Is My Porter Sufficiently Baltic

[AlexKay]

For 2.5 gallons:

2.5 lbs. English pale
2 lbs. Munich
2 lbs. Brown
0.3 lb. Crystal rye
0.3 lb. Simpsons DRC
0.3 lb. Carafa III Special
0.3 lb. chocolate rye

4 g Phoenix (11.8% AA) @ 60 min.
16 g Phoenix (11.8% AA) @ 5 min.

1.5 packs of W34/70

Strong porter made with lager yeast? Check. Anything else particularly Baltic about it? Nope.

I'm also specifically wondering if ~8% crystal is enough for a Baltic porter.

All comments welcome (especially if you get them in soon -- I'm brewing today.)

 

[Protos]

Overall, the recipe looks good.

I've never used Phoenix hop, but as long as it stands closer to Fuggle than to Cascade I'm ready to deem it a passable (but nothing more than passable) substitution for the Saazer-type hops which are required for this style traditionally.

8% of Crystal is fine but you are free to up it to somewhere of 12% for the added Balticity. Among the traditional Baltic Porter recipes I've seen, 25% of Crystal is not uncommon and 12% is a kind of standard. I've recreated once a historical Polish Baltic Porter recipe with 34% of Crystal and it turned out to be the most Baltic of many Baltic Porters I had ever brewed.

W34/70 is a solid choise for the task too.

The only really un-Baltic thing here, IMO, is the 7 varieties of grain. Baltic Porter is a flavour-intensive beer, so you don't want to muddle its taste up with a kitchensink grist, or the tiny conflicts between the flavours might become exagerrated and unpleasant. Also you don't need any Rye in an already Crystal-heavy, strong and chewy beer. And, finally, you don't need any Brown Malt. Brown Malt is a specifically English grain, you make perfect English top-fermented Porters with it, but no Baltics, because the Baltic Porter is a porter based on German (not English!) set of ingredients and brewing technologies.
So, the traditional grist for a Baltic Porter is limited to Pilsner, Dark Munchner, Dark Crystal and Black (or Chocolate) malts.

 

[AlexKay]

Lots of feedback! Thank you.

Phoenix is Goldings-like, except I get chocolate notes off of it, and together with chocolate rye it gets to a "I can't believe there's no chocolate in this beer" level of chocolate.

I used chocolate rye because it is huskless, more than because it is rye. And the crystal rye is also not because rye, but because I have some particularly good crystal rye and it is delicious.

Duly noted on the brown malt. And the crystal.

I may stick with this recipe, call it an English porter, and never mind that I'm using a lager yeast. Though it seems like it should have some more roast astringency for an English.

Or I could just go all-in on the English and use Windsor or London or Verdant; I've got all those handy. I was going to have this beer share a fermentation chamber with a rauchbier, so that plan would have to change.


Simpler (more Balticy?) grist:
3.5 lbs. Pilsner
3 lbs. Munich
1 lb. Crisp 77L
0.6 lb. Midnight wheat

and then some Saaz in there, 50/50 with the Phoenix. I've never used them in combination, but it sounds good.

 

[zasada]

There's also the matter of hops.
For baltic porter as a long-maturing beer, it is better to choose a variety with a balanced level of alpha and beta acids for good bitterness development over time. There is also the issue of trans-2-nonenal formed from alpha acids. Its descriptor is cardboard and therefore it is better to avoid varieties with a high level of them for beers intended for aging.

And I would give a fresh slurry instead of dry yeast. Do you have time to make 100% pilsner malt desitka?

 

[Protos]

I see no reasons here to switch your Baltic Porter project to an English Porter one. Everyone and his uncle is brewing an English Porter, while brewing a true Baltic Porter is a rare endeavour worth to accomplish.
Your first recipe (with the only exception of the Brown Malt) looks sufficiently Baltic to be called a Baltic Porter.
And your second updated recipe is even more spot on the style.

@zasada
Nice point regarding the hops. One really must to take into account the prolonged aging when choosing the hop varieties and calculating the bitterness. For my Baltic Porters, I also use dry strains, but never in dry form, I always ferment my Baltics on yeast cakes.
I doubt however that many readers here would understand the word desitka. Let me help them by translating the term as a beer of 10° Plato.

 

[acrowe]

I have never brewed a Baltic Porter, but 20 years ago in Chicago, at the same time as I was really getting more serious about brewing, after reading an article on them, I tried all the examples available there. Its a style I really like, and rarely get. I think I will try and brew one. I haven't been super happy with the few lagers I have made, but maybe being dark it'll be more forgiving for me.

 

[AlexKay]

I have never brewed a Baltic Porter, but 20 years ago in Chicago, at the same time as I was really getting more serious about brewing, after reading an article on them, I tried all the examples available there. Its a style I really like, and rarely get. I think I will try and brew one. I haven't been super happy with the few lagers I have made, but maybe being dark it'll be more forgiving for me.

If you're still in Chicago, try the Baltic at Dovetail. After you have their rauchbier, that is.

I've found I can make Baltics I like very much (though they may not have enough Balticy Balticness) whereas my Helles still falls flat. (Bubbly, but you know what I mean.)

 

[acrowe]

I was only in Chicago for grad school, I am in Canada, between Vancouver Island and Manitoba these days. I am occasionally there for a conference or something so I will look for it if I can!
I do think I am going to try to make one!