Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Chocolate Oatmeal Porter

[Brewsef]

Dropped my vodka soaked vanilla beans in the 2ndary last night, going to bottle on the 13th and enjoy a few on Christmas day. So ready for this porter to be done!

 

[Brewsef]

I just soaked mine for about 3-4 hours in a shot of warm, sanitized H20 & a shot of vodka. looked about the same. toss it in and let er ride~

 

[FATC1TY]

I do the same, minus the water.

I have a glass dish that seals up nicely. I sanitize it and the lid. I spray my cutting board and knife with starsan, and my hands. I spritz the beans and then I cut them open. I'll split long ways, and then do 1-2 inch cuts to make them smaller. I'll scrap the insides a bit, wipe the "caviar" on the beans, and toss it all in the dish with enough bourbon, or vodka to cover them. I'll let it sit from the time I brew, till the time to add the vanilla. Makes an extremely strong, and ultra flavorful vanilla extract. I'll dump the whole thing, beans, and liquid in the primary/secondary.

This last batch I did of this porter, I boiled an older hard bean in the pot all broken up for the last 15 minutes. I added one extra bean for a total of 3 in the secondary.

My porter so far, uncarbed in the keg, is very tasty with a great vanilla finish to it. Very balanced with the roasty chocolate notes.

 

[nghtmre4u]

Well i am brewing this again this week. I tried one today and it still needs to carbonate more but wow the taste is fantastic just what i was looking for. This will be on tap here year round.

 

[FATC1TY]

Man, that looks pretty good!!

I also took a pull from the keg tonight. Been in there a week now, it taste really good with the changes I made to my original recipe.

I used Maris Otter for the base, as I wanted to see more malty biscuit come through, and I added another half pound of oats I think it was, as well as half a pound of pale chocolate malt. Kept everything the same.

It's pretty much carbed, and can't wait for it to settle in, as I know with time the head will become even creamier!

 

[FATC1TY]

FYI,

I cleaned up the original recipe a bit, and added the BS profile I have for the recipe of the most current one. Very, very tasty beer, I think! Should be easier to follow in this format.

It has a slightly, slightly higher OG, due to rounding off the base malt, but is the same recipe pretty much.

Smooth!

 

[nghtmre4u]

Thanks. This is the tastiest brew i ever done and the only one that I ever brewed again so soon. I have a couple brews I brew often but this has earned a designated tap.

 

[FATC1TY]

Thanks. This is the tastiest brew i ever done and the only one that I ever brewed again so soon. I have a couple brews I brew often but this has earned a designated tap.

I'm flattered, for sure.

I love a good porter, and this is one that my wife will drink from time to time. I like a roasty bitter beer, and she likes the sweeter ones.. I think this blends it well enough to fit both wants perfectly.

 

[arod1975]

I'm going to be bottling this in a couple days, what would be better for priming...corn sugar or DME? I have both so neither is a bother. Just curious.

 

[FATC1TY]

I'm going to be bottling this in a couple days, what would be better for priming...corn sugar or DME? I have both so neither is a bother. Just curious.

I'd say corn sugar personally.

 

[FATC1TY]

Coming along nice.. This is the head after 3 minutes poured from my tap.

 

[nghtmre4u]

Brewing this again tomorrow so I have one ready when this keg goes. I love this beer.

Nice lacing too.

 

[FATC1TY]

Man, that looks good.. The lacing and head get insane after it's aged a bit.

Good looking beer!

 

[kodyind]

This beer is a GREAT base Porter. Has a very, very balanced profile to it. Very drinkable, even among people who are afraid of dark beers!


Recipe: ALL GRAIN

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.68 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.061 SG
Estimated Color: 42.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 67.6 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 11.3 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.6 %
11.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.2 %
8.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt Grain 6 3.8 %
6.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 7 2.8 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 21.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 11.4 IBUs
2.00 oz Dutch Cocoa Powder
1.10 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
1.0 pkg London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124. Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 5.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 18.64 qt of water at 163.5 F 153.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.02gal, 4.09gal) of 168.0 F water




I fermented mine out, and added 2 vanilla beans to secondary. Added a great finish to the beer. If you want more chocolate flavor, up the addition, but I think 2 oz is enough to give a hint to it, but not overpower it.

This is a great beer, not extremely chewy, but has plenty of smoothness to it that it slide down easy.. Very easy drinker.


I get compliments on this all the time, and have converted plenty of people who aren't craft drinkers and who think dark beers are scary.. They tell me that are indeed scary.. but scary good!!

I am new to AG, this sounds like a great recipe and i want to try it but i have one question about the sparge, can you tell me what you mean but a 2 step sparge

thanks
Jim

 

[FATC1TY]

I am new to AG, this sounds like a great recipe and i want to try it but i have one question about the sparge, can you tell me what you mean but a 2 step sparge

thanks
Jim

Certainly.

The easiest way, and you'll have to experiment as you go for efficiency reasons, but generally you can do as follows. Also, I'd suggest finding out how much you boil off in an hour in your pot. Plain water is fine. Boil up a known amount.. say, 5 gallons of water, time it and measure it out what you have left.

Get your mash water to the correct temp. If you want to mash at 153, you'd be looking at around 164 or so to hit that temp in a cooler roughly.. Add water, check temp, then add your grains while stirring. Mash it for 60-70 minutes, stir it once or twice in that time, quickly, and covering it back up so as to not lose any heat.

When you are ready to sparge, drain into a pitcher until the runnings clear up, meaning it's not as cloudy, and no grain coming through. Empty the cooler into your boil kettle.

Some people mash out, where they raise the temp of the bed to help make the sugars more fluid. I rarely if ever mash out, and find little to no difference when I do, as I'm generally heating my first runnings while I'm sparging. They will add enough water to their mash tun and stir before draining to get the temp of the grain right up to 168-170.

So, back to draining the mash tun.. By now you should have already heated your sparge water, to 175-180. Don't worry about tannin extraction, as your grain bed won't get that hot, and hot that long. You can add ALL the water at once, bring the temp up to the desired 168-170, stir it well. I like to give it 5 minutes to settle, and then vorlauf and drain the whole thing.


So recap:

Find out your boil off rate. I have a 12g pot, and use a strong outdoor gas burner. I generally shoot in most recipes, to have roughly 7.25 g PRE BOIL for a 60 minute boil. So like half a gallon an hour burn off. So this is a 90 minute boil, so figure to lose 1.25/1.50 gallons. Start with more, and you boil it down to hit your numbers right.

You'll heat your water to the right temp, add the grain and mash.

Heat your sparge water, drain your tun after 60 minutes, and then you'll need roughly 5 more gallons of water to sparge with. Heat that to 170-180, and I'd say for the sake of easy, just toss it all in the cooler after it's drained, stir and drain.

Your done.. Proceed with your 90 min boil as you would during extract and add the hops when you are suppose to!

Goodluck- post back if you need some more help.

 

[kodyind]

Certainly.

The easiest way, and you'll have to experiment as you go for efficiency reasons, but generally you can do as follows. Also, I'd suggest finding out how much you boil off in an hour in your pot. Plain water is fine. Boil up a known amount.. say, 5 gallons of water, time it and measure it out what you have left.

Get your mash water to the correct temp. If you want to mash at 153, you'd be looking at around 164 or so to hit that temp in a cooler roughly.. Add water, check temp, then add your grains while stirring. Mash it for 60-70 minutes, stir it once or twice in that time, quickly, and covering it back up so as to not lose any heat.

When you are ready to sparge, drain into a pitcher until the runnings clear up, meaning it's not as cloudy, and no grain coming through. Empty the cooler into your boil kettle.

Some people mash out, where they raise the temp of the bed to help make the sugars more fluid. I rarely if ever mash out, and find little to no difference when I do, as I'm generally heating my first runnings while I'm sparging. They will add enough water to their mash tun and stir before draining to get the temp of the grain right up to 168-170.

So, back to draining the mash tun.. By now you should have already heated your sparge water, to 175-180. Don't worry about tannin extraction, as your grain bed won't get that hot, and hot that long. You can add ALL the water at once, bring the temp up to the desired 168-170, stir it well. I like to give it 5 minutes to settle, and then vorlauf and drain the whole thing.


So recap:

Find out your boil off rate. I have a 12g pot, and use a strong outdoor gas burner. I generally shoot in most recipes, to have roughly 7.25 g PRE BOIL for a 60 minute boil. So like half a gallon an hour burn off. So this is a 90 minute boil, so figure to lose 1.25/1.50 gallons. Start with more, and you boil it down to hit your numbers right.

You'll heat your water to the right temp, add the grain and mash.

Heat your sparge water, drain your tun after 60 minutes, and then you'll need roughly 5 more gallons of water to sparge with. Heat that to 170-180, and I'd say for the sake of easy, just toss it all in the cooler after it's drained, stir and drain.

Your done.. Proceed with your 90 min boil as you would during extract and add the hops when you are suppose to!

Goodluck- post back if you need some more help.

Thanks this has helped alot

Jim

 

[Brewsef]

Bottled my batch after ten days of dry hopping w/ the vanilla beans and it was a holiday success. Gave 2-3 bottles each to friends, family and co-workers. Everyone LOVED the brew. Turned out a little bit more transparent than the pics you guys have posted, and a slightly bubblier head (not as thick and creamy) I'll post the changes I made and the picture when I get a nice shot of it.

Next time I'm just going to up the dark grains by about 1/2 lb and toss in another 1/2 lb of flaked oats. Other than that, I would drink this one all fall and winter, every year.

Great recipe

 

[FATC1TY]

Bottled my batch after ten days of dry hopping w/ the vanilla beans and it was a holiday success. Gave 2-3 bottles each to friends, family and co-workers. Everyone LOVED the brew. Turned out a little bit more transparent than the pics you guys have posted, and a slightly bubblier head (not as thick and creamy) I'll post the changes I made and the picture when I get a nice shot of it.

Next time I'm just going to up the dark grains by about 1/2 lb and toss in another 1/2 lb of flaked oats. Other than that, I would drink this one all fall and winter, every year.

Great recipe

I updated the recipe to the changes that I had made myself. I upped the base a wee bit, and also the oats. I added in some pale chocolate malt as well. I believe the only change was 1/2 # more oats, and 1/2# Pale Chocolate malt. If you want a darker color, you could up the Black Patent a bit, but becareful with it. You could also maybe keep it the same and up the Chocolate malt, the 450 color a bit more if you wished.

I personally have never had a problem getting this black as night color from it as is.

Try the updated version, it sounds like what you had envisioned. It's a bit maltier, more robust if you will, with a bit more subtle milky chocolate profile.

I would also advise anyone that does water additions to shoot for a London profile as well.

 

[thedevanzoshift]

Bottled this beer back on 12/11 using 1 cup of corn sugar. Batch size was 5.5 gallons and my carbonation is consistent but it's still rather flat with just a quarter inch head that dissipates quickly. Taste is great just wish there was a bit more carbonation. Anyone else have experience bottling this recipe? If so how long did your bottles take to carb and how much dextrose did you use? Bottles have been kept at a constant 65-70 degree

 

[FATC1TY]

I don't bottle anymore, and didn't bottle but a couple of batches.. Is that enough to carb it? I carb mine to roughly 2.2 volumes in my keg, and like where it's at. Too high, and the beer will appear thin and have a bite to it. Too low, and obviously it'll feel extra thick and won't hold a good head.

 

[birtsbrew21]

Hey all i just brewed an 11 gallon batch of this just wanted to check it. looked like motor oil coming out of my mash tun. GREAT!! can't wait for this to be ready. My S.G was 1.058 so i was pretty close to the recipe specs. here are two pics from my brew day, little close to the top of my kettle but i had a nice slow rolling boil so it was all good!

 

[FATC1TY]

Looks good to me!!


I still have a bit of this on tap and man it's holding up well.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

[Loodachris]

I have been looking for a good Coffee Chocolate Vanilla Porter recipe for a while and I think I will use this as a base for my next brew. Is there a place that sells the Dutch Cocoa powder somewhat cheap or should I just use the Hersheys type? Is there a difference? I found a seller on Ebay that does 2oz packages for $3.00 but I don't know if there is a difference in taste vs the Hersheys

 

[meck1842]

I just did this BIAB for my first go around at an all grain attempt. My OG was pretty low at 1.050. I added closer to 4 oz. of cocoa powder as I wanted it to be pretty high on chocolate flavor. Also, I mashed pretty high at 155-156 with a 170 degree mash out. It was really thick going into the fermenter, but I'm hoping that it will thin out a touch over fermentation. Hopefully it turns out well.

Also, as a warning to those using a kettle with a SS braid or similar filter, cocoa makes it nearly impossible to drain. My braid got so messy with cocoa that it wouldn't drain at all, so I ended up just taking it off and draining without filtering (I use hop socks so it wasn't terrible).

 

[FATC1TY]

I have been looking for a good Coffee Chocolate Vanilla Porter recipe for a while and I think I will use this as a base for my next brew. Is there a place that sells the Dutch Cocoa powder somewhat cheap or should I just use the Hersheys type? Is there a difference? I found a seller on Ebay that does 2oz packages for $3.00 but I don't know if there is a difference in taste vs the Hersheys

Not really sure. I try and use the highest quality or something that is a favorite in my beers. Small batch anyways, the extra money for ingredients isn't going to kill me.

I've used the stuff from the LHBS before in a pinch and it was fine. I'm sure the hersheys will works just as well if you like it.

My favorite is some stuff in a can from Whole Foods, I'm out of it currently, so I can't pass the name along.

 

[FATC1TY]

I just did this BIAB for my first go around at an all grain attempt. My OG was pretty low at 1.050. I added closer to 4 oz. of cocoa powder as I wanted it to be pretty high on chocolate flavor. Also, I mashed pretty high at 155-156 with a 170 degree mash out. It was really thick going into the fermenter, but I'm hoping that it will thin out a touch over fermentation. Hopefully it turns out well.

Also, as a warning to those using a kettle with a SS braid or similar filter, cocoa makes it nearly impossible to drain. My braid got so messy with cocoa that it wouldn't drain at all, so I ended up just taking it off and draining without filtering (I use hop socks so it wasn't terrible).

Good note on the cocoa. I don't have a filter on my kettle, as I use a SS hop spider.

What little hops are in this recipe, coupled with the cocoa, all of it could go into the fermenter and you'd really have so very little in the bottom.

I've never brewed in a bag before, but this recipe will have a good rich mouthfeel to it, but it won't be like a beer milkshake!

 

[FATC1TY]

Brewing another batch of this up this weekend. Gonna continue to tweak it a bit. Pretty sure the changes will be good!

 

[FATC1TY]

Mashing in now on this.

Same recipe I posted in the 1st post, except I removed the Black Patent malt, and instead decided to use 4oz of Debittered Black Malt.

Used English Chocolate malt, and Pale Chocolate malt in it as well. Just clarify for those searching for specific Chocolate Malts.

Going to add 3oz of some great chocolate powder at 20 minutes, debating adding peanut butter powder to the boil, and then adding some to secondary and racking on some broken peanut butter cups for a couple of days as fermentation is ending...

Maybe a #1 of peanut butter... Have a nice Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut butter Porter for the spring!

Mmm.. Good smelling mash!

Draining the tun. Motor oil goodness!

 

[nghtmre4u]

Last time I made this I added 1/2 pound honey malt and it added a great taste I compared to bottle of original recipe and its a nice touch. The peanut butter sounds great

 

[FATC1TY]

Last time I made this I added 1/2 pound honey malt and it added a great taste I compared to bottle of original recipe and its a nice touch. The peanut butter sounds great

Wow, thats alot of honey malt!

I'm gonna do .5# of peanut butter with 3 oz of chocolate powder to the boil. Skip the vanilla bean this go around, and dry hop it with Reese PB Cups near the end of primary next week.