What makes a good Porter?

[RenoDean]

The recipe from CYBI for Black Butte Porter is really good. I recently used the recipe with San Fran Lager yeast and took third for porters in a local comp. I entered it as a baltic porter. I have made it with ale yeast also and it's great.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I use around 10-15% C60, 5-10% chocolate and small amounts of biscuit and roasted barley. I like Maris Otter for the base grain over other pale malts or domestic 2 row.

 

[usfmikeb]

Anyone barrel age their porter? I've got a batch of Bert Grant's Perfect Porter that's been in secondary for a couple weeks, and have the opportunity to pick up a barrel.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

My local Brewpub bourbon barrel conditions stout, porter, IPA, india brown, maibock, and maybe some others. They are all good to me. If you like good beer and good bourbon put good beer on good bourbon wood.

 

[Malticulous]

It's only enough to prime the bottles. I doubt it makes any noticeable difference.

Why use sugar.

Does it anything other than add to the ABV.

Should the low OG not be reached with all-grain.

Maybe I am strange like that but I feel that brewing all-grain is making beer, partial mash is cheating a bit

 

[BendBrewer]

Hopefully color is key. Here are two commercial Porters and my entry for this year's Spring Fling.

 

[firebird400]

You're not strange. You're wrong. You can feel however you want. That's your right. It is not, however, correct.

Sugar is used in beer. Many of the best beers on the planet use sugar as part of the grist, including many benchmark examples of styles. Sugar is just another ingredient, another weapon in a good brewer's arsenal. If you're going to dismiss sugar because you feel like it's cheating, you're deliberately denying yourself some excellent beers - like most of the Belgian styles - and displaying yourself as a less-than-knowledgeable brewer.

That's a blunt statement from a guy who's sick to death of pretentious hobbyists who poo-poo sugar. That attitude is a cultural holdover from the days when "homebrew" meant a little bit of hopped extract and a LOT of sugar. That's not what my recipe is, and it's not what a wise brewer's use of sugar means.

Now, if you really want the reasoning behind why there's sugar in the recipe and not just to take a cheap, passive-aggressive shot at people who use sugar, it's because I wanted to lighten the body slightly and maintain a given original gravity in a recipe that needs to be brewed on a system that can only handle a certain volume of grist. The original recipe was developed on a 3.5-bbl (4hl) system and was scaled down to 5 gallons. That required some tweaking.

Grumble,

Bob

Bob, that was in no way a cheap shop towards you

And yes I am a less-than-knowledgeable brewer, in fact a total noob and this is all very new to me so excuse me for not knowing, now however, I know

I am spending as much time as I can reading about home brewing these days, my brew "rig" if I can call it that is inop so I use the time learning and hopefully setting up recipes to go by when I finish upgrading my system.

Again Bob, I appreciate the post you posted and sorry if I made you grumble, non intended.

 

[Bob]

Sorry, brother. You didn't know you were stepping on a short-tempered land mine. As long as you're not angry at my overly-grumpy tone, I'm happy.

Anything I can do to help, you just send me a PM. As you can tell if you read my posts, I like to blather.

Cheers!

Bob

 

[firebird400]

I use around 10-15% C60, 5-10% chocolate and small amounts of biscuit and roasted barley. I like Maris Otter for the base grain over other pale malts or domestic 2 row.

I have often wondered what the difference is between marris otter and pale.

I´ll have to google it

 

[usfmikeb]

I have often wondered what the difference is between marris otter and pale.

I´ll have to google it

MO is a 2 row hybrid developed in the UK in the 60s. It has a slightly maltier flavor profile, but is otherwise very similar to 2 row, since it is a 2 row. Many brewers will use 2 row instead of MO because of the price difference, but if it's a english ale, go with the MO for authenticity.

 

[cyclonite]

I like Maris Otter as the base grain (gives it a maltier profile, and a bit of nuttiness). I've used all of the following malts in various porters to get roasty flavors:
Black Malt (very little to avoid too much acrid/astringent taste)
Carafa III (aka debittered black - I prefer this to Black Malt to avoid astringency)
Chocolate Malt (pretty much a must IMO)
Special B (LOVE this in porters )
Kiln Coffee (This also makes for a great porter, kind of like chocolate but with some definite coffee tones without actually using coffee beans)
Brown Malt (great in porters, never used it in anything else)
High kilned Crystals (90, 120, 150/British extra dark)

I avoid roasted barley in porters - I think it should be reserved for stouts. I've also done some porters without any black malt, and giving more of a mix of the other roasted malts. These tend to be smoother, and you can get some great complexity by mixing up some other malts (try Special B + Kiln Coffee = great combination). I also tend to use some Biscuit in porters for the flavor.

You can really experiment with porters - kind of a catch all dark beer!

 

[Ølbart]

I think the idea that stouts should use roasted barley and porters should avoid it is a homebrewer's myth without much basis in traditional commercial brewing. Back in the 19th century, porter and stout were often partigyled, the stouts simply being stronger. As the gravity went down, the weaker porter eventually disappeared, and it was during the same decline both porters and stouts started switching to roasted barley (unmalted grains being banned in UK brewing until 1880). Even today, many porters use roasted barley and many stouts use black patent and chocolate malt. Use whichever ingredient that gives you the result you want and stop obsessing over fictitious stylistic ideals. Not even the BJCP says roasted barley is unheard of in porter.

 

[firebird400]

I actually do not know what roasted malts add over black malts, I have never used them but I assume it has to do with taste more so then color.

But then again I got the wrath of Bob last time I assumed something

I´ll keep at it, reading and learning that is.

According to shipment tracking I should get the books I ordered in about a week.
I am getting Porter by Terry Foster, Stout by Michael J. Lewis and Marzen, Vienna, Oktoberfest by George and Laurie Fix

 

[Sweetchuck]

I'd like to jump into this discussion since I have a porter teed up for the batch after the next.

After I bust off pale ale #4 this weekend, I'm looking to get a porter going.

My mashing/sparging efficiency isn't where I want it to be so I'm overcompensating here a bit, and like someone said earlier, I want a roasted flavor with this brew - so I'm thinking:

5 gal batch
9 lbs 2 row
1 lb roasted barley (might cut that back)
1 lb quick oats
1.5 lbs chocolate malt (too much, too little?)
.5 lb black patent

Medium hop.

Any thoughts?

 

[GuldTuborg]

That's definitely a stout you've drawn up. I like keeping the dark malts in my standard porter recipe to just under 10%. I use twice as much chocolate malt as patent. You may differ as to what you want in a porter, of course, but 3lbs of dark, roasted malts in a 5 gallon batch is undoubtedly strong stout territory.

Yeah, I just ran your recipe through Beersmith. Just under 70 SRM.

 

[Boy]

Just started drinking this porter I bottled 3 weeks ago. Came out amazing. For the OP, the three biggest ingredients I have read are vital to Porter are Brown malt, Pale Chocolate, and Chocolate malt.

9lb 10oz 2Row
14oz British 60
12oz Chocolate
10oz Victory
4oz Roasted Barley

Hops: Chinook, Northern Brewer, Saaz

3oz Coarse ground coffee in secondary 24 hours

 

[macmclean]

I quite liked the CYBI recipe for the Black Butte Porter someone mentioned above, but my favorite Porter is an all-grain conversion of an old BYO recipe (Nosferatu's Revenge). It's incredibly smooth and drinkable for such a high-gravity beer. I get more requests for this than almost anything else I make, which is remarkable considering SWMBO and our female friends are voracious when it comes to the Belgians.
OG: 1.088
IBU: 30.1
9 lb 2row
1 lb. Pale Chocolate
1 lb. Chocolate
1 lb. Munich
1 lb. Vienna
.5 lb. C60
.5 lb. Carapils
2 lb. honey
2 oz. Perle@20
1 oz. Crystal@5
Nottingham or other relatively clean yeast. I've also used Wyeast Swedish Ale to good results.

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

I'd like to jump into this discussion since I have a porter teed up for the batch after the next.

After I bust off pale ale #4 this weekend, I'm looking to get a porter going.

My mashing/sparging efficiency isn't where I want it to be so I'm overcompensating here a bit, and like someone said earlier, I want a roasted flavor with this brew - so I'm thinking:

5 gal batch
9 lbs 2 row
1 lb roasted barley (might cut that back)
1 lb quick oats
1.5 lbs chocolate malt (too much, too little?)
.5 lb black patent

Medium hop.

Any thoughts?

If you really want to keep the RB in there I would drop it down to a 1/4lb and get rid of the BP. I personally would drop the RB and decrease the BP to a 1/4lb.