Can you Brew It recipe for Deschutes Black Butte Porter

[EricCSU]

All recipes are 6 gallons post-boil (6 gallons post boil > 5.5 gallons in the fermenter > 5 gallons in bottling bucket/keg), 70% efficiency, Morey for color, 15% evaporation, Rager IBU, and most hops are in grams not ounces. Most, if not all recipes are primary only (no secondary).

If you have brewed this, please reply with your results and discussion.

OG 1058
FG 1012
37 IBUs
27.6 SRM

WLP002

90 minute boil [Tasty always does a 90 minute boil, he says it works better for his system]

10.58 lbs pale malt
1.39 lbs wheat malt
0.7 lbs crystal 80
0.42 lbs american chocolate 400l
0.42 lbs english chocolate malt 300-350l
0.42 lbs carapils

0.60 oz galena at 13%AA at 90min (can use nugget too)
0.25 oz cascade at 5.75%AA at 15min
0.25 oz mt. hood at 5.2%AA at 5min (can use tettnanger too)

Increased Ca to 129ppm

Fermented at 64F

Mashed at 130F for 10 minutes
Then 156F for 60 minutes
Then 168F for 10 minutes
Sparged at 170F for 45 minutes

 

[suhornet84]

I brewed this last month but I had to make a few changes to the recipe because my LHBS did not have C*80 or British Chocolate. I think it turned out great, Black Butte is by far my favorite porter and I wanted to have it on tap since I can't get it in VA. I wonder how much difference the British chocolate would have made... I'll post a side by side and more comparisons soon with one of the BBs I had my brother mail me

Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.048 - 1.065)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.012 - 1.016)
Color: 23.06 (22.0 - 35.0)
Alcohol: 5.86% (4.8% - 6.5%)
Bitterness: 36.5 (25.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
8.46 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
1.11 lb White Wheat Malt
0.68 lb Chocolate Malt
0.50 lb American Caramel 60°L
0.30 lb American Caramel 120°L
0.34 lb Cara-Pils® Malt
.6 oz Galena (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 90 min
.4 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
.4 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min

 

[bierhaus15]

I brewed this recipe a while ago and was pretty happy with the results. I have had the real stuff before and its pretty darn similar. not my favorite porter by any means, but if you really want black butte, then the original posted recipe is gold.

 

[kedash]

Hi, I am getting ready to brew this and I just listened to part of the Podcast again. Tasty states the Cascade addition is at 30 minutes and you have it at 15 minutes on the recipe listed here.

I was curious if there was a reason you put it at 15 min. Is that what the brewer stated and Tasty stated it wrong?

Anyway, no biggy, but thought you might want to edit the recipe here if it is incorrect.

Thanks!

 

[EricCSU]

Hi, I am getting ready to brew this and I just listened to part of the Podcast again. Tasty states the Cascade addition is at 30 minutes and you have it at 15 minutes on the recipe listed here.

I was curious if there was a reason you put it at 15 min. Is that what the brewer stated and Tasty stated it wrong?

Anyway, no biggy, but thought you might want to edit the recipe here if it is incorrect.

Thanks!

You are correct, it is 30 minutes.

Thanks for the correction.

I wish I could edit it, but the forum administrator does not allowed old posts to be edited. That feature would be really useful, but they refuse to allow it.

Eric

 

[kedash]

Thanks for the update. I see an edit button on my post and have edited posts of mine before. I wonder why you can't? I just let my subscription run out, but I plan on renewing it this weekend. I wonder if it is a paid subscription thing? With all the work here, I will donate to your subscription if you don't already have one and I bet some other folks would too. More later.

You are correct, it is 30 minutes.

Thanks for the correction.

I wish I could edit it, but the forum administrator does not allowed old posts to be edited. That feature would be really useful, but they refuse to allow it.

Eric

 

[kedash]

The other thing that is weird about this recipe is it states that the OG is 1.058 and the FG is 1.012. That would be an apparent attenuation of 78.4%

78.4% is WELL OVER the 70% max. stated by White Labs on their website for WLP002. Does the fact that I am making a starter matter? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this question for me.

 

[EricCSU]

The other thing that is weird about this recipe is it states that the OG is 1.058 and the FG is 1.012. That would be an apparent attenuation of 78.4%

78.4% is WELL OVER the 70% max. stated by White Labs on their website for WLP002. Does the fact that I am making a starter matter? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this question for me.

Take a look at posts you have made months ago. You probably can't edit them. There is a time limit (not sure what it is) to editing.

As far as attenuation, I wouldn't worry about the numbers as much as the flavor. And the White Labs info are just guidelines. I used 007 to get a batch from 1067 to 1010, and it had 4% carapils and 4% C-75.

Eric

Eric

 

[kedash]

Good info. Thank you.

 

[kedash]

I recently brewed this. I would say that it is "spot on!"

Tonight, several of us compared it side by side to the real McCoy. One of the people doing the comparison is about to be BJCP certified and won our club's homebrew competition for 2009.

Anyway, he originally guessed that our beer was the real Black Butte Porter.

After a while, he thought this recipe had a little more coffee flavor and the store bought BB Porter had more chocolate flavor.

Either way, I'm posting this to say that this is a very accurate clone recipe and the color is spot on.

You won't be disappointed if you brew this.

 

[bolts]

I've brewed this recipe twice now (tweak it the second time). We've also done triangle tastings and our version of it is not the same. We got more "english fruity" esters and less roasty notes in both the aroma and the taste. That said, the latest batch won best-of-show out of ~30 brews. It's a very nice beer.

I would be curious why we don't get the same roast notes from our brew vs the real thing. We've used both US and UK chocolate malts both times -- the second batch we bumped it up a touch.

http://hopville.com/recipe/331265/brown-porter-recipes/porter-2010-09-09-version
http://hopville.com/recipe/138063/robust-porter-recipes/porter

 

[BSBrewer83]

I've brewed this recipe twice now (tweak it the second time). We've also done triangle tastings and our version of it is not the same. We got more "english fruity" esters and less roasty notes in both the aroma and the taste. That said, the latest batch won best-of-show out of ~30 brews. It's a very nice beer.

I would be curious why we don't get the same roast notes from our brew vs the real thing. We've used both US and UK chocolate malts both times -- the second batch we bumped it up a touch.

http://hopville.com/recipe/331265/brown-porter-recipes/porter-2010-09-09-version
http://hopville.com/recipe/138063/robust-porter-recipes/porter

I just recently had a similar issue with this clone. My brew had more of a "creamier" taste to it. The commercial version was a "crisper" taste. I am thinking that using WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast would be closer.

 

[EricCSU]

I just recently had a similar issue with this clone. My brew had more of a "creamier" taste to it. The commercial version was a "crisper" taste. I am thinking that using WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast would be closer.

Have you tried altering the carbonation levels?

Eric

 

[BSBrewer83]

Have you tried altering the carbonation levels?

Eric

I didnt try and unfortunately i had a party and killed the keg. I think it was around 12psi. Would increasing the carb level have that much of an effect? It was about 40f.

 

[EricCSU]

I didnt try and unfortunately i had a party and killed the keg. I think it was around 12psi. Would increasing the carb level have that much of an effect? It was about 40f.

Carbonation can play a significant role in mouthfeel. I am not saying that was your issue, but it would be an easy way to tweak it.

According to this table, your carbonation level is about 2.4 volumes, which should be all right, but I would still play with it a little. Taste it, increase one psi, wait a day, then try it again.

Eric

 

[BSBrewer83]

Carbonation can play a significant role in mouthfeel. I am not saying that was your issue, but it would be an easy way to tweak it.

According to this table, your carbonation level is about 2.4 volumes, which should be all right, but I would still play with it a little. Taste it, increase one psi, wait a day, then try it again.

Eric

Thanks for the advice! On my next keg I will play with it a bit.

 

[bolts]

Have you tried altering the carbonation levels?

Eric

Great advice. I too will give this a try on some remaining bottles and future batches.

Is there any data to support losing toasty notes in the aroma based on fermentation method? I would swear there is a touch of black patent in the real thing. I'm going to try fermenting even lower next time if WLP002 will let me. I'm taking the brewery tour tomorrow (every time I go to bend). I'll see if they can shed light on it.

 

[ChiechiBrouw]

I was in the US last month and had the opportunity to stop by the Deschutes brewpub in Portland, where they had a cask porter on tap that was very similar to Black Butte, but with a lovely dried-fruit character and a very full body. The head brewer said he used Ringwood Ale yeast, so I thought it would be fun to give it a try myself.

Since I have only limited access to American ingredients, I brewed this using Marris Otter for the base malt, English chocolate and English light chocolate for the chocolate malts, English wheat malt, and Belgian cara 120 EBC instead of Crystal 80. And, of course, Ringwood Ale yeast. Everything else was to spec (including the protein rest), except I overshot the OG a touch. FG was 1.018.

I let it sit in the fermenter (20-22 °C) for two weeks to give a bit of a diacetyl rest, as is suggested for Ringwood Ale yeast, and then kegged it straight from the fermenter. After carbonating to 2.4 volumes and letting it sit in the fridge for about 36 hours, this is one of the best beers that I have every tasted. Ever. It is just phenomenal.

I haven't had a Black Butte in a while, but I would say that it fruitier, with a bit more body, but overall even better than the Real Thing. :rockin:

 

[jlpred55]

I notice the recipe that is given on the website for Deschutes lists Chocolate Wheat Malt and not a blend of english and american chocolate. That is likely the ticket to get that more creamy roast chocolate thing. I've been using Chocolate wheat in all my porters since my LHBS started carrying it. I believe it is superior in flavor to regular chocolate malts. It definately has less of the nutty roast coffee character of reg choc and more acutal chocolate flavor. I also didn't know how close my Porter recipe is as well. Bascially 10lbs 2 row, 2lbs Munich 7L, 1.4 Simpsons Crystal 50-60L, 1lb Chocolate Wheat. 60min- 1oz Willamette and .50oz EKG, 30min .50 EKG. I use either 1968 or 1056 depending upon what I have in a slurry at the time. Both are great beers with the 1968 being more indepth flavor, but mash temp is crucial to get the right attenuation depending upon which yeast I use.

 

[HopSong]

Is there an extract recipe for this???

 

[EricCSU]

Is there an extract recipe for this???

Look at the link in my signature.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[rockfish42]

Is there an extract recipe for this???

You'd have to mash the wheat malt which should self convert, or you could do a small mini-mash with some two-row.

 

[spenghali]

Anyone do a single infusion on this? If so, what did you mash at and what was your OG, FG and ferm temps? Brewing this on Monday, just curious if I should mash a little bit lower than the planned 152.

 

[Brew-ta-sauraus]

What yeast was used in the original recipe? White labs equivl please? ASLo web site says hps used are cascade, galena & tetnang differetn then the original recipe why?

 

[bolts]

Single infusion works fine, I mash at 152. FG is going to depend a lot on your fermentation (pitching rate, oxygen, temp). I get very high attenuation from WLP002 and don't have any trouble with this recipe -- that said, it can be finicky.

Interesting note about the Chocolate Wheat. I just adjusted my version of this recipe to reflect the chocolate wheat -- may have to try this soon.

http://hopville.com/recipe/1192395/brown-porter-recipes/porter-v4

 

[stoneyts]

When I lived near Bend this Black Butte Porter was my favorite beer and now that I m on the East Coast I miss it!!!! Has anyone actually done a very close clone doing extract? I just started brewing (only 1 batch so fat) but will want to do this one ASAP!!

 

[rockfish42]

When I lived near Bend this Black Butte Porter was my favorite beer and now that I m on the East Coast I miss it!!!! Has anyone actually done a very close clone doing extract? I just started brewing (only 1 batch so fat) but will want to do this one ASAP!!

You could replace the pale malt with extract, but you would have to remove the wheat malt as it needs mashing. Alternatively you could do a mini-mash.

 

[stoneyts]

Thanks rockfish! I'll have to keep this info ready to try after I've done a few more brews before I try alternate methods to all extract.

 

[GotPushrods]

I'm in the process of working out my recipe numbers to brew this tomorrow. It always surprises me that one of the most important aspects of these clones is rarely touched -- water.

All that the brewer said was that he "increases Calcium to 129 ppm". There is no doubt some other motive here, and this was probably his most vague response.

I did some digging and Bend, OR tends to have water around 20 ppm Ca. It will vary, but 1 to 1.5 grains is is about 17 to 25 ppm so let's use 20. There will also be some sulfate and chloride, but we know they will be fairly low.

Tasty, on CYBI, said he used all gypsum. I don't recall them asking the brewer HOW he adds Calcium.

IF you use all CaSO4 (gypsum) to get to 129 ppm Calcium, you'll increase sulfate by about 268 ppm.

IF you use all CaCl2, you'll increase chloride by 193 ppm.

Obviously, these are two VERY different beers. I don't generally like harsh, high sulfate hoppiness, but since

1. I really like Black Butte Porter
2. They thought it was cloned
3. It's only 37 Rager IBUs

...I just might do it. Well maybe split the difference with chloride and sulfate. And a little less after a small contribution from a bit of Ca(OH)2 for the alkalinity I'll need. So both will likely be in the 60-80 ppm range.

Any opinions?

 

[petree3]

How'd that come out?