Partial Mashing Porter or Stout

[gdenmark]

So I have been doing all partial mashes this summer. All i would do was use 2-row as my base malt and most of the beers made were light beers anyways. So the recipes would call for light malt extract and I would just use more grain than just all extract.

How would I go about using a porter recipe for a partial mash. Would 2-row still be my base malt. And should I use dark malt extract, or light malt extract. I also am wondering if I need to amp up the special grains if I would use 2-row as my base malt. Because I am not doing all-grain brewing yet, I convert pure extract recipes to partial mash recipes. I just sometimes get a little confused on the darker beers and whether or not I should always use light extract and two row as my base malt? Thank you for your time and would love to hear some suggestions.

 

[Yooper]

For any beer, you use specialty malts to get specific color and flavor; so yes, 2-row is still the base malt. You'd use the grains in the recipe along with some base malt to make a partial mash. You want to use light (or extra light) extract and get the color and flavor you want from specialty malts.

Sometimes stouts use British two-row as the base malt, often maris otter or Golden promise. It's probably not really noticeable either way, but I thought I'd mention that there are lots of different types of basemalts to use in beer, not just plain old US 2-row. Most of the time, US 2-row is perfect in just about any recipe, so you can't go wrong with it. But you can get some great results with British base malts, too.

 

[gdenmark]

Okay so I understand what you are saying, but still have a few misunderstanding of how to convert a recipe. Lets say for example that I want to do this porter recipe which is an extract recipe.

Okay so the recipe says it takes three and one third pound of amber malt extract. Three and one third pounds of dark malt extract. 1 pound of crystal malt, one fourth pound of roasted barley, and a half pound of torrefied wheat. In my partial mash I would probably take care of half of that extract with 2-row malt. But then for the leftover malt extract would I use light extract? Or do I follow the instructions and use either amber or dark? And If I use all light extract, do I need to up the amount of specialty grains within the recipe? Another question I have thought of, is if i am disregarding colors of extract and just using light, what types of grains specifically would give the color of taste regarding to either dark or amber extracts. Thank you very much for your advice.

 

[Simps]

Those questions are exactly why a lot of people avoid using dark and amber extracts. You can't really be sure what specialty malts and how much of them are in extracts. If you are trying to control anything relating taste it's best to use the lightest extract you can and steep/partial mash specialty grains. Otherwise you might get some residual flavors that mask all your effort.

The grains you are looking for(not to be condescending if you already knew this, but I thought maybe not from your last question) are specialty grains, they add unique flavors and colors and are numerous in variety. Time to start reading those grain descriptions on a few homebrew store websites!

To point you in the right direction look for crystal malts, chocolate malt and roasted barley. Every manufacturer has slightly different flavors and color ratings so it is really up to your personal preference and trial & error.

As far as quantities, you should pick up a solid program like beersmith (which can approximate it for you) and check out the SRM scale. There are ways to calculate color but they are beyond me. Good luck!

 

[gdenmark]

I did not take that in a condescending way at all, but yes I do know what specialty grains are. I have used them in all of my recipes, but I will look into the beersmith program. Because that is the one thing I have a hard time grasping is how much specialty grain to use on my recipes. Hopefully that beer program will help me with that. Thank you again.

 

[dabblenben]

There is a great portion in Palmer's "How to Brew" that discusses recipe formation - specifically specialty malt additions to base malt. Here is the link, and I have copied a portion below for easy reference:

To help get your creative juices flowing, here is a rough approximation of the recipes for the common ale styles:
Pale Ale - base malt plus a half pound of caramel malt,
Amber Ale - pale ale plus a half pound of dark caramel malt,
Brown Ale - pale ale plus a half pound of chocolate malt
Porter - amber ale plus a half pound of chocolate malt,
Stout - porter plus a half pound of roast barley.
​

So stout is base malt + half a pound of caramel + half a pound of dark caramel + half a pound of chocolate + half a pound of roast barley. I just brewed a partial mash oatmeal stout, and ended up with 1 pound of two row as base malt and then 3.5 pounds of specialty malts and oats. I added 4.5 pounds of amber DME at flameout to make up for the difference. Depending on how much you can fit in your brew pot, the specialty grains can take up a large portion of the partial mash grain bill for a stout and porter.

 

[Yooper]

I did not take that in a condescending way at all, but yes I do know what specialty grains are. I have used them in all of my recipes, but I will look into the beersmith program. Because that is the one thing I have a hard time grasping is how much specialty grain to use on my recipes. Hopefully that beer program will help me with that. Thank you again.

The easiest way to make a great porter or stout (or actually any beer, for that matter) is to find a good solid AG recipe. Then, sub light extract in for the 2-row, keeping all the specialty grains the same.

For each pound of two-row, use .6 pounds of extra light or light DME, keeping a pound or two of the two-row.

For example, say this is a recipe you want to do:

7 lbs Pale Malt, Grain 63.64 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.82 %
10.0 oz Chocolate malt (pale) (200.0 SRM) Grain 5.68 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.14 %
2.00 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU

If you can mash 5-6 pounds of grain, just keep all of the grains and sub 3 pounds light DME for 5 pounds of two-row. It's not any harder than that!