American Porter Black Butte Porter

[NYCHomebrewer]

Yes. Homebrewalley 4. Pretty much what I expected. Some esters and to watch my ferment temperature and pitch rates. Described it as very drinkable.

I also entered an ESB and got an average of 34! Said it was slightly out of style. It was a kit brew though and if I would not brew it again.

 

[avibayer]

I am an idiot, who did not scale down the recipe posted on the first page. I made 5 gallons using 10.5 lbs 2 row, 1.5 white wheat, 0.75 crystal 80, 0.5 carapils, and 1 lbs chocolate

brewed this last night and got an OG: 1.078

 

[android]

that should be a nice, high gravity porter!

 

[ChshreCat]

If this recipe really comes out like the real thing, you should still have a tasty beer. Black Butte has quite a bit of hop character to it, so even though yours your be a little maltier, it'll still be good.

 

[philrose]

If this recipe really comes out like the real thing, you should still have a tasty beer. Black Butte has quite a bit of hop character to it, so even though yours your be a little maltier, it'll still be good.

It does, you gotta try it cat. Its your duty as a PNW'r

 

[ChshreCat]

It does, you gotta try it cat. Its your duty as a PNW'r

Funny... Black Butte was always my standard beer. Pretty much all I drank. Then when I started brewing, I started buying all different beers to try different styles and whatnot. Hadn't had Black Butte in most of a year until I bought a sixer just the other day. I almost forgot how good it was. I'll definitely be giving a shot at this sometime soon.

 

[Grinch]

Just got the goods in today for a brew-tiful weekend! Got the grains for a 12 gallon batch... any recommendations where I should be for the hops?

 

[android]

not sure what you mean grinch. you mean scaling up the hops for 12 gallons?

 

[Grinch]

yes, exactly.

 

[android]

do you have beersmith or one of those programs? if not, try using beercalculus or one of the online calculators to move everything into 12 gallons. without putting the numbers into one of those programs, I don't know what exactly your amounts would be.

 

[Grinch]

got it! Brewed this up this past weekend... ran into a couple issues. First my cooler ended up not being as big as I thought it was, forgot the 5.2, had a little boil over, then this morning found that the airlock had blown off! Still sure this will be good though, going to be a long 6 weeks.

 

[Grinch]

Bottled last night. My FG ended up at 1.025 surely due to a number of things. But I tasted it and it tastes good, just not very high in alcohol.

 

[DirtyOldDuck]

I know this is an old thread, but if you like porters you should really try this recipe. Deschutes BBP is probably my favorite porter so I really wanted to see if I could brew something similar - this recipe is it. I brewed this about 5 weeks ago, let it sit in the primary for 4 weeks, kegged a week ago and it is very, very good. I am not very good at describing beer flavors, but this beer takes you on a journey. Initially you notice roasted malts (but not too roasty), slightly bitter/semi-sweet dark chocolate, and maybe a hint of coffee. As the beer warms up the chocolate becomes sweeter, more like a milk chocolate, but not too sweet. It is very well balanced, has a nice aroma and tan fluffy head, leaves a nice lacing in the glass - and me wanting another one.

I made a 6 gallon batch and used WLP001 instead of Wyeast 1968, because I had one that I needed to use. According to Deschutes' website, they use Cascade, Bravo and Tettnang hops and the IBU is 30. I substituted CTZ for the Bravo for bittering, again because I had it on hand, and my IBU was 32.4. I am definitely going to do this one again, probably 10 to 12 gallons, and bottle half. If you like porters, you will love this recipe.

 

[Dcmpres]

This was my first mini-mash and it gave me the confidence to go AG. Basically followed it as described, albeit a little change in grains for mini mash. Managed to mash a little cooler than planned, but not bad for my first attempt. I was over my OG by 2 points, and it fermented down to 1.010. I split the batch between two 3 gallon corny kegs and fermented at 64 degrees. Then added some bourdon soaked HT American oak cubes in one batch for additional 12 days. The original recipe was gone before I knew it and my wife enjoyed this recipe over the original in a blind tasting. The bourdon sat in keg for about 2 months and it was pretty darn good. I got scores ranging from 32 to 40 from fellow brew club members. Now I am interested in having fun with this recipe my tweaking it some. Here's to a BBP.

 

[dannedry]

Is there any smokiness to this beer? I know some porters are smokier than others... and I do prefer a touch of smoke flavor... if not, any suggestions? Maybe 1/4# smoked malt to the grain bill??? Thanks!

 

[Dcmpres]

Danndry, there is no smokiness to this porter. I don't have any experience with smoked grains, but I have read that Peat Smoked malt is pretty strong and most recommend 1oz - 4 oz per 5 gallon patch. I have heard if your use smoke (raunch) malt you can go from 5 - 20% of the grain bill - YMMV. I have had two commercial smoke porters, Stone and Alaskan, and the smoke dominates their brew. Stone's recipe uses 4oz of peat smoke malt according to their book. You could alway make this brew to completion, then pour a pint and add drops of liquid smoke into it until you hit the desired amount of smokiness. Then calculate for entire back and give it a whirl. Keep me informed.

 

[todd_k]

This is a great beer, had it when I was in Denver a few weeks ago. I wish the grain bill was a bit lower. I couldn't fit all of that in my mash tun.

 

[Dcmpres]

Todd, that should not stop you from brewing up this tasty treat. Just go partial mash with this recipe. I'm not sure how much your can hold in your MT? So just substitute 0.75lb of LME for every pound of base malt or 0.67lb per pound of DME. How about subbing 6lbs of 2-row for 4.5lbs of LME. That would drop the total grain bill to roughly 7lbs in your MT. That is what I did for my first PM BBP recipe and it turned out great.

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

I know this is an older recipe, but how would you scale this down to a 5 gal batch size??

 

[marty1966]

Can someone chime in with fermentation times? Did you do single or secondary? I'm at 2 weeks and wondering what to do next. With an ale I would just keep it on the yeast for 3 weeks then keg.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dcmpres]

Marty... Take a couple FG reading over the next couple of days to see where it's at. If it is a points or two (+ or -) within the expected FG of 1.014, then I'd say its ready to transfer to keg. If you're patient enough, then let it sit in the primary for an additional week (3 total) before cold crashing and racking to keg. Give those yeast a little time to insure they clean up after themselves, if they haven't already done so. Like many on this forum I stopped racking to secondary, unless I intended to add post fermentation adjuncts like oak cubes or extensive dry hopping.

 

[ChshreCat]

Can someone chime in with fermentation times? Did you do single or secondary? I'm at 2 weeks and wondering what to do next. With an ale I would just keep it on the yeast for 3 weeks then keg.

Any thoughts?

That would be just fine as a general rule, but you can't put any beer on a schedule. You can shoot for 3 weeks, but only hydrometer readings can tell you when it's done fermenting, then you want to give it a little more time.

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

Made this in my BIAB equip, and didnt start with enough water. Did a 90 min boil and I ended up with only about 4.5 gallons. Its gonna be pretty hot at about 7.4% if it finishes at the 1.014. My OG was 1.070. Smelled great and seems to chugging along fermentation wise. I used a smaller starter of Wye 1968, but added also about a half packet of S-05 because I didn't feel I had enough yeast for such a high gravity. Hope the flavor profile remains close to the original. I need to perfect my starting volumes and get this down better. I've been all over the place haha. Still made beer though!!

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

After 12 days I am down to 1.022. Still too high for me. But damn! That hydro sample tasted amazing. Cant wait for this thing to finish out and keg it up. I BB Porter, and just had a bottle of it last night. I think this will be a regular in our pipeline Thanks for the great recipe!

 

[twalte]

Subscribing to this thread...this is my next batch. Yeast starter begins today.

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

Well, after a week or so being on tap, this is one hell of a beer. Its pretty damn close to the real thing. Just drank mine side by side with the real thing, and the color, flavor, head, were all pretty darn close. Mine was just a little more bitter than the real thing. Not sure if its due to freshness, but its really close. Such a great beer!! Thanks for a killer recipe. Ill be brewing this again for sure!

 

[DirtyOldDuck]

I brewed my second batch (6 gal) of this on 1/25. I'm going to either keg or bottle it this week - can't decide which. I kegged my first batch and grinned every time I had one.

 

[Cahowell]

This was my first all grain. I did the mash all wrong, probably other things too. But you know what I got? Really good beer! Thank you for posting the recipe. I can't wait to brew it again.

 

[stevefarns]

Brewed this tonight. Started mash about 9pm, cleaned up by 1am. Smells good, can't wait to try it.
Bumped up the grain bill just a bit by rounding up to the nearest 1/4 lb, way easier with my lhbs scale.
Mismeasured my boil volume and ended up with 7 gallons in my fermenter. Reading of 1.061.
Thanks for the recipe, I will post back with updates.

 

[And1129]

Black Butte Porter has been my favorite beer for years. I brew a lot of porters that have been great, but still haven't been close to BBP. I recently had the opportunity to speak with a guy who works for Deschutes and he told me, as I've long suspected, that Black Butte Porter is actually dry hopped! So I made close-to-clone version a few weeks ago which is now dry hopping on cascades. Hope to bottle soon!