Question about brewing a porter

[rankrefugee88]

I'm using a True Brew ingredient kit to brew and bought and extra can of dark malt which is 3.3 lbs. This is my 4th batch of beer only, and the first three have seemed to come out a bit thin using just the ingredients in the box. In Charles Papazian's homebrew book he says to always use at least 6 lbs of malt extract per 5 gallon batches. I was wondering how much you guys use. Is 2 cans of dark malt extract too much? Or can I brew this bad boy already and not have to worry about it?

 

[levon15]

What else are you putting into it?

 

[rankrefugee88]

Brew process:

2 cans of Muntons dark malt extract (6.6 lbs)
2 lbs Muntons dard dried malt extract
6 oz Muntons crushed chocolate (2 row barley malt)
1 oz U.K. First Gold hop pellets (alpha 7.3%)

Everything that comes with the kit + 1 can of Muntons dark malt extract (3.3 lbs)

Edit: Forgot to mention 8 oz of Malto-Dextrin

 

[levon15]

I'm kegging a kit I brewed from Midwest Supply that is branded a Samuel Smith Taddy Clone that is as follows

6 lb. Light DME,
8 oz. Crystal 50-60L,
8 oz. Black malt,
8 oz. Chocolate malt specialty grains,
1.5 oz. Goldings,
1 oz. Fuggle pellet hops,
2 oz. Molasses

I have tasted it out of primary a few times and it has a great taste. I can taste the mollasses in the back, my wife said it has a faint taste of soy sauce to her, something salty she said. I thought it had a good taste.

I'd say your DME should be fine. Mine came out with an OG of 1.062 after a 60 minute boil.

 

[bomberman]

Last month I bottled a dry stout I made using just a can of Munton's extract and 2lbs DME. Sampled it recently, and it seems to have come out great. Keep in mind this was only one can in a 5 gal batch.

With the DME and Malto it sounds like you'll end up with a pretty robust beer.

 

[rankrefugee88]

I'm kegging a kit I brewed from Midwest Supply that is branded a Samuel Smith Taddy Clone that is as follows

6 lb. Light DME,
8 oz. Crystal 50-60L,
8 oz. Black malt,
8 oz. Chocolate malt specialty grains,
1.5 oz. Goldings,
1 oz. Fuggle pellet hops,
2 oz. Molasses

I have tasted it out of primary a few times and it has a great taste. I can taste the mollasses in the back, my wife said it has a faint taste of soy sauce to her, something salty she said. I thought it had a good taste.

I'd say your DME should be fine. Mine came out with an OG of 1.062 after a 60 minute boil.

So you think the 6.6 lbs of the dark malt + the 2 lbs of dried dark malt would be ok?

BTW good call on the molasses. Might be something to think about adding, being I usually keep molasses in my cabinet.

 

[944play]

I'd brew the kit as designed. Taste the final beer before you decide how to tweak the recipe. When experimenting, it's tremendously helpful to have a control.

 

[Malticulous]

With 8oz malto dextrin the beer will not be thin.

With that other can of extract your looking at a OG of ~1.070. That is a big beer and you will need more hops to balance it. I would not add the dextrin powder with it. It will finish high enough without it.

 

[rankrefugee88]

So here's what I'm thinking:

3.3 lbs dark malt extract
3.3 lbs light malt extract
1 lbs dark dme
8 oz malto-dextrin
2 oz molasses
6 oz crushed chocolate (2 row barley malt)
1 1/2 oz First Gold hop pellets
1/2 oz First Gold finishing hop pellets