Brown malt in brown porters

[JoeHoffman]

What do you guys think about the authenticity of brown porter recipes and the use of brown malt. I have read that brown malt was the basis for the style and that they used to be brewed with it as the main part of the grain bill but is the brown malt we get today even the same thing and accordingly is it an essential part of what brown porter really is. Please share any recipes that could help me nail down this style, all grain if possible


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[rmyurick]

From what I've read, today's brown malt is not the same as that made in the "olden days". It has little-to-no diastatic power, so it would not be good to have a malt bill with mostly brown malt. However, I think up to 1/2 or 1 lb. in a brown porter would be great. Might also want a small amount of chocolate malt or black patent malt in there for color.

 

[charliehorse]

I use a half a pound in a 5 gallon batch:

Recipe specifics:

Style: Robust Porter
Batch size: 5.0 gal
Boil volume: 6.5 gal
OG: 1.075
FG: 1.019
Bitterness (IBU): 22.0
Color (SRM): 25.6
ABV: 7.4%

Grain/Sugars:

11.00 lb Maris Otter Malt, 75.9%
1.50 lb Munich (US), 10.3%
0.50 lb Brown Malt (British), 3.4%
0.50 lb Crystal 60L, 3.4%
0.50 lb Wheat (US), 3.4%
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (US), 3.4%

Hops:

0.50 oz Centennial (AA 9.0%, Pellet) 60 min, 14.5 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles (AA 4.0%, Pellet) 30 min, 5.0 IBU
0.50 oz Mt. Hood (AA 4.3%, Pellet) 10 min, 2.5 IBU

Yeast/Misc:

English Ale yeast, 1.0 unit(s), Yeast

 

[charliehorse]

Double posted

 

[JoeHoffman]

Thanks looks like a good one I love robust porters but I'm specifically interested in the Brown Porter classification which is quite a bit different than the Robust Porter Guide lines and apperently much less explored or popular


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[JoeHoffman]

From what I've read, today's brown malt is not the same as that made in the "olden days". It has little-to-no diastatic power, so it would not be good to have a malt bill with mostly brown malt. However, I think up to 1/2 or 1 lb. in a brown porter would be great. Might also want a small amount of chocolate malt or black patent malt in there for color.

So, there's no one making real brown malt now? Any ideas on how to simulate the malt with some combination of available malts


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[GarageDweller]

try this one out man...its very good. the color has a nice brownish hue to it vs. the typical solid black. Highly recommend this one.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/atonement-brown-porter-2011-hbt-gold-category-12-a-238714/

 

[BigTuna]

try this one out man...its very good. the color has a nice brownish hue to it vs. the typical solid black. Highly recommend this one.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/atonement-brown-porter-2011-hbt-gold-category-12-a-238714/

This recipe looks fantastic

 

[alane1]

I've used up to 3 lbs. in a robust porter recipe, tasted amazing. Just make sure to use an authentic British variety like Crisp.

 

[JoeHoffman]

Is the authentic Brit malt referring to the brown or base malt


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[Oginme]

To answer your question, there really is no way to know if we are duplicating the taste of the original brown malt. From what I have read and heard, there really are no good records on how the brown malt was created. There was probably enough variation from malt house to malt house that it would be very difficult to figure out how to duplicate it.

 

[The_Professor]

What do you guys think about the authenticity of brown porter recipes and the use of brown malt. I have read that brown malt was the basis for the style and that they used to be brewed with it as the main part of the grain bill ...

Check out this chapter from a book from 1822.

I don't know if this was the first place I saw the 1/3 pale/amber/brown or blown malt but I liked that recipe. I fool around with home malting and brewed an Olde Style Porter.

...From what I have read and heard, there really are no good records on how the brown malt was created...

Earlier chapters in the book linked above discuss malting various types of malt and this is just one of the sources to do so.

I'll include pics of the malted grains and finished beer:

 

[kingwood-kid]

All About Brown Porter: http://perfectpint.blogspot.com/2011/12/making-diastatic-brown-malt.html

Making Historic Brown Malt: http://perfectpint.blogspot.com/2011/12/making-diastatic-brown-malt.html

Not my blog, but I'll pimp it anyway.

 

[JoeHoffman]

Wow thanks both of you this is really good stuff, love the old book on line ill be reading this tonight.


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[JoeHoffman]

some of my home roasted malts have come out well but I have no idea about the diestatic power of them and I would hate to wast a whole brew on half my grist not performing. You know of any way to test this on a small scale before going big


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[The_Professor]

View attachment 205026some of my home roasted malts have come out well but I have no idea about the diestatic power of them and I would hate to wast a whole brew on half my grist not performing. You know of any way to test this on a small scale before going big...

I figure there are 3 categories when looking at diastatic power.
Unable to convert itself (or lower), able to convert itself, and enough to convert itself plus added malt with low or no diastatic power.

I get the same numbers using my homemade malt as "2 row" in brewing calculators. So I assume the diastatic power is similar. Fairly high for pale malt, and lower for more modified malts. Anything that is able to convert itself can be used at 100%.

 

[JoeHoffman]

Right you are I guess I just need to give it a try, thanks


Pleas excuse my dyslexia

 

[kingwood-kid]

I always assume that anything I roast myself has no diastatic power, although I may be wrong about that. Mostly I assume a DP of zero so that when I formulate the recipe I'm not going to have problems converting. If you want to test it, you can do a mini-mash (and quick boil) of just the brown, then see how far the gravity drops when you add yeast. Since you're not looking to actually drink this experiment, you can wildly overpitch and ferment at 80 degrees to move things along.

 

[tootal]

If you want a brown that's a little "nutty" you can replace the brown malt with Special B. It's a Belgiun malt that's similar but the flavor is better in my opinion. If you're trying to make the most authentic Brown you can then don't use this. Don't even think about it.