• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

Flying Dog Imperial Porter Clone... With a twist!

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

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

mullimat

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
Messages
337
Reaction score
23
Location
Frederick
Well i have a lot of plans coming up for some batches to brew and one i wanted to do was this excellent porter i had when i went to the Flying dog brewery a few months ago. I found a clone recipe that i wanted to do however i also got a wild idea for a little twist. Something i have never tried before so we'll see how it goes. Anyways, my idea was to throw some oak chips soaked in either Jack Daniel's or Crown Royal into the secondary in addition to dry hopping. Any thoughts? Is this kinda overkill? Here is the recipe:

15.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 78.95 %
2.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 13.16 %
1.00 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.63 %

0.34 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (90 min) Hops 15.0 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 23.4 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 18.0 IBU
3.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
4.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 14 days)

1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale
 
where is flying dog? I have been wanting to brew an imperial porter and just haven't put a recipe together yet. Is that for a 5 gallon batch?

Thanks,

Eastside
 
As far as i know it's a 5 gallon recipe. I got the main recipe from someone on the forums about a month ago. I plugged the recipe into beersmith and if i put it as a 10 gallon batch my abv ends up on the soft side for what this is supposed to be. I know 4 oz. Cascade hops is kinda overkill but the beer is extremely hoppy anyways. I could cut down on the hops though. Maybe only dry hop with 2 or 3 oz. instead (or maybe only 1 oz even). What do you all think of what i should cut the hops down to? And still any thoughts on the oak chips? Is 1 oz. oak chips enough to notice a difference or should i add more?
 
As far as the oak chips go, FD also has the Barrel aged Gonzo. so it isn't a stretch at all, the brewery is already doing it :)
 
I'm considering brewing this for my next batch. I think it is a 6 gallon batch. Gonzo Imperial Porter is 7.8% ABV, when I plug the grain bill in to Beer Smith, with a 70% efficiency on a 6 gallon batch it esimates 7.5% ABV. If I drop it to a 5 gallon batch it jumps to 9.1% est ABV. I think I'm going to brew it as a 6 gallon batch, and I'm thinking of adding some espresso to the secondary. The reviews I've read indicate a coffee flavor. Have you brewed this yet? I would do a large dry hop for a beer with a high OG.

I found this on their website:

0986b4a00a149e07e7f2ecd2966567b2.png
 
I brewed this up about 2.5 weeks ago. It's finished fermenting but i'm just letting it sit for a little while. Probably going to put it in secondary this weekend. Just need to figure out which whiskey i'm going to soak the oak chips in. I want to do Jack Daniel's but my bro wants me to do Crown Royal. Hmm....
 
I brewed this up about 2.5 weeks ago. It's finished fermenting but i'm just letting it sit for a little while. Probably going to put it in secondary this weekend. Just need to figure out which whiskey i'm going to soak the oak chips in. I want to do Jack Daniel's but my bro wants me to do Crown Royal. Hmm....

Gotta be Old No. 7!!

Eastside
 
I'm about to brew a VERY similar clone of this possibly this weekend. Instead of the big dry hop i plan on soaking 6oz of crushed high grade coffee beans in vodka and add that to the keg. We'll see how it goes.
 
Came out really well actually given some small hiccups. My mash tun wasn't quite big enough so I had to deal with that and on top of it all I got a small infection but that actually somewhat helped the bitterness and it ended up coming out pretty good overall. The oak chips soaked in Jack Daniels also added a nice other dimension to it as well.
 
Anyone else brew this and can compare it to the actual? This is one of my fiances favorite beers and now that I finally love stouts and porters I want to surprise him with it.
 
This came the closet that I've made--but there was a certain level of roast missing. I subbed in Aromatic malt because I was missing the fruitiness of it the first batch I made, but I am thinking now that it is an issue of mashing temps rather than aromatic malt. Or maybe fermentation temps.

6 lb US 2 Row
5 lb Pilsner
1 lb Aromatic Malt
8 oz Crystal 120L
8 oz Chocolate Malt
2 oz Carafa II

.25 oz Chinook @ 90 min
.75 oz Chinook @ 60 min
1.00 oz Chinook @ 30 min
1 oz Cascade @ 10 min
2 oz Cascade @ 5 min
2 oz Cascade dry hop in primary.

Whitelabs California Ale, stepped up to a 2L starter. Fermented at 65-68 for a month, then bottled in bombers. Got better week by week until about the two month mark and then starting getting bland.

OG 1.081
FG 1.020
ABV: 8.1%
IBU: 40ish. Not sure how to calculate dry hopped IBUs.

Didn't do any oak chips, but this had enough smoke on its own, IMO.
 
This came the closet that I've made--but there was a certain level of roast missing.

Ditch the Carafa and go with Black Patent. You can add it just before mashout to reduce bitterness/astringency. If you do this, don't count its contribution to OG and make up the difference with base malt.
 
Also it looks like things have changed a bit...

ABV: 9.2%
Plato: 22
IBU's: 85
Specialty Malts: G.W. 120L Crystal, Chocolate, Black
Hops: Warrior, Northern Brewer, Cascade
Process: Double Porter recipe,
dry hopped with a
****load of Cascade hops.

~~~Even though it says 7.8% right above this information on their website.
 
My notes are sketchy. They literally say, "Lowish." This was when I was having trouble with my cooler tun. I'd guess starting at 154 and dropping down to 150 over an hour.
 
I assume the ABV of this beer has been increasing over the years to keep up with what it means in the marketplace to be "Imperial."

Imperial versions of beers usually benefit from a lower mash temperature than typical for the style to keep them from being too sweet.

The first post in this thread is the 8.2% ABV version of this recipe from BYO (minus the oak chips) and it suggested a mash temp of 152F, a 2H boil and fermentation at 70F.
 
I assume the ABV of this beer has been increasing over the years to keep up with what it means in the marketplace to be "Imperial."

Imperial versions of beers usually benefit from a lower mash temperature than typical for the style to keep them from being too sweet.

The first post in this thread is the 8.2% ABV version of this recipe from BYO (minus the oak chips) and it suggested a mash temp of 152F, a 2H boil and fermentation at 70F.

I've got one waiting for me at home and I curious what the actual ABV is.
 
Back
Top