Coupla Questions About My Upcoming Porter

[jonathanderick]

Hey y'all. Finally I got myself a job, which means I have money to blow on homebrewing! I'm not kidding; I just spent my first paycheck on some ingredients and a new wort chiller.

For my second brew, I'm going with a chocolate raspberry porter. Seems appropriate for the holidays and this uncharacteristically chilly California winter.

First of all, I'd like to ask y'all if there are any particular nuances for brewing a porter. I've read and reread my recipe and other people's recipes, and I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Second, I'd like to state that I want my beer to have distinct chocolate notes. For this five-gallon batch, I'm using 0.5 lbs of Crystal Malt and 0.5 of Pale Chocolate, but I can't help but entertain my imagination's desire to throw in a bar of Hershey's. If I were to throw in actual chocolate, how and when would I go about adding it?

Oh and thirdly, light dry hopping: yay or nay?

Thanks in advance. For those of you wondering, here's my bill:

• 3 lbs. - Amber Dry extract
• 3 lbs. - Dark Dry extract
• 0.5 lbs - Crystal Malt - 75L
• 0.5 lbs - Pale Chocolate Malt
• 1 oz - Target
• 1 oz - Fuggle

 

[LKABrewer]

I have a chocolate cherry porter that just took a gold medal. I used 4oz of hersheys cocoa with 5 minutes left in the boil. Keep in mind that the cocoa will add a little bitterness, so hop accordingly. I would skip any late hop additions, as they will compete with the chocolate and fruit.

 

[ashplub]

I have had good success with cocoa powder also. I put 2 oz in at the last 5 mins in a stout with 1lb pale choc and it was perfectly chocolatly. I would try 4 oz like LKA did. How are you going to get the rasperries in the beer?

 

[Boy]

Brown malt is incredible for porters. A mid to higher mash temp will give you the body you need. I would actually go for chocolate malt over the pale chocolate if you want the flavor. Franco Belges 60L has one of the most incredible fresh carmel roasting on the stove flavors I have found. Wonderful with the chocolate.

IMHO the darker/bitter chocolate flavors of chocolate malt will come through stronger than the lighter/milk chocolate flavors of pale chocolate. I know Jamil swear by it, but I would look into the brown malt he also mentions before the pale chocolate.

 

[jonathanderick]

Just a little update:

Brewing went pretty smoothly, especially using the new wort chiller. I ended up throwing in 4 oz of Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa during the last five minutes of the boil.

I have two new concerns with the beer-to-be, though:

First, my yeast was thrown into the primary after about two hours after I removed it from the fridge. When I threw it in, it was still a bit chunky. I shook it up as best I could, having it break up into little yeast crumbs.

Second, there's only about 4 gallons in the primary, maybe a little more. I'm oggling it right now, and there's some healthy krausen collecting at the top of the wort. I'm just worried that there may be too much air/empty space in the primary for the yeast to react with the wort with its fullest potential. It's definitely too late to throw in water now, but I was thinking of adding maybe a half gallon during secondary. Bad idea?

Thanks for the suggestions by the way. I needed a little push to be a bolder brewer. Your input definitely gave me a little confidence.

How am I adding the raspberry? I'm going to use a pestle and mortar to pulverize the raspberry. I feel like if I use my juicer, some of the raspberry stuff will get left out. I'm throwing it into my secondary. Not too sure if I'm going to use a bag or not.

 

[Calder]

Add water to primary or secondary if you really want to water down the brew. Maybe it's the right thing to do if it gets you back to your recipe. Whether you add it to the primary or the secondary, you need to boil the water for about 10 minutes to boil off the dissolved oxygen and then cool before adding to the fermenter. Oxygen after fermentation is started is bad.

For the raspberries. I usually freeze them (breaks down the cell walls to allow the yeast to get to the sugars). Then heat with a little water to between 150 and 160 F and keep at that temperature for 15 minutes. This temperature will pasteurize the fruit but not set the pectins.

 

[jonathanderick]

Water down? Pass.

As for adding raspberries, how did the fruit flavor come through in your brew? Tarty? Was it really hidden in the background of the beer flavors?

I like your idea, and I think I'll give it a go. This will be my first time trying a fruit addition, hence the amateurish notion that I could flavor the beer by throwing in fruits as if it were a smoothie. I've read some recipes and testimonies of some success with that strategy, but you've got science backing your idea, so I'm on board.

Just a question about after freezing, heating and pasteurizing the fruit: do you mash up or juice the raspberries? I'm assuming you let the pasteurized fruits cool to room temperature. Do you throw them in directly or do you put them in a muslin bag? Thanks.

 

[Boy]

For a porter you don't need to worry about clarity but you should worry about absorption and losing beer. I would lean towards bagging the fruit so you can strain it out and collect more for bottling.

 

[jonathanderick]

Another update:

So after seven days in the primary, fermenting appeared to be at a standstill, primed for secondary and a fruit addition. I ended up buying 2 lbs of fresh raspberries. They were frozen for one day prior to fermentor transfer night.

I thawed the raspberries for about four hours, threw them in a pot and added some water. I brought the everything to about 160-170 degrees F, keeping it there for 15 minutes, taking the advice of many online forum posts. The raspberries started to break down into mush, so I just figured might as well puree it and smashed it to smithereens with a spoon.

After letting it cool, I threw it into a Magic Bullet food processor to further pulverize it. At 70 degrees F, I poured it into the secondary and racked the primary over the fruit. Sealed it and now I'm keeping it at 65-70 degrees F. I'm positive that the first two days in the secondary saw to some active fermentation. Now, day four, I hear some bubbling every hour or so. I smell some of the raspberry through the airlock.

As I mentioned, this is the first time I've done a fruit addition. I consolidated the instruction of many online home brewers, and everything went smoothly. One thing, though: When I made my raspberry puree, I did not include that much water, resulting in a mushy, smoothie-like puree. Racking onto the mushy puree was a bit difficult as the puree just sat on top of the racked beer because of their densities.

For those thinking of pureeing fresh fruits, consider this. I kind of wish I added more water so the puree would have mixed better with the wort.

Some questions:

• I've read some posts saying that you shouldn't leave your beer and fruit in the secondary for more than 3-5 days. Something about the fruit tastes getting too overpowering. I'm using raspberries, which I've heard can really come through in a beer. Should I go to tertiary after 5 days? The original plan was 1.5 weeks, then 1 week in tertiary.
  
• What's a good target temperature for a secondary with a fruit addition and low-activity fermentation?
  
• Do you think I lost flavor or aroma from mushing and grinding it up?

Thanks y'all.

 

[Calder]

You should be fine. The freezing action actually breaks down the cell walls, and you do not need to mash the fruit.

Lower temperatures are probably best for fruit additions, but need to ensure you do not go below the recommended yeast temperature.

How long on fruit? I don't think you can extract too much flavor. Biggest risk is if there are a lot of tannins in the fruit (grape skins), that you might extract too much tannin with extended time on the fruit. Raspberries should be fine. Don't be worried about leaving it too long. I have some Lambics going where they have been on fruit for almost 6 months.

You can go straight from the secondary to the bottling bucket. When you rack off the fruit, you might want to place a mesh bag around your siphon cane that you place in the secondary to prevent 'bits' passing into the bottling bucket. I use the 5 gallon paint bags from hardware stores; you can sanitize them, clean and re-use them. I also use them a lot for BIAB/partial-mash.

 

[jonathanderick]

Cool. Thanks Calder. That was everything I needed to sleep better at night.

 

[ashplub]

How is it?