trying to make my first porter. any tips?

[Stecco]

Im trying to formulate a smooth body porter w/ an abv between 6-7 and plenty of nutty/chocolate notes. here's what i have so far, please give me your input as far as hop selections and ratio of specialty malts. Im kind of new to brewing, so i use the extract and steep method.


8 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
0.5 lb. Chocolate Malt
1 lb. Crystal Malt
0.75 lb flaked oats
1oz. Cluster hop pellets 60 min
1 oz Fuggles hop pellets 15 min
1 oz.Fuggles hop pellets at flameout
1 tube California Ale Yeast

also, im hoping the flaked oats will smooth things out, but im open to suggestions if your experience says otherwise. thanks in advance!

 

[Dr. Francois]

Is your extract dry or liquid?

Either way, I'd switch to light or extra-light extract and build from there.

You might want to plug your grainbill into Hopville's Beer Calculus to see what SRM it predicts...my thought is your beer might be a bit light for a porter.

Also, be careful about which chocolate malt you select. There's a big SRM difference between the various distributors. Breiss is the lightest, IIRC.

I don't think the oats will smooth out any strong flavors, but they will increase body and mouth-feel. I think some type of body builder is necessary for really good porter.

 

[JonM]

If you want to make the most of those oats, you can do a PM. You probably already know this, but if you steep flaked oats, you'll just get flavor and mouthfeel. If you mash them with a pound or so of a base malt, the base malt will give some of its enzymes to the oats and allow the oats to convert some fermentable sugars. (Wanting to use oats is what pushed me into doing PMs way back when.)

If you go that way, mashing with some Maris Otter might give some of the nuttiness you're looking for.

 

[Stecco]

im using liquid extract, and im wondering why a lot of people recommend the light extract. is it an issue w/ darker being bad for some reason, or light being superior?

w/ the oats, i cant do PM bc my living space and supplies are limited, but im hoping ill just sacrifice the fermentables and save the mouthfeel and flavor.

im still concerned that im using too much oat/crystal. do the weights look ok? ive never used more than 1 lb of specialty grain (this is my 3rd batch ever lol)

 

[Dr. Francois]

For what you're doing, I don't see the need for a mini mash.

I like light extract because I'm more certain what's in it. It's generally base malt and perhaps a bit of carapils. "Amber" is a color, and I am not sure how the factory arrived at this color. Was it through 1% Black Malt, or 10% Crystal 20? Was it heavily caramelized, leaving more unfermentable sugars? Who knows!

This might not be popular, but I think you can go up to 75% specialty grains on a porter and still have a very good beer. Plug it into a brewing program and keep your liquid extract at no less than 75% and play with the other portion. 85/15 is even better. Consider black patent malt to adjust color.

Also, what crystal are you using? I've used 20L-60L with good results. Any higher and I think the flavors stop complimenting the chocolaty notes.

 

[Stecco]

i see what your saying about the color of extract, so i might adjust that. As for the crystal malt, im using 60L.

because im new to all of this, im not exactly sure what the difference is between crystal and chocolate. im torn on the amount of the two. theyre both giving nutty, caramel flavor without adding enzymes to make fermentables. ive read that chocolate can be over powering sometimes, thats y im using less, but its really just a guess.

 

[Dr. Francois]

Chocolate is going to give you most of your color. For a test batch, try 12oz of chocolate, 12oz of crystal 60, and 12oz of oats. If the roasty flavors are too strong, next time sub something else to get you color without roast. I think you should get a well-balanced beer.

 

[terrapinj]

Briess Amber extract uses Pale Malt, Munich Malt and Crystal 60

aside from using lighter malt because of the lighter color, you also have more control over which other ingredients you are adding

in this case you'd prob be ok with using amber extract but in general its recommended to use light extract and then add color and flavor via other grains as you see fit

if you want to darken it without adding too much roasty flavor you can try carafa III or some black patent

 

[Stecco]

thanks for all of the input! unless u have any other tips, i think im going with the following:

8 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
10 oz. Chocolate Malt
16 oz. Crystal Malt 60L
12 oz flaked oats
2 oz. Cluster hop pellets 60 min
1 oz Fuggles hop pellets 15 min
1 oz.Fuggles hop pellets at flameout
1 tube California Ale Yeast

I upped the chocolate for color and the cluster to prevent it from being overly sweet. im going to keep the crystal higher bc i want to make sure the caramel flavor shows more than the roast.

i'll probably pick up the ingredients this weekend, so i really appreciate the quick responses. any suggestion on a yeast strain?

 

[Dr. Francois]

I think your recipe looks great.

For my tastes, I'd back off the hops a bit. My favorite porter used 1 oz perle at 60 and no further additions.

Check your chocolate at LHBS. If it's Bieiss, you'll want to up the quantity or add some black patent. Briess is 350L v. most others that run above 425L. In my calculations, it ends up being the difference between a 26 SRM porter and a 30 SRM porter. I like my porters black or almost black, but 26 is respectable.

 

[Stecco]

i think ill lower it to 1.5 oz Cluster for 60 min and 1 oz of Fuggle at 15. I was trying to keep it from being toooooo sweet since i dont want it to creep into stout territory.

Hows that sound?

 

[Daishiknyte]

I shamelessly borrowed this recipe last weekend. I went with the 2 oz Cluster at 60 and added the 1 oz of Fuggles after flameout. The extra .5 oz of Cluster looks like it will net me ~35-36 IBU.

Fermentation took a bit more than 24 hours to get rolling. I have a feeling this will be in primary for for awhile. Plenty of munchies for the yeast to work through. I'll report back with results.

 

[Stecco]

why shamelessly? lol its kind of awesome. it reassuring to think my recipe was solid enough for someone to try. i still havent gotten started on this because i have to wait for my current batch to be bottled this weekend, but im really looking forward to it. also, i planned to up the cluster too. i figured a porter should have a fairly balanced BU/GU

think 10-14 days will about right for fermentation?

 

[Daishiknyte]

Shamelessly, not shamefully! And I am darn happy I did.

Quick update: The porter is 8 days into primary. Overall, fermentation has been steady. I never saw any extreme activity like I did with my honey ale. It's just been plugging along. Activity in the airlock has slowed almost to a stop. There is still a bit of sporadic activity, especially after my roommate gave the bucket a whack Saturday when doing laundry. That set off a round of intense bubbling for ~30 minutes before settling back down.

I plan on taking readings starting Friday to check on its status. I won't be surprised if it needs a bit more time based on how sweet the wort tasted. If it is good to go, I'll move it to secondary Sunday. It's going to be in there awhile. I may need to pick up another carboy for the hefeweizen my roommates want to do next weekend.

How did your bottling/brew day go?

 

[Stecco]

i havent been able to start bc i cant find flaked oats! my LBHS carries irish oat and ive seen rolled oats in grocery stores. ive been told theyre ok to use, but will it be as good as flaked? and would i use equal amounts?

lastly, considering that im just steeping the oats, do i need to cook them first?

im doing this saturday and dont wanna mess it up

 

[Daishiknyte]

Another update:

Cleared my Honey Ale out of the carboy on Saturday in order to make room for the porter. A quick wash and sanitizing later, the porter was moved to its new home for the next few months. The gravity reading showed a respectable 1016, a 50 point drop from the OG. The sample had the makings of roasted, lightly smokey flavor. The bitterness from the extra ounce of hops will pair well with it. I'm going to forget about the porter for the next 6-8 weeks and then decide from there.

How did brew day go for you?

 

[Stecco]

went well, but i had a yeast scare lol i didnt see any activity and was just about to re-pitch when at about 3.5 days... it started to bubble! im hoping the delayed activity isnt an indication of weak yeast or off flavors in the finished product. im gonna do my best to just let it be.

thanks for the heads up in terms of what to expect. did the oats give the mouthfeel we expected?

 

[Daishiknyte]

Mine started bubbling a solid day and a half in. It didn't really take off until day 3. I wouldn't worry about it. Two weeks in primary seemed to work well with mine.

 

[sendkyleanemail]

1275 makes a nice porter if held at 64F. Pitch at 85. It sounds crazy but it adds a great nutty note.