Chocolate porter exbeeriment.

[TheRedDarren]

Had myself another little beer experiment yesterday.
Having only ever brewed one porter (Mikkellers Texas Ranger) I thought I'd get to grips with this style a little bit more.
Quite a bit of reading up on style specifics, malt quantities and general info led me to my recipe...

Maris Otter - 35%
Mild ale malt - 31%
Brown malt - 9%

Chocolate malt, pale - 10%
Chocolate - 3%
Crystal 150 - 3%

Carafa iii - 4%
Roasted barley - 2.5%

Now, while that may look like a right mess of a grain bill, let me explain, in my understanding of the style...
Malt complexity is the key to the style, a smooth flavour with low roast character and, if you like a medium/sweet finish.
So, broadly speaking, base malts take up 60-70% of the grist, roasted malts 5-10% and speciality malts the remaining 20-35% or so.
But rather than simply use base, speciality and roast I decided to split each category into more than one to give complexity.
Base malts; So I decided to use Maris Otter, mild ale malt and some brown malt for the base, limiting the brown malt to arounf the 10% mark, it can be used up to 20% but past this figure it can, apparently, be a bit harsh and dry tasting.
Specialty malts; well, I was just going to use chocolate, but I decided to break this down to a big chunk of pale chocolate - hopefully for more chocolate character, backed up with a bit of dark chocolate malt for a bitter bite and then some dark crystal for its flavours and hopefully its unfermentables can balance out some of the bitterness from the dark grains.
Roast malts; Again I split these, but mainly to aid smoothness by using Carafa iii (dehusked) for its smooth roasty contribution and a touch of roast barley so I've got some roast character.

Yeast is WLP005, Ive used it before and it went really well in a ruby/porter type beer I brewed way back.
Mash temp was 68 for 60 mins, 71 for 5 and 75 for 15 mins. Hopefully providing a nice full body.

The first ten litres was brewed as normal, but the second ten litres had 20g of cacoa nibs in the boil and will be 'dry hopped' with 80g cacoa nibs steeped in vodka for 7 days.
Then, on bottling day, half of each batch will be bottled as normal and the second half shall have a cold pressed coffee addition.
So, 4 beers in total, one unadulterated porter, one with coffee, one chocolate and one coffee and chocolate. I'll do a tasting, hopefully with friends, and I'll see which works and which doesn't.

 

[DoctorMick]

Very interesting take on the style, that complexity could be very special. How did you hop it?

 

[Leon103]

Beersmith did a good email on Porter the other day, was that your inspiration?

 

[Brightonnik]

Looks very interesting. Love the idea about splitting batches it's a great way to get to find out about different techniques.

 

[Bigjas]

That looks amazing!! Good luck with it and it will be interesting to hear how they turn out. I have just brewed a porter, but played it safe with a recipe from a book.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Very interesting take on the style, that complexity could be very special. How did you hop it?

I forgot to mention the hops! Just 8g of Magnum at 90 mins, about 30 IBU.
It was really nice to not have to filter and squeeze out three tons of hops from the kettle for once!

 

[TheRedDarren]

Beersmith did a good email on Porter the other day, was that your inspiration?

No, I didn't see that, can you post a link?
Inspiration came from Mikkeller, Designing Great Beers, Stouts and Porters and another book called Stout & Porter. And then an amalgamation of all the bits that really took my imagination.

 

[TheRedDarren]

That looks amazing!! Good luck with it and it will be interesting to hear how they turn out. I have just brewed a porter, but played it safe with a recipe from a book.

What recipe was it mate?

 

[Leon103]

No, I didn't see that, can you post a link?
Inspiration came from Mikkeller, Designing Great Beers, Stouts and Porters and another book called Stout & Porter. And then an amalgamation of all the bits that really took my imagination.

Apart from the excellent piece of software, Beersmith send out handy email guides.

This week we have porters


The Porter Beer Style

Porter is a English beer style that has become very popular in the United States. This week we will look at the origins of Porter, how to brew Porter at home and provide a collection of sample recipes. When I started brewing back in the 1980′s, the microbrewery revolution was still in its infancy, and it was difficult to find anything beyond the classic American lager in the stores. Yet dark beers were a passion of mine, and Porter was a perennial favourites.
History
Porter is first mentioned in writings in the early 1700′s, and the name Porter is derived from its popularity with London’s river and street porters. There are many stories surrounding the origins of Porter, such as one about it being a blend of three other beers, but more likely Porter was derived from strong brown ales of the period. Original porters were substantially stronger than modern versions. Wikipedia mentions that hydrometer measurements on 18th century Porters indicate original gravities near 1.071, or 6.6% ABV – about twice the alcohol of a modern beer.
Taxes during the Napoleonic wars drove the alcohol content down to modern levels. Porter was also the first large scale beer to be entirely aged before delivery, often remaining in vats or casks for 18 months before shipment to pubs. As the 1800′s started, breweries mixed aged porter with new porter to reduce storage times. Stouts started as a stronger, darker version of Porter, with most including the name “Stout Porter”. Eventually the “Porter” tag was dropped giving the modern style of “Stouts”. (Re: Wikipedia)
In another interesting side note, Porter’s popularity was so high that it was stored in huge vats in the late 1700′s, and there was an arms race of sorts between major breweries to see who could build the largest vas. According to Ray Daniels book (below), the largest vats approached 20,000 barrels (860,000 gallons) at the end of the 1700s. This compares to the largest in the world today which clocks in at around 1600 barrels, less than 1/10th the size. In October of 1814, a huge vat at the Meux brewery ruptured and reportedly wiped out an adjacent tank and devastated the neighbourhood in a 5 block radius. In the ensuing chaos at least 8 people were killed.
Designing a Porter Recipe
Designing Porter recipes can be a lot of fun as the Porter style includes room for experimentation. Porters have an OG of 1.040 and up, colour of 20-40 SRM and bitterness of 18-35 IBUs for Brown Porter, or up to 55 IBUs for higher gravity Robust Porter. The color is brown to black, and they have low to medium hop flavour. They are almost always brewed with a full bodied mash schedule (higher mash temperature of 154-156F) to give a full body taste. They have low ester, fruitiness and diacytl, are well balanced and have low to medium carbonation.
Traditional porters start with a Pale malt base, and typically add a mix of Crystal, Brown, Chocolate and Black malts to achieve a dark colour and taste. Roasted malts are used only in Robust Porter styles. Pale malt makes up 40-70% of the grain bill (60-80% for malt extract brewers). Dark Crystal/Caramel malts are used for colour and body and provide at least 10% of the grain bill. Chocolate and Roasted malts each average around 5% of the grain bill, with roasted malt less common in Brown Porter.


A variety of grains including Munich malt, Roasted malt, wheat and additives are also used. I will occasionally brew “kitchen sink” Porter which consists of whatever malts I have laying around over a pale malt base. Traditional Porter also made heavy use of Amber and Brown malts, though these are less commonly used today. Ray Daniels recommends a mash temperature of 153F, though I often go a bit higher (156F) to provide a full bodied beer.
Traditional English hops are the appropriate choice for Porter, with East Kent Goldings being a favourite of mine. Other good choices include Fuggles, Northern Brewer, Northdown and Williamette. Light dry hopping is appropriate to the style, though hops aroma should not be dominant. English ale yeast is traditionally used for Porter for its fruity flavours, though other high attenuation yeasts are appropriate. Irish ale yeast is also occasionally used by homebrewers. Adjuncts are only rarely added to specialty Porters. A London water profile (high in carbonates) is best.

 

[MyQul]

Looks good Darren.If I was going to be a style nazi, (some - robust) Porters have black malt in them and Stouts have Roasted Barley. Which stout and porter book do you have? The one by Terry Foster?

 

[Bigjas]

What recipe was it mate?

It is Graham Wheelers 'Fullers London Porter'

I'm new to brewing so just starting to experiment with recipes that I've done before, but I've never brewed a Porter before so will be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Looks good Darren.If I was going to be a style nazi, (some - robust) Porters have black malt in them and Stouts have Roasted Barley. Which stout and porter book do you have? The one by Terry Foster?

Ah yes, that's a good point! Oh well, it's done now. I doubt I'll have hit a great recipe first time out so I can change it next time around.
Yes I have the Terry Foster one, that's the one I've read the most of but I also got the Camra one by the same name. Roger Protz..?

 

[MyQul]

Ah yes, that's a good point! Oh well, it's done now. I doubt I'll have hit a great recipe first time out so I can change it next time around.
Yes I have the Terry Foster one, that's the one I've read the most of but I also got the Camra one by the same name. Roger Protz..?

tbh 2.5% RB isn't much at all, you probably only have a background taste of roastyness

 

[Manxnorton]

Very interesting read and the final results sounds emazing.
Well impressed
Atb
Bri

 

[machin05]

Awesome idea mate. Love me a coffee stout!

Will you be keeping this thread updated?

 

[TheRedDarren]

Awesome idea mate. Love me a coffee stout!

Will you be keeping this thread updated?

Yes, defo mate.

In fact, out of the two batches I made, the one that I forgot to add yeast nutrient to fermented like buggery and blew the airlock off several times, the one that I remembered to the nutrient to fermented very calmly... Not what I was expecteing to be honest, any thoughts?

 

[TheRedDarren]

I think I've got deja vu!

It's stopped at 1.025

Righto, 1.049 > 1.025 makes it 3.15%!! It truely is a breakfast beer...
Incarnation two will have an OG of at least 1.065.

 

[DoctorMick]

Isn't that only about 50% attenuation?

 

[TheRedDarren]

48%.... I really should have learnt after making the Texas Ranger..!

Added the tincture of cacoa nibs steeped in vodka (for 7 days) today, massive boost to the already choclatey aroma.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Bottled these the other day, really excited about these beers. Already smooth, smooth, smoooth! It won't be long before these are ready and all gone.
So I ended up with a plain porter, a coffe porter, a plain chocolate porter and a chocolate coffee porter. I just a bit gutted I didn't predict the fg properly and it's ended up at 3.2%. On the plus side that will bring the conditioing time down and we'll have a session porter ready for crimbo!
Once they are ready I'll post a bit more on the tastings.