Critique my new year's porter

[carloslavin]

Hi everyone, I need some critique/assistance/assurance on a recipe I dessigned to be our new year's eve beer. I've been brewing for a while, but don't have much expertise in putting my own recipes together. I got heavy inspiration from other recipes I had seen for this one.

I guess you could call it a bit stronger robust porter. The idea for 5 gallons is:

10.5# 2 row (72%)
1.5# Munich (10%)
1# C75 (7%)
12oz Chocolate Malt (5%)
6oz Black Malt (3%)
6oz Brown Sugar (3%)

1oz EKG @15min
.5oz Willamette @0min
Whatever Magnum @60min I need for 35IBUs

OG: 1.075
FG: 1.015
ABV: 8.3%
Yeast: US-05
IBUs: 35
SRM: 35


The thing I'm going for is something malty and a little roasty, not too sweet as some heavier winter beers usually end up being. Nice sipper for new year's. I know winter beers usually have spices on them, but I'm not a super fan so rather omit them. I'd be cooking it in the next few days to give it some months of conditioning.

I'm also thinking about adding 4-6oz of coarsely ground coffee at flameout, letting it steep for 5-10 minutes before cooling. I once made a (smaller) robust porter with coffee at flameout and my friends seemed to really dig it.

Any critique on this is much appreciated

 

[Jwin]

If you like coffee, consider trying coffee malt sometime. It's at the lighter realm of the roasted spectrum. Even less than chocolate malt. Imparts that smooth creamy flavor of a good cup of joe, as well as some chocolate and a bit of nuttiness. No Ash or astringency at all. I make an imperial Porter with exclusively coffee malt. I use 7# in 11g iirc. Aside from that, it's just 2 row, dextrin malt and a blend of Crystal malts.
In regards to your recipe, lots fine to me. I use dextrin malt to add mouth feel, and mash low to ensure that it doesn't finish sweet. My best batch of my recipe so far was a single infusion at 149, using Pacman. 1.077->1.012 or so. Good creamy mouth feel, but not slick like I can find oats to be at times.

 

[carloslavin]

If you like coffee, consider trying coffee malt sometime. It's at the lighter realm of the roasted spectrum. Even less than chocolate malt. Imparts that smooth creamy flavor of a good cup of joe, as well as some chocolate and a bit of nuttiness. No Ash or astringency at all. I make an imperial Porter with exclusively coffee malt. I use 7# in 11g iirc. Aside from that, it's just 2 row, dextrin malt and a blend of Crystal malts.
In regards to your recipe, lots fine to me. I use dextrin malt to add mouth feel, and mash low to ensure that it doesn't finish sweet. My best batch of my recipe so far was a single infusion at 149, using Pacman. 1.077->1.012 or so. Good creamy mouth feel, but not slick like I can find oats to be at times.

Some good ideas! I'll consider swapping some malt out for some Carapils. Guess you can't have *too* much mouthfeel in a winter sipper.

I had also considered mashing lower than my usual dark beers (152ish) and added the sugar so that it would end up with a lower FG. I dread what I think of as the typical RIS sweetness, although that probably starts showing itself until you're in the 1.09+ range. I'll consider lowering those 153 even further.

As for the Coffee malt, that's definitely on my to-try list (along with Brown malt), but I think I'll get more familiar with that malt before using it in a bigger beer. I have a London porter in line for the Brown malt, I think a smaller porter with the same idea as your imperial one would be a good way for me to get familiar with what the Coffee malt brings to the table.

Thanks for the input