English Porter Black Pearl Porter (AG)

[MikePote]

This stuff is reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyy good.

 

[pigroaster]

This beer on draft is a dream come true. What a memory. Time to brew it again.

 

[SudsandBuds14]

I am looking to do a pumpkin, chocolate, Belgian, porter. Would this be a good base recipe to make this delicious brew?

 

[pricelessbrewing]

It's pretty sweet and thick with the lactose and maltodextrin. I'd suggest dropping the lactose if you want some variations, maybe 1/2 the original amount with the chocolate one.

 

[DaNewf]

Local time is 1:30 AM and I've just finished cleaning up after making a batch of this porter. I scaled the recipe down to 3.5 gallons

Variations;

• Used Safale S-04
• used 3/4lb of carapils instead of maltodextrin
• LHBS only had a pound of Munich (and no Vienna) so I made up the difference with English 2-Row

Brew night went well. I am looking forward to trying this one. I'll report back in ~2 months.

Thanks for posting the recipe BierMuncher.

 

[Setesh]

Just made 11 gallons of this for my friends birthday. I get 5 gallons and so does he. This is one amazingly good porter, and always goes really fast. Thanks again BM!

 

[makubex]

Plugged this into Beersmith and I'm getting a FG of 1.031 which seems pretty sweet, especially with the low IBUs in this guy. I was thinking about kicking up the hop additions to get a bitterness ratio of around .6ish.

I guess I'm looking for advice on whether to leave the recipe as is, or to kick the bitterness up a notch to try and balance out the sweetness.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Plugged this into Beersmith and I'm getting a FG of 1.031 which seems pretty sweet, especially with the low IBUs in this guy. I was thinking about kicking up the hop additions to get a bitterness ratio of around .6ish.

I guess I'm looking for advice on whether to leave the recipe as is, or to kick the bitterness up a notch to try and balance out the sweetness.

Mine ended about 1.015 if I remember. Maybe you have the default yeast date on there? I think default is about 3 years old or something weird like that. Definitely did not come out too sweet at all.

 

[makubex]

1.015 seems awfully low for this recipe. It calls for a mash temp of 158, uses a pound of flaked oats, and users both lactose and maltodextrine.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Don't think oats affect FG at all? I think it was more around 18-22 or so if I remember correctly. I opened my first bottle last weekend, it was definitely sweet and creamy mouthfeel. I think I would cut the lactose a bit personally if I were to make again for my own consumption and aim for 1.016 FG.

Put the taste somewhere between a creamy porter and a milk stout. Too sweet for me, but the gallon I added coldbrew coffee to was pretty good.

 

[run42beer]

Thanks BierMuncher for the excellent recipe! In May I brewed this the second time with slight modifications (Golding instead of Fuggle, Crystal 40L instead of 30L, Safale S-04, OG 1.066/FG 1.031) for a friend's wedding. Entered two bottles into the NC Brewer's Cup and ended up getting the bronze ribbon in the porter category . My first ribbon

Last weekend brewed a third batch (this time with more modifications due to grains at hand) that I intend to age in a bourbon barrel.

 

[MikePote]

I brewed this about 5 months ago. I just found a hidden 6 pack (thought I drank all of them a couple months ago) and WOW! This stuff really is awesome with a little bit of age. I would say the best beer ive yet to make in my year of home brewing (probably 20 batches). If your contemplating making some go for it.

 

[soapy45]

I'd like to start a batch of this next weekend but the feed store where I bought my grains doesn't carry lactose. I see others have skipped it with acceptable results, but I was wondering if I could find a milk based substitute at the grocery store. What should I look for? Whole milk? Sweetened condensed milk? Non-dairy creamer? Buttermilk?
Should I stick to 4 oz?

 

[YeastMode]

Brewed this on 10/4/14 and just racked to a secondary today. I used Nottingham because LHBS was out of WLP013 (one of my favorites). I racked it on my vanilla solution (3 beans split and soaked in vodka for a week). The sample was delicious and I am really excited about this beer.

That's for great recipe BierMuncher. I have made 3 of your recipes and they have all been fantastic. I can't thank you enough!

 

[Setesh]

That's for great recipe BierMuncher. I have made 3 of your recipes and they have all been fantastic. I can't thank you enough!

I agree. You just can't go wrong with BM's recipes. I'm working my way slowly through them all. So far I've brewed:

Cream of Three Crops
Sacred Summit Pale Ale
Sterling gold
Six Shooter Pale Ale
Centennial Blonde
Oktoberfast
Aberdeen Brewery Session Haus Ale
Aberdeen Brown Ale
Nierra Sevada
SWMBO Slayer
Black Pearl Porter

They have all been excellent!

 

[smit70136]

Another beautiful day to brew in SE TX and another awesome recipe from BM. Hope I like this one as well as the Outer Limits IPA! Not thinking that will be a problem... Thanks for the recipes man.


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[ChelisHubby]

Well I brewed mine and let it sit for 3 weeks for the yeast to do there thing. I tasted the gravity sample and was blown away at how good it taste. now if I can make myself wait till thanksgiving.

 

[46binder]

Just brewed this again, but my OG was 1.07, maybe used 1/2 lb extra two row, I was following last years notes. Must have improved my efficiency since then!

 

[myquestforbeer]

Question on this recipe if anyone can help. When I enter this into Beersmith it shows way low on IBUs for this style and clocks in at only 7IBUs. Seems really low. With basically only .5 oz of buttering hops at about 4.5 alphas I'm worried about it being too sweet. I want it to be more on the malty and sweet side and will be adding about 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate to the end of the boil and coffee in the secondary. Should the there be more bittering hops?


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[BierMuncher]

Question on this recipe if anyone can help. When I enter this into Beersmith it shows way low on IBUs for this style and clocks in at only 7IBUs. Seems really low. With basically only .5 oz of buttering hops at about 4.5 alphas I'm worried about it being too sweet. I want it to be more on the malty and sweet side and will be adding about 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate to the end of the boil and coffee in the secondary. Should the there be more bittering hops?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

The IBU's are definitely on the low side. Under 10 to be sure. The addition of unsweetened chocolate should put a little bitterness back.

 

[myquestforbeer]

Thanks. Yeah I'm just wondering if the low IBUs and only 45 minute mash (is that enough time to extract fermentable sugars?) will make it too sweet. Plus .5 oz fuggles at 3 min will primarily give you hop aroma (do you want that in a porter?). So just wanted to see what the reason was for only .5 oz at 60 and only 45 min. If that's how you do it and it turns out great, who am I to argue that? Lol. Not trying to be contrary, really just wanting to learn from people and this one seemed confusing to me since it would seem too sweet at the end. Any insight you can share would be great since I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks!


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[ChelisHubby]

Thanks. Yeah I'm just wondering if the low IBUs and only 45 minute mash (is that enough time to extract fermentable sugars?) will make it too sweet. Plus .5 oz fuggles at 3 min will primarily give you hop aroma (do you want that in a porter?). So just wanted to see what the reason was for only .5 oz at 60 and only 45 min. If that's how you do it and it turns out great, who am I to argue that? Lol. Not trying to be contrary, really just wanting to learn from people and this one seemed confusing to me since it would seem too sweet at the end. Any insight you can share would be great since I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks!


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In all honesty this is a tried and proven low hop recipe that most BMC drinkers will like. This is a good recipe to bring in new craft beer drinkers and future brewers.

 

[SteelRinger]

Brewed this up today.

Hit 1.066 OG (1.063 estimated). I also added a full ounce of Fuggles for 5 minutes as I had 1.5 ounces left and I didn't have any recipes calling for Fuggles anywhere in the future brew plans. The wort tastes awesome.

Can't wait for this one to be done.

 

[stryker_hass]

Following original recipe brewing this tonight in Summerfield NC

 

[Mwhy71]

So, I wanted to follow this recipe to the tee, LHBS was out of lactose. I brewed it last week anyway, and has been in the ferm chamber. Now the store has the lactose, is it too late to add it now? I took a gravity reading yesterday, its at 1.021, OG was 1.059, it tastes good, but i don't get the sweetness people are talking about.

 

[dcrog]

BM, this is another winner in my book.
Kegged this on 9/14 and have been enjoying a glass now and then ever since.
I did add another 1/2 pound of the chocolate malt and two tablespoons of pure vanilla extract at keg time.
I love this recipe.

 

[D_Nyholm]

So, I wanted to follow this recipe to the tee, LHBS was out of lactose. I brewed it last week anyway, and has been in the ferm chamber. Now the store has the lactose, is it too late to add it now? I took a gravity reading yesterday, its at 1.021, OG was 1.059, it tastes good, but i don't get the sweetness people are talking about.

You can just boil the lactose in a bit of water and then add it to your fermenter. Should be fine, but 1.021 with lactose added might be a tad sweet? I don't know where others are ending but anything above 1.020 seems sweet to me.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Well I tried this brew after just 3 weeks in the bottle and all I can say is WOW. I am going to have a hard time leaving this alone for thanksgiving!

 

[DaNewf]

Well, I screwed it up. Some of my bottles are flat and some are gushing. I think (hope) that when I racked on top of my priming solution it didn`t mix well enough before I started bottling. I usually give the bottling bucket a few gentle stirs with the auto siphon after racking. I seem to remember wondering if I had done it when bottling this batch. I guess I didn`t.

Anyway, the gushers are salvageable. I pop the cap, pour beer into a large glass, wait for the soda pop head to settle and then degas a little more using a syringe. Doing this works pretty good and gives me the head and mouth feel I`m looking for.

The flat bottles are just that... flat! Don`t care, I`ll drink them anyway.

Too bad I have no way of knowing which are flat and which are over carbonated. I could pour one of each into a pitcher to cancel each other out .

Despite frigging up the bottling, the beer itself tastes really good. I will be making it again (paying better attention to bottling on the next go round). Thanks to BierMuncher for the recipe.

 

[cosmatics]

Sorry to hear about your bottling issues, but all hope might not be lost. How long have they been bottle carbing? I've had some take much longer to get right vs. others etc. Thus why I now force carb, lol, but thats a different story. I'm glad the beer tastes good though!