 20 minutes

Hops.

1 oz. Northern Brewer at 60 min.
0.5 oz Cascade at 60 min.

Hydrate a package of Nottingham.

This ferments vigorously, so use a blow off or be prepared to wipe up some beer. :)

Ferment for 2 weeks, then rack to keg or secondary.

BCBPorter.jpg
Click to expand...
I've brewed this beer a few times and love it. It is simple to brew and tastes great. My second brewing used Warrior as a substitute for the 60 minute addition and that gives a bit of a bitter chocolate aftertaste. I used the Warrior version for my first entry into a large brewing contest and it got me a silver medal against much more experienced brewers with much better equipment.
 
called beta glucasane (if im not mistaken) which breaks apart terpene bound glucosides, hence getting another layer out of
 
new to AG brewing, brewed this last weekend doing BIAB.
My first 5 gal batch. been doing 1 gal batches to get my feet wet.

double crushed grains and hit 1.078 for OG.
After a week it's at 1.023.
Not quite done but man it tastes like "holy cow!, I MADE THAT!"
also it made my belly warm at 7.2 abv. lol.

Wish I could of brewed this 4 weeks ago like I planned.
Still got some cold weather and I bet this will keep in a charged keg in my basement over the summer if it lasts that long.
 
EdWort said:
This will make 5.5 gallons of Porter. Preboil is 7 gallons.

11# 2 Row
1# Chocolate Malt
1# Crystal 40
4 oz. Black Patent
1 oz. Roasted Barley
8 oz. Flaked Barley

Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes

Add 8 oz. of Malto Dextrin to boil at 20 minutes

Hops.

1 oz. Northern Brewer at 60 min.
0.5 oz Cascade at 60 min.

Hydrate a package of Nottingham.

This ferments vigorously, so use a blow off or be prepared to wipe up some beer. :)

Ferment for 2 weeks, then rack to keg or secondary.

BCBPorter.jpg
Click to expand...
I just sent out an order for the ingredients for this Porter. I look forward to trying it soon. I have a new boil pot and a new grain mill on it's way!
 
I brewed this beer last week and accidentally used 4oz of roasted barley and 1 oz of the Black patent. Anyone know how this is going to affect the taste of this beer? I had planned on adding vanilla beans after 2 weeks of fermentation. Other than that Brew day went good!
 
Brewed this yesterday for the first time. Looking great so far... ;)

Though, take the blow-off tube warnings elsewhere in this thread seriously. I assumed I had plenty of head-space in this carboy, but a few hours after the attached photo, I had to switch the airlock for a tube.

This looks delicious...

vV7adLR.jpg
 
Last edited:
mightyquinn34 said:
I brewed this beer last week and accidentally used 4oz of roasted barley and 1 oz of the Black patent. Anyone know how this is going to affect the taste of this beer? I had planned on adding vanilla beans after 2 weeks of fermentation. Other than that Brew day went good!
Click to expand...
It might be more like a stout with coffee notes. Should be OK. The vanilla should mellow it out.
 
Well, just noticed that LHBS milled 1 lb of roasted barley instead of 1 oz into the bag of grains. No going back now as it's in the mash tun. I guess I'll triple the waiting time on this one to let it mellow and see what happens.
 
I recently made a 2nd batch of the caribou slobber recipe from Northern Brewer. I really liked it the first time but this time it was really coffee like then I remembered. I was looking at some stuff in bs3 and realized I added like 8 times to much black patent this time lol. It's still pretty decent but definitely overly roasty.cheers
 
Brewed 2.5 gallons a little over 3 weeks ago and kegged last night. The smell is fantastic, but didn't taste or even get a FG reading due to trying to keg quickly due to just having too much to do. Really looking forward to trying this one. I did miss the OG of the recipe, but I have been having efficiency issues as of late.
 
Thanks for the recipe, EdWort!

I brewed this one up today and got an OG of 1.081 - 1.082 at 72F. There was a fair amount of trub in my gravity sample but... seems high.

This is only my 3rd AG brew, so please pardon the dumb question but.... I'm wondering what I might've done wrong? Should I add some sterilized water to the fermenter to water it down? Should I just leave it?

I hydrated a packet of Nottingham and ended up with about 4.5 gallons in the carboy. I lost a bit to trub and to my plate chiller.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
 
I haven't made this beer, but given that you ended up with 4.5 gallons I'm guessing that you either didn't start with enough water or boiled off more than usual.

How much preboil water did you have or did you take a preboil gravity sample?

As for adding water, I wouldnt, I think it will be fine. For the OG I might have used 2 packets of Notty, but at this point let it ride.
 
bolus14 said:
I haven't made this beer, but given that you ended up with 4.5 gallons I'm guessing that you either didn't start with enough water or boiled off more than usual.

How much preboil water did you have or did you take a preboil gravity sample?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking my boil-off calculations are a tad off. I lose some to trub, my plate chiller, and tubing, though. Maybe a quart between them? Not exactly sure. I unfortunately did not take a preboil gravity sample - I heard it wasn't a very reliable/useful measurement for determining OG, but maybe I'm confused? I did take a preboil volume measurement and hit it right on the nose (6.7gal according to my brewcalc). Something must be up.

Kharnynb said:
let it ride, you either get more alcohol or more body, neither is bad in this beer.
Click to expand...
More alcohol appears to be right!
I just pulled a gravity sample and got 1.024

My OG was 1.081.
(1.081 - 1.024) x 131.25 = 7.48% ABV currently.

I'm 3 days post-brew and bubbling has eased up to about once every 10-15 seconds. At its peak I was getting just about 3x a second with a big head of krausen. That's dropped back into the beer mostly.

Taste is fantastic for being only 3 days in. If I finish at what the OP finished at, that's 8.5%!

A few questions:
1. I'd love to age a small amount on some bourbon-soaked oak chips. Is it possible to throw a small amount of chips in a growler, affix an airlock, and let it sit in its own private secondary for a month to impart these flavors?
2. If I were to add hazelnut, chocolate, or vanilla flavoring, would you suggest an additional week or two with these flavors in secondary, or go the extract-in-the-bottling-bucket route?

I'm definitely in experimental phase of my brewing, but also have an empty fridge. Part of the appeal of this recipe was the 10-day ferment prior to bottling/kegging, but the taste is just such a good base that it'd be a shame not to split off 1/2g to see if bourbon-soaked oak chips is something to maybe replicate on a full 5 or 10g batch. Thoughts?
 
No reason you couldn't use a growler for the purpose of aging on chips, but given that small amount I would.knly go a few days at most. Using chips imparts flavors pretty quick and only doing a half gallon worth it won't take long to get oak into it.

This beer is big enough that you should be able to play with adding flavoring, extracts, spices, etc. Just remember less is usual more and you can always add more, but you can't take it out.

If adding flavorings make sure you read the labels closely for what's really in them. I would add extracts or flavorings at bottling or kegging time. If you aren't sure of how much to add you can put it in the fermenter, give it a real gently swirl, allow a day or two for it to mix in, then taste and see if it's where it want it. Some would say to pull a sample and use a very small amount of flavoring and find how much you like, the scale it to the full batch, personally this hasn't worked for me, but it might for you
 
with secondary transfer, add a bit of some sugar to purge oxigen from the headspace.

with the beer only a few days old, you want to let it sit at least a week or 2 more, as it's a big beer and needs time to clean up, just add any flavourings around the 10 day mark and bottle around 14-17 days depending on final gravity reached etc.
 
This is good!
No kidding this ferments vigorously! Had to deep clean the fermentation chamber afterwards. Even using a blow off!
I added 6oz of cold brewed coffee on top of it. One of the better beers I've done to date.
full
 
Awesome recipe that surprises my taste testers/guinea pigs. It's nice to hear, "Wow, you brewed that?! Tastes just like xyz vanilla porter!" (for us our local examples are Hop Valley's Vanilla Infused Porter, and Klamath Basin Vanilla Porter). Looks just like ki-ri-n's pint above. Below are my rambling notes.

I brewed this one on the morning of 10/13 and had it in bottles by the evening of 10/23. My OG was a bit higher than the OP's, but FG was reached and stabilized about a week after pitching. I agree that it fermented vigorously, too. Blow off tube was a must.

On day 8 I added roasted cacao nibs to the primary (I did not rack to secondary). It started taking on a bitter taste so I decided to bottle early and add vanilla extract. I wanted to do hazelnut but the LHBS was out of it.

I lost a fair amount to the carboy, trub after boil, and my equipment, so I ended up with just 3.5 gallons in the bottling bucket. Unfortunately I added enough vanilla and priming sugar for a full 5 gallon batch. Initially the vanilla was sickeningly sweet, but the beer is now pleasantly drinkable and well-carbonated a week after bottling. I used thick 22 oz glass so I'm hoping I don't have a bunch of bottle bombs in the closet, but I guess we'll see. Kind of wish I bottled in 12 oz bottles because these 18 or so bombers I have will go way too fast. If I'm drinking alone, it's a lot of beer (of this style) to get through. The maltodextrin really added a lot of body.

I bottled one 12 oz bottle without vanilla and opened it 4 or 5 days after bottling. Flavor was great--I'd definitely consider brewing this beer without any cacao or vanilla and agree with others in that it is a super solid base recipe. Maybe a 10 gallon batch with a lighter vanilla dose at bottling, or one carboy sitting with vanilla beans /coffee/nibs etc and the other just plain. I'd be curious to try coffee, oak chips, etc. Very nice porter.
 
Awesome recipe, thanks a lot! Bottled it a month ago, nothing left due to huge demand from friends and family! Will brew it today for an additional batch.
 
Have had this sitting in a keg since last march I believe.
It came out WAY higher in ABV% and tasted fine except for an over malty whiskey or bourban finish and not in a good way.

I was hoping it would of mellow'd by now but no such luck.
I'm still new to brewing but have learned more hops fix over malty beer and bad beer. lol.

So I dry hopped it with some 5% aa hops and notice no difference.
I'm thinking i need a higher AA hop to soak in it to balance this out but I don't know.
I really don't want to dump it.

any suggestions?
 
Wow! I'm considering this to be my next brew two weeks from now. I typically have 2.75 gallons headspace in my conical. Based upon your experience and of some others, I will use a vegetable base defoamer in the conical. Hopefully, that will help.
 
Brewed this twice last year, it’s simply a great, simple beer that has great flavor. For the second brew I simply threw over the previous yeast cake and it was almost as if the second batch tasted better. Definitely worth it to leave in primary for at least a month then rack to keg and let the keg sit in a closet for another month, if you can. Definitely worth letting this beer improve over a little time.
 

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