Breckenridge Vanilla Porter?

[downhill_biker]

I am looking to see if anyone knows of a recipe that is close to the brekonridge brewery vanilla porter. It is a lighter porter with a hint of vanilla. I want to give my local brew shop a recipe so they can make me an extract kit.

 

[kanzimonson]

I made a vanilla coffee porter (in my recipes tab) and I've had Breckenridge so I think I can give you some feedback.

I think their beer is pretty light, as you say, and doesn't have a lot of body. The vanilla is also pretty mild. So here's what I recommend as a good starting point:

12# American two row
1# Crystal 40
1# English chocolate
.25# English black patent
.25# English roast barley

Mash around 152-154. No need to go higher because of the light drinkability. Hopping will probably need to be in the 30IBU range (despite the 16 they say on their website). Ferment the beer with an American ale yeast, and when fermentation ends, put one split and scraped vanilla bean in the beer. Taste it after 7 days and keep tasting until it tastes about right. It could be as long as 14 days.

That's the best advice I have based on turning my recipe into their beer.

 

[kanzimonson]

Oops, I forgot that you're doing extract. Sub the 12# of two row with 7.2# of light DME. Keep everything else the same.

 

[downhill_biker]

Thanks for the info. I will try it and see what happens. I'm going to take your recipe into the local brew shop so they can break it down. I am not experienced enough yet to know what toy are talking about exactly.

 

[downhill_biker]

I just picked up all the ingredients from the local brew shop. They had everything. The light DME was in 5# bags and 1# bags. I ended up with 7# total hoping that it won't change the recipe much.

They also said that real vanilla beans can be very expensive. Can I use pure vanilla extract? If so how much would I use?

 

[downhill_biker]

Also, the hops I used is Northern Brewer Alpha: 10.5%. They said that this would give me about 30 IBU with what I was mixing.

 

[kanzimonson]

As a baker, I can attest that the flavor of real vanilla beans is far superior to extract. They're not that expensive, maybe $3 each, and it's worth it for rich, complex vanilla flavor.

As for hops, I can't imagine you'll need more than a half oz if they're that high AA%. And no need for flavor/aroma hops in my opinion. It's all about the vanilla and malt.

 

[downhill_biker]

Thanks for the info. I will see how much hops they gave me. Probably 1oz. Would you say I should use a different hops with lower AA but still try to get the 30 Ibu's while using the whole bag or will this matter. This is getting complex for this noob...lol.

 

[devilishprune]

If you're going to boil for 60 minutes, then you really don't get that much flavor out of bittering hops anyway.

So I don't know what the intended OG is for this batch, but a quick runthrough on beersmith with it as 1.070 got an IBU value of 32.6 for that AA% of Northern Brewer. I don't think that 2 IBUs is going to be that noticeable to you, so you should be able to throw the whole bag in (that is, if the OG is actually 1.070 or slightly higher).

In the future, I would recommend getting a free trial of Beersmith so that you can tweak your recipes in that. You can use it to determine what amounts of hops will give you the intended IBUs also.

If you have time, try to get the vanilla beans online. At grocery stores you can get them for like $7 for 1 bean, but online you can get them for something like $15 per pound.

 

[kanzimonson]

Just so you know, the grain bill I gave you is for a 6gal batch. You will aim for 6gal at the end of the boil, and rack 5.5 into the fermenter.

And Devilishprune is right about the hops. Another recipe that I had on the brain was messing me up. Just use an entire 1oz of hops at 60 minutes and you'll probably be in the 30-38 IBU range, which is just fine.

I think you're really going to enjoy this recipe. Just keep control of fermentation temps, and take the time to source a real vanilla bean. Look for spice shops or upscale ingredient stores. Even if you have to pay $7 for a vanilla bean, that's a pretty small investment for such an interesting and unique twist on your beer.

 

[downhill_biker]

I agree with what both of you said. Thanks for the info. I will look into Beersmith. I will also do a 6g boil and rack 5.5 as said into the firmenter. I am so stoked on this brew, I can't wait till my firmeters are empty so I can start on this one!

 

[kanzimonson]

Ever get around to brewing this?

 

[steinsato]

I've made 2 batches of Edwort's Robust Porter and then added 1 chopped/scraped vanilla bean to secondary for 1 week. I haven't compared the two side by side but the recipe works for me. I have no plans of tweaking it for future brews.

 

[downhill_biker]

I haven't got around to brewing this yet. I have to bottle the two batches in my firmenters this week and then I plan to brew this and a huckleberry wheat. Probably this weekend.

 

[Shinglejohn]

Cayenne Porter

this brew without the cayenne and chocolate is fairly close.

 

[jbsg02]

I took a trip to Breckenridge this summer and went to the brewery/restaurant one night. They let us sample some beers before we picked one and I ordered a pint of the Vanilla Porter and LOVED it. Probably the best beer I have ever had. They sell bottles of it here at a Central Market and I picked some up, it is good in the bottles, but it is no where close to having it fresh on tap.

 

[CDGoin]

I made a vanilla coffee porter (in my recipes tab) and I've had Breckenridge so I think I can give you some feedback....

Ferment the beer with an American ale yeast, and when fermentation ends, put one split and scraped vanilla bean in the beer. Taste it after 7 days and keep tasting until it tastes about right. It could be as long as 14 days.

That's the best advice I have based on turning my recipe into their beer.

Noob here.. so I take from this that I probably did a bad thing when I used the whole pack of 8 vanilla beans, cut in half and then split them and stuck them all in the boil..?

I was making a Brewers Best Milk Stout Kit.. and was adding the vanilla beans, because seems all the beers I tend to love have the word Vanilla in them, vanilla ice cream is a favorite, and my soda of choice Vanilla Coke (Even make a extra effort to go to a specific grocery store as they are the only one that carries it anymore.

I am starting to think my first brew is going end up as carbonated syrup..

 

[kanzimonson]

Phew that's a lot of beans! But still you should let it ferment out and see how it does. Since you added them to the boil, maybe a lot of the vanilla flavor would have boiled out.

Carry it through fermentation but don't bottle it yet. Taste it to see how pungent you think it is. If it's unreal then you may want to just toss it. But if it's just a little extreme, you could consider brewing a second batch of the same beer without vanilla and then doing some blending.

 

[CDGoin]

Phew that's a lot of beans! But still you should let it ferment out and see how it does. Since you added them to the boil, maybe a lot of the vanilla flavor would have boiled out.

Carry it through fermentation but don't bottle it yet. Taste it to see how pungent you think it is. If it's unreal then you may want to just toss it. But if it's just a little extreme, you could consider brewing a second batch of the same beer without vanilla and then doing some blending.

That was somewhat the plan.. Was going to taste it and see..

I made mistakes on both the bitter and sweet end.. so I may just get lucky with a good batch first time around..

I do have some room in the fermentor to blend other things into the batch after fermentation who knows maybe put some beans in when they are supposed to go in.

 

[CDGoin]

Did a taste test of the 2 day old wort.. Quite the opposite, the Vanilla flavor is strong and has become the primary flavor (as of right now find out more when I bottle), that said I'm good with it.. tasted awesome.