Brew day #2 is done.

[PashMaddle]

I just finished cleaning up from making a porter. My youngest daughter got up early to help and she absolutely rocked it! We hit all of our numbers and everything went smoothly. The only hiccup was me burning myself on the metal recirculation thingie while getting a wort sample like a big dummy.

Character sheet:

American Porter
6.2% / 14.9 °P

All Grain

Anvil Foundry 6.5 120V​

67.7% efficiency
Batch Volume: 3.2 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Mash Water: 4.55 gal
Total Water: 4.55 gal
Boil Volume: 3.97 gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.050 / 12.4 °P (hit 1.051)

Vitals​

Original Gravity: 1.061 / 14.9 °P (hit 1.062)
Final Gravity: 1.014 / 3.6 °P
IBU (Tinseth): 38
BU/GU: 0.62
Color: 35 SRM

Mash​

Strike Temp — 164.8 °F
A-amylase 2 — 158 °F — 60 min

Malts (7 lb 6 oz)​

5 lb 8 oz (73.3%) — Briess Pale Ale Malt 2-Row — Grain — 3.5 °L — Mash — 60 min
1 lb (13.3%) — Briess Caramel Malt 60L — Grain — 60 °L — Mash — 60 min
10 oz (8.3%) — Briess Chocolate — Grain — 350 °L — Mash — 60 min
4 oz (3.3%) — Mom's Best Cereals Whole Grain Oatmeal, Quick Oats — Grain — 1.3 °L — Mash — 60 min

Other (8 oz)​

2 oz (1.7%) — Briess Rice Hulls — Adjunct — 0 °L — Mash — 60 min
6 oz — Grandma's Original Unsulphered Molasses — Sugar — 59.6 °L — Boil — 5 min

Hops (0.8 oz)​

0.25 oz (23 IBU) — Sabro 15.8% — Boil — 60 min
0.28 oz (11 IBU) — HBC 472 8.7% — Boil — 30 min
0.28 oz (5 IBU) — HBC 472 8.7% — Boil — 10 min

Yeast​

1 pkg — Lallemand (LalBrew) BRY-97 American West Coast Ale 80%

 

[Sammy86]

Sorry to hear you burned yourself but take solace in thr fact you’ll have a delicious brew at the end of this!

Congrats on beer number 2!

 

[PashMaddle]

Sorry to hear you burned yourself but take solace in thr fact you’ll have a delicious brew at the end of this!

Congrats on beer number 2!

Thanks!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Yup, number two means you're well on your way to many more brews to come, Congratulations!

 

[PashMaddle]

This was happening a little while ago when I went and stuck my head in the FC.
BRY97 @65° after about 20 hours or so


…I spent quite some time in the garage watching that…I don’t really understand why.

 

[Sammy86]

…I spent quite some time in the garage watching that…I don’t really understand why.

Its the miracle of fermentation…it becomes easier to walk away the more you do it!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

It is truly amazing even after a couple thousand brews and I still wonder when there's a little lag time.

As you brew more your confidence level will increase too but don't let your guard down on the basics of good brewing habits.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Don't get overenthused at the beginning! Don't burn yourself out!

HAHAHAHAHA. Mores seriously, go for it. As Oscar Wilde said, "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess." Not really true, but still.

That grain bill looks nice, but wondering if you really want Sabro. Guess you'll find out. I had no idea what HBC was. Had to look it up.

My unpopular theory is that dark stouty beers don't care much what kind of hops you use, because so much bittering comes from the grain.

 

[lumpher]

You've been assimilated. Resistance is futile. I think most of us have battle scars from getting too close to the heat in some way.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The big problem comes when you get great results you know you cannot get from any factory beer. That's when the hook goes in.

 

[PashMaddle]

That grain bill looks nice, but wondering if you really want Sabro. Guess you'll find out. I had no idea what HBC was. Had to look it up.


My unpopular theory is that dark stouty beers don't care much what kind of hops you use, because so much bittering comes from the grain.

Thanks! I put the recipe together myself and have fretted about it quite a bit due to my inexperience. The Sabro didn’t do any of the “Sabro stuff” in my brown ale as far as I could tell and I used it in a very similar way in that beer. That’s supposed to be a good combo in dark beers to play off of the whole cream coconut thing… ( and I hadn’t heard any Sabro horror stories until I got here lol)but like you said: we’ll see. I’ll probably change them to willamette next time though.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I used it in a sweet, very heavy ale, and it was great. Maybe it needs a beer with a lot of flavor to balance the tropical weirdness.

 

[PashMaddle]

I used it in a sweet, very heavy ale, and it was great. Maybe it needs a beer with a lot of flavor to balance the tropical weirdness.

“Tropical weirdness” lol there’s a descriptor that should be included on the yvh website.

That could very well be the case. I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination but that seems logical.

 

[PashMaddle]

I just took a refractometer reading and the BRY 97 seems to be attenuating quite well. According to my reading with the adjustment: I'm somewhere around 1.019 (target: 1.014-1.015) so I still have a little while to go.

I tasted the sample, and it was rather bitter (think coffee grounds) ...I don't know if this is perhaps the trub coming through the spigot or what? It could just be roasted grain being roasted grain and I simply just didn't expect it?? Anyone know anything about this?

 

[RM-MN]

Taste it again when you bottle it, then skip the next month before you sample again. Big changes will happen. Those changes will continue for quite a while. I'd expect that beer to be really good in 3 to 6 months.

 

[mashdar]

I find dark beers frequently have a overly-strong roasty character until they settle out. With active fermentation going, there's probably a bunch of very fine roast particles still in suspension.

In the worst case, if it's still an issue when serving (bottles? keg?), let it lager for a week or two and it should improve.

10oz 350L chocolate in a 3gal batch is pretty normal - shouldn't be too bad unless you dislike porters.

 

[PashMaddle]

Thanks for the input. The general consensus seems to be RDWHAHB… which is exactly what I’m doing. I’m more curious than concerned.
The whole “dark beer takes time” thing is something that I’m going to have to get used to because I have always loved dark beer. Although eventually having “vintages” of porters and stouts sounds rad. I’ll wait it out and I honestly believe it’ll get better, y’all haven’t steered me wrong yet.

 

[mashdar]

“dark beer takes time”

There is some dispute regarding this. Follow your own preferences. A lot of people like ~5-7% dark ales after 1-4 months. Lower ABV dark beers are often meant to be had fresh.

High ABV beers some people like to age for years. (But you can overdo it. I had a ~7 year old Westvleteren 12 last year and it was not as good as the 3 year old bottle.)

As I said, though, opinions vary.

 

[passedpawn]

I just took a refractometer reading and the BRY 97 seems to be attenuating quite well. According to my reading with the adjustment: I'm somewhere around 1.019 (target: 1.014-1.015) so I still have a little while to go.

I tasted the sample, and it was rather bitter (think coffee grounds) ...I don't know if this is perhaps the trub coming through the spigot or what? It could just be roasted grain being roasted grain and I simply just didn't expect it?? Anyone know anything about this?

Normally a bitter coffee taste is found in stouts that contain roasted barley. Porters don't have the flavor/ingredient (which differentiates them from the stouts).

I'm sure it'll all end up fine though.

I saved a bottle of a stout for 24 years then drank it. Tasted like soy sauce. Not good. So, aging has its limits.

 

[mac_1103]

aging has its limits

Tell me about it. I was better 24 years ago too!

 

[PashMaddle]

Taste it again when you bottle it, then skip the next month before you sample again. Big changes will happen. Those changes will continue for quite a while. I'd expect that beer to be really good in 3 to 6 months.

About that....
About two weeks ago on bottling day, I did indeed "taste it". My fermentatoring bucket has one of those weird thingamajigs on the spigot to help keep trub out (in?) or whatever so there was about a half-gallon or so of beer left after transferring/adding priming sugar/ CBC-1 etc. and I didn't make any extra effort to get it in the bottling bucket for whatever reason so I just chugged the majority of it (from the bucket, because, why not?) and put the last bit in a Raising Canes's Post Malone plastic collectors cup to drink at my leisure...waste not, want not...punks not dead....whatever, I drank flat beer quickly ...a lot of it.

Long story short: I got to chug a half gallon of porter (not many people can say that). It was tasty and I was slightly inebriated drunk, much to the amusement of my family. I have a bottle in the fridge to taste tomorrow. I hope it lasts 3 months conditioning because my pipeline is drying up and it was pretty good.

 

[lumpher]

Lower ABV dark beers are often meant to be had fresh.

As I said, though, opinions vary.

That's a major point. 1 style I really like is English Dark Mild, and it's good fresh.

 

[lumpher]

I hope it lasts 3 months conditioning because my pipeline is drying up and it was pretty good.

Refresh the pipeline with Pale Ales, Hefeweizen, Mild, Saison... the list goes on for quick beers.