Porter Recipe Critique

[KarmaCitra]

So I am wanting to brew a porter for the holidays, and wanted to brew it next weekend. After doing a little research to become familiar with the style, I came up with the following:

6.5# Maris Otter
1.5# Light DME
1# Brown Malt
.5# Crystal 60
.25# Chocolate Malt
.25# Carafa III Dehusked
.25# Flaked Wheat (head retention. I plan on adding pecans to this, but that's a whole other discussion)
1# Roasted, finely chopped pecans

156° mash, 60 mins

1oz Willamette, 60 min
.5oz Fuggles, 40 min
.5oz Fuggles, 20min

US-05 Yeast

OG 1.055
FG 1.012
IBU 17.40
SRM 25.74

Any suggestions/criticism would be awesome! Probably will also incorporate vanilla in there somehow.

 

[m00ps]

That looks pretty good. It may be a bit mroe stout than porter in terms of roast with 1lb total of chocolate/carafa. Maybe 1/2lb would be better. Hop schedule looks fine

When I used dry yeasts I would use us-05 and s-04 for my stouts and porters. But then I started noticing a lot of my beers made with s-04 got off flavors months down the road so I stopped using it. I also found an article on BearFlavored where he writer had the same issue. Windsor is too underperforming for stouts and porters and would likely get you a FG that is far too high. Personally, I use Irish Ale yeast now for my porters and stouts

 

[KarmaCitra]

Good deal. So maybe I'll dial down the chocolate and Carafa down to a half pound in total. Just looking for color with the carafa, honestly. Do you think I could up the DME a bit to make up the reduction in specialty malts?

I'll check with my LHBS on the Irish Ale yeast.

 

[KarmaCitra]

Adjusted it to have .5# of chocolate. Kept the carafa III at .25#. I know it's just a piece of software, but brewers friend has this at a normal brown color, but aren't most porters a little darker brown? I plan on adding the carafa III as a late addition in the mash, if that makes any difference.

 

[KarmaCitra]

And looks like no need to up the DME, the OG stayed the same, oddly enough.

 

[m00ps]

Depends on the Lovibond of your chocolate. Ive seen it range from like just below 300 (usually called pale chocolate) to over 400. It looks like 350 is average. If you definitely want somethign dark brown to black you could readjust the chocolate. It wont come out too roasty or anything with the original amount you had. Or add like 2 more oz of carafa.

Are you adding the carafa at mashout to cut down roast flavors? If so, id add the carafa as normal and the chocolate later. Carafa is a "de-bittered" roasted malt. Its good for stuff like black IPAs and schwartzbiers

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I have used S-05 with porters and stouts and have had good results.
I would also use Nottingham. I don't like Danstar Windsor yeast.
I made a brown porter with British Liquid yeasts (1098, 1335, and 1028) and it is well loved. I plan to enter it in a contest.
Consider adding a pound of brown malt in your porter. It would add what in my opinion is a beautiful complexity.

 

[JKaranka]

You can have porters that really are mid brown rather than dark brown. At least over here. (Usually pale, brown and crystal malts.)

 

[KarmaCitra]

M00ps, I was planning on mashing the chocolate for the entire mash time 60mins, then add the carafa midway through or so. Are you saying I should do it the other way around?

 

[KarmaCitra]

I'll see if I can find some brown malt. What kind of complexity does it offer?

 

[JKaranka]

Brown malt is the bees knees! It's like subtle chocolate, amber malt toast, crystal sweetness, coffee, and melanoidin maltiness all in one. It's quite dry tasting, but at 20% or above of the grist it's somewhat sweet. That and pale are the only two malts you truly need for porter.

 

[KarmaCitra]

So do you think if I added 5-10% brown malt will do anything? I just want to avoid dry for obvious reasons.

 

[signpost]

I just brewed a robust porter with 12 oz. of chocolate malt along with some special B and a good chunk of brown malt. I'll also be adding some vanilla beans and cacao nibs. It's bubbling away after clogging my airlock and oozing onto the floor the other night.

I've never used carafa, but that struck me more as something to do in a stout. I think of porters as being richer, I guess. But when I think of a stout, I generally tend towards a dry stout.

 

[JKaranka]

I'd say 10-12% Brown malt is noticeable but safe in a porter. You might be able to reduce chocolate malt and carafa accordingly. The character of Brown malt does take a bit longer than usual to settle so you'll notice the beer changing over the first two / three months. It becomes more complex and smoother by the week.

 

[KarmaCitra]

Just edited the recipe to include brown malt. I took out the chocolate malt, as I felt the brown malt would take care of the subtle chocolate notes I was looking for. The SRM is a little lower than I expected, but I don't want to add too much carafa to darken it.

 

[signpost]

Add some of the chocolate malt back in. There is an old school recipe for a porter in Radical Brewing that is just like 50/50 base malt and brown malt. Other than that one, I don't think I've seen one that doesn't have at least some chocolate malt.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I'd say 10-12% Brown malt is noticeable but safe in a porter. You might be able to reduce chocolate malt and carafa accordingly. The character of Brown malt does take a bit longer than usual to settle so you'll notice the beer changing over the first two / three months. It becomes more complex and smoother by the week.

I totally agree. I read Terry Foster's book on Porters and Stouts and he states that he likes to put Brown Malt in many beers.

FYI here is the Brown Porter Recipe from Classic Styles:
9.5# MO
1# Crystal 40L
1# Brown Malt
10 oz Chocolate Malt 350L
mash at 152
Fuggles 1.25 at 60
Fuggles .5 at 10
Nottingham dry or a british liquid yeast

 

[JKaranka]

You get lots of brown malt in British recipes all the way from 1800 to the 1960s. I had a nice 1950s Whitbread clone with pale, brown, chocolate and dark invert. Very smooth.

 

[KarmaCitra]

Add some of the chocolate malt back in. There is an old school recipe for a porter in Radical Brewing that is just like 50/50 base malt and brown malt. Other than that one, I don't think I've seen one that doesn't have at least some chocolate malt.

Do you think 1/4# would be sufficient?

 

[KarmaCitra]

Add some of the chocolate malt back in. There is an old school recipe for a porter in Radical Brewing that is just like 50/50 base malt and brown malt. Other than that one, I don't think I've seen one that doesn't have at least some chocolate malt.

Do you think .25# would be sufficient?

 

[KarmaCitra]

So add back in the .25# of chocolate malt?

 

[KarmaCitra]

Sorry, my phone app said that it didn't post, but clearly it did. 3 times lol

 

[KarmaCitra]

Edited the recipe. Looks like the chocolate did make a positive difference.

 

[chickypad]

It's a little confusing following the recipe as you keep changing it, but my 2 cents: If brown malt is the only other dark malt and you're going with just a lb I would definitely put the chocolate back in. I make a brown porter that has a full lb of brown malt for 3 gallons (16%), as well as 0.5 lb of pale chocolate but that's only 225 L. It's really yummy, nice chocolate notes. You may be okay with that smaller amount chocolate if it's dark plus the carafa - did you update the SRM?

 

[rhys333]

I've been thinking about trying a porter again. I haven't had a lot of luck in the past getting past the dark malt astringency, so I've been shying away from the dark beers I love. I might start doing a separate cold steep for the roasted grains. Do you guys do this? Thinking about doing something heavier on the wheat malt:
55% MO
20% Wheat
10% C80
10% Brown
5% Chocolate

 

[KarmaCitra]

It's a little confusing following the recipe as you keep changing it, but my 2 cents: If brown malt is the only other dark malt and you're going with just a lb I would definitely put the chocolate back in. I make a brown porter that has a full lb of brown malt for 3 gallons (16%), as well as 0.5 lb of pale chocolate but that's only 225 L. It's really yummy, nice chocolate notes. You may be okay with that smaller amount chocolate if it's dark plus the carafa - did you update the SRM?

Yep, the recipe is completely updated. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[JKaranka]

Sounds good. My plan usually is: Brown malt gives the flavour, patent or chocolate the colour.

 

[Komodo]

What is the thought behind the DME? Why not more base grains? Is it a mash tun limitation?

 

[KarmaCitra]

What is the thought behind the DME? Why not more base grains? Is it a mash tun limitation?

Exactly. Its a partial mash, since I only have a 5 gallon kettle, which I'm mashing in with as well. I'm just trying to cram in as much grain as possible and use as little DME as possible.

 

[Komodo]

Exactly. Its a partial mash, since I only have a 5 gallon kettle, which I'm mashing in with as well. I'm just trying to cram in as much grain as possible and use as little DME as possible.

I think you could mash all the grains. In my 5g coolers i can get 13lbs. The higher it is, the less headspace and less heat loss, the limitation is really for the boil. Have you seen the Can I Mash It calculator? Very useful. What is you batch size?

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml