American Porter Chinooklehead Porter

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

rhys333

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 27, 2013
Messages
3,291
Reaction score
1,775
Location
Edmonton
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
US-05
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.048
Final Gravity
1.013
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
23
Color
27 SRM. Nearly black with dark ruby highlights.
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 days. 66-68F
Tasting Notes
Chocolate flavor and aroma. Complex.
CHINOOKLEHEAD PORTER
55% 2 Row - 5.5 lbs
20% Wheat - 2 lb
10% C80 - 1 lb
10% Brown - 1 lb
5% Chocolate - 0.5 lb
0.25 oz Chinook @ 60 (12aa)
0.5 oz Chinook @ 15
US-05

First brewed during the deepest depths of a cold northern winter. And I mean COLD. The temperature outdoors was a bone-chilling -13F (-25C) on brew day. My hopes for a warming Chinook wind that day were dashed, but it was bright and sunny out so I decided to brew on. Since Mother Nature failed to deliver a Chinook, I decided to flavor my brew with its namesake and Chinooklehead Porter was born.

Expect a chocolatey malt aroma, complex flavors from the crystal and brown malts, plus excellent head retention and a medium to full body. Mash at 155F and use a balanced to malty water profile if possible as this seems to work best. It should taste complex in flavor rather than sweet, but if you prefer a lighter sweetness sub C40 in place of C80. It has proven to be very popular with the beer crowd as well as the I-don't-like-dark-beer crowd. It also plays well with fruit flavors. I haven't tried it yet, but I think the beer will go well with oak, chocolate, and spices.

:mug:

I'll get a better picture posted, but for now the giant glass:

image-0-02-02-fa21c247b12e60f05a710d4fd51c4c81943168b6b04acb7c5a14e7947ab953b4-V.jpg
 
This sounds like a winner to get through a cold winter! Thanks for sharing, I love chinook in stouts and porters!
Cheers, happy to share.


Can you taste the Chinook?
It's subtle, but there's a contribution so yes. The focus is on the malt though. A small dry hop could be interesting... I might try that on a future batch.
 
Put 5.5 gallons in the fermenter couple days ago. I figger after a week of primary tossing in about three ounces of oak cubes for a couple more weeks before bottling. Got the oak soaking in dark rum now. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

The oak addition sounds interesting.
 
Bottled today. Came in at an ABV of 4.75% with a nice flavor. Once it carbs up and the oak smoothes out for a couple weeks this should be real nice.
 
Tasted pretty good after a few weeks of bottle time. But with nearly a year of cold storage, its become smooth and delicious with a nice hint of oak character. I'm defiantly going to brew this one again. I'm really tempted to double the recipe and do it as a stout.
 
Tasted pretty good after a few weeks of bottle time. But with nearly a year of cold storage, its become smooth and delicious with a nice hint of oak character. I'm defiantly going to brew this one again. I'm really tempted to double the recipe and do it as a stout.


Funny you say that. I've been considering doing an imperial porter or stout version of it for Christmas.

Mine comes out smooth right away. I wonder if it's the oak that needs the extra aging time?
 
Thanks for sharing this recipe.

I don't like the bitter acrid taste of some porters. Is this one smooth ? Do you steep any of the grains or did you mash them all ?

What was your water profile ?

Did you check the mash pH ?

Did you need rice hulls because of the wheat ?

This seems too easy to make what sounds like a great tasting beer.
 
Thanks for sharing this recipe.

I don't like the bitter acrid taste of some porters. Is this one smooth ? Do you steep any of the grains or did you mash them all ?

What was your water profile ?

Did you check the mash pH ?

Did you need rice hulls because of the wheat ?

This seems too easy to make what sounds like a great tasting beer.

Thanks, and I'm happy to share it. And yes, it's a smooth porter. I mash all the grains (no steeping), and I do adjust water and measure pH. I like to get it close to 5.5 to round out the dark malt flavors. As for water profile, I just went for balanced, around 50ish for calcium and sulfate and then mid 60s for chloride. Also, I use the BIAB method, so no rice hulls.
 
Brewing it now. I keep thinking I scorched the wort because of the aroma. LOL.

20190217_205128.jpg
 
It is all up to the yeast now.

I added a bit of extra 2 row, because I spilled a bit milling and because I was worried about the specialty grains converting. OG is 1.060+.

I put 0.5 oz in at 60 minutes and 0.5 oz at 15 minutes.

Nothing scorched !

20190218_000050.jpg
 
Last edited:
It is proving to be a problem child during fermentation ! Blew the bubbler right out. Made quite a mess.

20190221_140856.jpg
 
So... this beer sat in the fermenter for 9 months. I kegged it and have been drinking it for the last month.

What a fantastic beer ! I haven't been to London in years to have a real London Porter, but I swear this is just like them. Nice coffee/raisiny flavor. Very little to no harsh acidic malt flavor. Not much hop flavor, but that could be because it was aged for so long and my hops were quite old. Big foamy head if you pour it fast. Malty, not sweet. Very clean. Very smooth. Friggin delicious. I love to have a big glass of it with dinner. Very easy to drink 3, they go down fast and easy. Sips well too.

I love dark beers in winter. I love the porters I drank in London. My previous goto winter beer was Granville Island's Winter Ale. I like this beer much better because it doesn't have that bitter roasted malt aftertaste, which sometimes turns me off of dark beers. I've searched long and hard for a dark commercial beer to drink in winter. Granville's Winter Ale was the best I found, but I never wanted more than one. I was a bit skeptical about brewing this beer because I was expecting a harsh dark malt aftertaste. But I was pleasantly surprised. This is my new goto winter beer. I'm totally thrilled with it. Best porter I've tasted outside of London, possibly as good as a London Porter.

I'll be brewing this again in late fall. Not sure if I'll change anything. Could have a bit more dark fruit flavor ? Tempting to make it stronger/heavier, of course, though that would make it less sessionable. Just a bit more hop flavor might be nice too. But it is excellent just the way it is.

Thanks to @rhys333 for sharing the recipe.
 
Last edited:
So... this beer sat in the fermenter for 9 months. I kegged it and have been drinking it for the last month.

What a fantastic beer ! I haven't been to London in years to have a real London Porter, but I swear this is just like them. Nice coffee/raisiny flavor. Very little to no harsh acidic malt flavor. Not much hop flavor, but that could be because it was aged for so long and my hops were quite old. Big foamy head if you pour it fast. Malty, not sweet. Very clean. Very smooth. Friggin delicious. I love to have a big glass of it with dinner. Very easy to drink 3, they go down fast and easy. Sips well too.

I love dark beers in winter. I love the porters I drank in London. My previous goto winter beer was Granville Island's Winter Ale. I like this beer much better because it doesn't have that bitter roasted malt aftertaste, which sometimes turns me off of dark beers. I've searched long and hard for a dark commercial beer to drink in winter. Granville's Winter Ale was the best I found, but I never wanted more than one. I was a bit skeptical about brewing this beer because I was expecting a harsh dark malt aftertaste. But I was pleasantly surprised. This is my new goto winter beer. I'm totally thrilled with it. Best porter I've tasted outside of London, possibly as good as a London Porter.

I'll be brewing this again in late fall. Not sure if I'll change anything. Could have a bit more dark fruit flavor ? Tempting to make it stronger/heavier, of course, though that would make it less sessionable. Just a bit more hop flavor might be nice too. But it is excellent just the way it is.

Thanks to @rhys333 for sharing the recipe.


Glad to hear you liked it! You could always do an ounce or so Chinook dry hop.
 
I also had the thought of adding some vanilla and/or roasted coconut to it.

I don't know why I am even thinking of changing it. It is great as it is. But I'm a homebrewer, so why not ?
 
I also had the thought of adding some vanilla and/or roasted coconut to it.

I don't know why I am even thinking of changing it. It is great as it is. But I'm a homebrewer, so why not ?

Either of those could work well. I'm interested to know how it turns out if you try it.

It's been a while since I've brewed it but I think I'm going to do it again this weekend. I have some Blackberry extract, so I might do an extra gallon and dose it with some of that.
 
I'll report back if I do.

I got the idea from a local bar that had a coconut porter on tap a couple years ago. it was tasty, but they stopped brewing it.

I've also got some frozen cherries in the freezer. Hmmm...
 
It crossed my mind to mention mash pH in relation to brewing this porter.

If you want to get the most out of it flavor-wise, I suggest targeting a mash pH of around 5.5. You'll get a very smooth and complex beer without any of the harshness sometimes associated with roasted grains.
 
Winter is coming and my keg is empty. Weather is crappy. Time to brew another batch.
 
Last edited:
I just kegged a second batch of this beer. It almost perfectly matches the first one I brewed and it's excellent.

I have several friends who "don't like" dark beers but love this one. Don't be in a hurry to drink it. Seems the longer it ages the more nutty, coffee, plum flavors it develops.

This is my go to winter session beer. There isn't any other dark beer I'd rather have in winter. My friends agree. They ask for it when they visit.

Thanks to @rhys333 for developing and sharing the recipe.
 
Last edited:
@rhys333 How did the Kveik batch turn out ? What temp did you ferment at ? What flavors did the yeast add ?


It turned out well. I fermented at about 85F and the yeast was neutral, or at least subtle enough to be covered by the malt flavors. It fermented slightly drier, but only by a point or two. You'd pick it up in a side-by-side, but otherwise probably not. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again in summer or if I wanted a quick turnaround.
 
Back
Top