Smokey juniper rye porter

[BikerMatt]

Hey guys haven't been here much lately, been busy with all kinds of other stuff so haven't had time to brew anything for a few months. My summer vacation is coming in a few weeks so figured this would be a good time to start brewing the juniper porter that was dicussed earlier in an another thread.

This is where I'm at now. The juniper trunk has been de-barked, somewhat dried, sawn into discs and cut to pieces to further enhance the drying process. These will be added to the secondary fermantation. Now the next step would be to design the recipe. Thing is, as with any new brew, I haven't ever brewed a dark beer before so I haven't got a clue what a porter recipe should contain. I know I want it to have rye malt in it, and I want it to have smoked malt in it but I haven't got a clue how much should I use them. ABV target about 8 or more. I'm planning to get about 16 ish liters to the primary which will be achieved by two boils because of my cooking pot is only 15L. Then there's the question of hops. What hops and how much are generally used in porters?

I will be studying the subject myself too but any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Revvy]

Where's the other thread/discussion..... I was planning to brew a Juniper and Blood Orange Kolsch this weekend but ran into a snag in not being able to find any blood oranges or even blood orange juice this weekend.

 

[BikerMatt]

Think it was in the "you might be a homebrewer" thread, not enough to go and see, basically just " I got this juniper log from my neighbor, wonder if I could make use of it in brewing somehow" kinda deal.

Currently wondering how much wild yeasts and other things such I will be dumping into the secondary if I just drop the blocks in as is, thinking if I should first either boil them for a while, or even try to brew a sort of a "tea" from them which I would then add to the fermentor.