Porter

[Rodcx500z]

Having never brewed a porter or stout I thought for my next brew a porter, all advice welcome
AG13
Specialty Beer porter
Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.500
Total Hops (g): 54.29
Original Gravity (OG): 1.057 (°P): 14.0
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.60 %
Colour (SRM): 37.0 (EBC): 72.9
Bitterness (IBU): 24.2 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 65
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
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4.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (72.73%)
0.500 kg Brown Malt (9.09%)
0.500 kg Chocolate (9.09%)
0.500 kg Crystal 40 (9.09%)
Hop Bill
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54.3 g East Kent Golding Pellet (4.7% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (2.9 g/L)
Misc Bill
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Single step Infusion at 68°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III

Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[An Ankoù]

Looks fine. Might not be as dark as you might have expected. I'd put the hops in at the beginning of the boil. Chuck in half a tab of protofloc and give it another ten minutes. You might find it tastes a bit different to what you've had before, too. Give it at least six weeks in the bottle.
A fine beer in the making.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Looks fine. Might not be as dark as you might have expected. I'd put the hops in at the beginning of the boil. Chuck in half a tab of protofloc and give it another ten minutes. You might find it tastes a bit different to what you've had before, too. Give it at least six weeks in the bottle.
A fine beer in the making.

Cheers An will move the hops to start, is protofloc the same as whirlfloc and what would a good srm number be,

 

[An Ankoù]

Cheers An will move the hops to start, is protofloc the same as whirlfloc and what would a good srm number be,

Yes it is. Don't worry about the SRM number, it'll be dark enough, but it'll glow a deep and mellow red when you hold the glass up to the sun.

 

[matt76]

That grain bill is pretty much the GH brown porter recipe I brewed earlier this year (1st Feb according to my notes) (details here) with the exception that he goes slightly less chocolate malt and uses dark crystal malt (I also sub in some flaked barley for body & head retention).

It's still possibly the best beer I've brewed to date and despite "only" 22 SRM (according to BF) it was essentially black. The GH version is a bit lower strength than what you're shooting for, but hey it's your beer. Bittering hops (first gold in my case, I'm sure EKG will do just fine) go in at 60mins to give you 20-21 IBU's, then another flavour addition at 10 mins to give you another 3-4 IBU's.

Be aware darker beers generally need longer to condition - I tried my porter after 2 weeks, it was OK but tasted very young. Another 2 weeks improved it a lot and I believe it continued to improve right up until a couple of weeks ago when I had the last one.

 

[ACBEV]

The recipe looks lovely... Very close to mine infact.

 

[Rodcx500z]

That grain bill is pretty much the GH brown porter recipe I brewed earlier this year (1st Feb according to my notes) (details here) with the exception that he goes slightly less chocolate malt and uses dark crystal malt (I also sub in some flaked barley for body & head retention).

It's still possibly the best beer I've brewed to date and despite "only" 22 SRM (according to BF) it was essentially black. The GH version is a bit lower strength than what you're shooting for, but hey it's your beer. Bittering hops (first gold in my case, I'm sure EKG will do just fine) go in at 60mins to give you 20-21 IBU's, then another flavour addition at 10 mins to give you another 3-4 IBU's.

Be aware darker beers generally need longer to condition - I tried my porter after 2 weeks, it was OK but tasted very young. Another 2 weeks improved it a lot and I believe it continued to improve right up until a couple of weeks ago when I had the last one.

Hi Matt I found it scoring the web so can't take credit, I have tweaked it particularly the choc malt and brown malt it only had the one hop addition at 30 mins which I found odd, think I will will go with what I have done and take it from there just move the hopps to 60 mins

 

[Zephyr259]

@matt76 You beat me to it with the GH recipe as I thought the exact same when I saw this one. I had the same results from that beer too, a bit meh for the first month then a very good beer, keep meaning to rebrew it.

@Rodcx500z You recipe looks good, it's be a touch more intense with the extra brown and chocolate malts but that's not a bad thing as the GH brown porter is quite mellow (I did use Carafa Special I instead of chocolate though). Your IBUs are good, I'm figuring you used the "Make Your Best English Porter" article as guidance, Josh seems to love his non-standard hop timings. My porter was bittered at 60 min then would have 15g at 10 mins at your batch size.

 

[foxy]

Those hops added at 60 minutes should give you around 28 IBU

Hi Matt I found it scoring the web so can't take credit, I have tweaked it particularly the choc malt and brown malt it only had the one hop addition at 30 mins which I found odd, think I will will go with what I have done and take it from there just move the hopps to 60 mins

It isn't going to make a lot of difference 60 or 30 mins it will raise the IBU to about 28 at 60 mins

 

[matt76]

@matt76I'm figuring you used the "Make Your Best English Porter" article as guidance, Josh seems to love his non-standard hop timings. My porter was bittered at 60 min then would have 15g at 10 mins at your batch size.

If that is the case, if you did use one of Josh Weikart's recipes from beerandbrewing.com, then I have to say I've also been using his recipes lately - I really like the explanation of the what and why he gives for the ingredients in the "Make your best..." articles.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Just had a look and can,t find it will look again later

 

[matt76]

This one?
https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-english-porter/

 

[Rodcx500z]

This one?
https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-english-porter/

That's the one Matt, pliers porter cheers, I just rounded everything up

 

[Zephyr259]

The articles are good but he does have his biases, doesn't seem to like crystal malts so uses them only when he has to and very lightly. He also loves Victory and puts it in anything he can. I made his dark mild and it was acceptable but a but thin and a touch too roasty maybe because I couldn't get chocolate Rye so used a 50:50 mix of pale choc and extra dark crystal.

His Maibock recipe is good but the beer is odd, I think being pale makes me think it should be crisper or something, there's a conflict I can't explain when I'm drinking it.

Anyway, good luck with the porter.

 

[Rodcx500z]

The articles are good but he does have his biases, doesn't seem to like crystal malts so uses them only when he has to and very lightly. He also loves Victory and puts it in anything he can. I made his dark mild and it was acceptable but a but thin and a touch too roasty maybe because I couldn't get chocolate Rye so used a 50:50 mix of pale choc and extra dark crystal.

His Maibock recipe is good but the beer is odd, I think being pale makes me think it should be crisper or something, there's a conflict I can't explain when I'm drinking it.

Anyway, good luck with the porter.

Cheers Zephyr, I wont be doing this for awhile prob after new year

 

[An Ankoù]

The articles are good but he does have his biases, doesn't seem to like crystal malts so uses them only when he has to and very lightly. He also loves Victory and puts it in anything he can. I made his dark mild and it was acceptable but a but thin and a touch too roasty maybe because I couldn't get chocolate Rye so used a 50:50 mix of pale choc and extra dark crystal.

His Maibock recipe is good but the beer is odd, I think being pale makes me think it should be crisper or something, there's a conflict I can't explain when I'm drinking it.

Anyway, good luck with the porter.

Interesting you should say that about crystal malt. I haven't read this source, but I, too, am going off crystal malt. I find it leaves too much residual sweetness in bitters and light ales. I also find no reference to it in older recipes. I wonder when it was invented. And I usually mash at 64-65C!

 

[Cwrw666]

If you have soft water you might want to do something about that. I have to use Tescos Chase spring water if I'm brewing a stout.