AG#3 - XXXX Porter (split brewday) PICS ADDED

[Monkeybrew]

As I was lucky enough to obtain a bag of yeast from the Ringwood Brewery last Friday, I am currently brewing this Ringwood XXXX Porter clone.

I am mashing and batch sparging tonight as I write this post, and will be up very early tomorrow morning to boil and the chill the brew.

I will update tomorrow with some pic's and more info.


XXXX Porter
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.046
Total Hops (g): 60.0
Actual Original Gravity (OG): 1.049
Estimated Final Gravity (FG): 1.013
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.70 %
Colour (EBC): 93.0
Bitterness (IBU): 30.0 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 76
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Mash (Minutes): 90 @66C
Mash Liquor (L): 12.50
First Batch Sparge Liquor Addition (L): 9.5
Second Batch Sparge Liquor Addition (L): 14.5
Wort into Boiler (L): 31.00
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.034

Grain Bill
4.000 kg Maris Otter Pale Malt 5.0 EBC (79.30%)
0.400 kg Crystal Malt 120.0 EBC (7.90%)
0.400 kg Torrefied Wheat 4.0 EBC (7.90%)
0.200 kg Chocolate Malt 800.0 EBC (4.0%)
0.046 kg Black Malt 1200.0 EBC (0.90%)

Hop Bill
19.0 g Challenger Whole 8.20%AA @ 60 Minutes
22.0 g Fuggles Whole 5.00%AA @ 60 Minutes
12.0 g Progress Whole 6.80%AA @ 10 Minutes
7.0 g EKG Pellet 5.90%AA @ 0 Minutes

Misc Bill
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Yeast
Ringwood Yeast from the brewery @19C

[seymour]

Challenger & Progress baby! That's the ticket!

Best of luck with the brew, mate.
-Seymour

[BitterTed]

I made XXXX last year, the recipe was almost identical to yours, it made a fantastic beer. Good luck!

[Monkeybrew]

A bit slow with the rest of this post, but here goes......

The whole split brewday 'thing' went well, and meant that I was all finished at 9.30am on Saturday morning.

I had planned to brew this recipe later in the year, but as I acquired the brewery yeast on my hols it was all systems go. Apparently Ringwood haven't bottled their winter-only porter brew for 7 years, but decided to with some of the 2012 batches.

I naively expected to see rows of bottles of XXXX porter on the shelves in their brewey shop, but was sadly disappointed when I was told that it was sold out months ago! But like some divine happening, I spotted one lonely bottle on a shelf behind the shop counter and once they checked it was in date, they sold it to me. It's bottle conditioned and lists Challenger, Fuggles, Progress & Goldings on the label. So armed with this info, GW's recipe and hops I had available, I cobbled the above recipe together



I haven't tried it yet BTW.

My mash start temperature was just over 66C and was still just under 66C after the 90min mash was over. While the mash was on, I made up a yeast starter with DME and combined it all together in a 1L Pyrex jug and covered it with foil. After about 1.5 hrs, it was clear that the 1L jug was too small, and the yeast was trying to escape! I had to transfer this into a sanitised 4L plastic jug. Panic over




I ended up with 31L of wort in my boiler after the 2 batch sparges, but was actually aiming for 30L. I managed to raise the grain bed temperature to 76C for the first sparge and to 79C for the second sparge. It was now just passed 11pm on Friday night, so I popped the lid's onto my boiler and mashtun and headed off to bed.

I was back up early on Saturday morning, and had both elements of my boiler on by 6am. As I had 1L more wort than I was after, I proceeded to boil it off before adding the 60min hop additions. The rest of the boil, steep and cooling, passed without a hitch. I had a minor drama when draining the brew into my FV, as I managed to knock the FV lid that was half covering the FV opening with my leg, and it helped create a 360 degree spray of hopped wort

I was aiming for 23L @1.048, but actually collected 23L @1.049

Grain Bill


Batch Sparging


First Sparge Run-off


Thirsty work, this late night brewing lark!


Spent Grain


The Boil (yawn)


Just before I kicked the lid straight into the flow!!


1.048 @26C


In goes the Ringwood starter


36 hours after pitching


Can't wait to taste the first gravity sample.

MB

[orlando]

I would top crop that one MB, looks like a really vigorous yeast.

[Monkeybrew]

I would top crop that one MB, looks like a really vigorous yeast.

Funny you should say that mate, look what I was doing last night






What's the best way to nurture top cropped yeast?

Cheers

MB

[orlando]

I would top crop that one MB, looks like a really vigorous yeast.

Funny you should say that mate, look what I was doing last night






What's the best way to nurture top cropped yeast?

Cheers

MB

As if it will die even if you just breathe near it

Seriously though proper sanitation has to be taken to an extreme level when handling yeast like this as infection is a really high risk and the best way to blow a batch of beer known to man. I would make a starter from it fairly quickly to ensure it has a chance to out compete any bacteria that may have occurred during harvesting. If you can pressure cook the container the yeast will be stored in all the better as a sterilised environment is of course best. I would take a look at Wolfy's posts on yeast harvesting/rinsing (ranching?) as there is a very good how to with pics. I split my yeasts into little vials using PTFE around the caps stored at <5c.

Think about it Ringwood brewery yeast forever, for nothing You should only reuse about 5 times though as it will mutate. The way round that is to keep slanting from an original, but that's a story for another bedtime

[Monkeybrew]

I've just taken a gravity sample, as the activity from my blow-off tube has really slowed now on day 9.

It's sitting at 1.012, let's hope it doesn't drop any further.

Waste not want not........



MB

[Monkeybrew]

I got this brew all bottled up on Thursday evening, after it finally finished at 1.010.

It tasted drinkable from the FV, so let's hope that it conditions into a super Autumn/Winter brew.

As it ended up at 5.2% instead of 4.7%, I've decided to rename this 5X Porter.

MB

[Monkeybrew]

I tried a bottle of this brew about 10 days ago at 3 weeks old, and it was ok and just had subtle liquorice flavours and was overprimed

The bottle I had last night was still overprimed (which I am putting down to bottling when I thought primary was over, but it obviously wasn't ), but how the flavour has changed!

I'm now getting a slight liquorice flavour, that is now followed by deep rich fruit that then mellows to the perfect (for me) bitterness.

As you can see from the photo, it carries a tight stubborn head, and if held up to the light has the deepest ruby hue to it.



Apart from having to let it sit for 10mins after pouring to let the CO2 escape, it's a pretty special drink IMHO

MB

[orlando]

Looking great, just bottled my own Oh! Mr. Porter and will be brewing another one next week using once again malt cured over wood, Smoke On The Porter, (hornbeam this time) for kegging and maturing until winter. Bet yours doesn't last till the end of Summer

[Monkeybrew]

That smoked malt is sounding good. Are you smoking it yourself?

I hope that I will have plenty left by the Autumn/Winter, as it's not really suited to drinking in this heat!

I've got plenty of Pilsener and Galaxy Amber to keep me going, and also hope to get my session bitter brewed soon that will also fill the gap

Cheers

MB

[Dave S]

That smoked malt is sounding good. Are you smoking it yourself?


Cheers

MB

I've smoked some things in my time but never malt

[orlando]

That smoked malt is sounding good. Are you smoking it yourself?

Blimey no, far too practical and clever for me. No, another forum member Fuggledog does it for me. He recreates 18c & 19c methods for processing malted barley using Oak & Hornbeam to try to get closer to what early Porter recipes for example would have tasted like back then. If you have the Durden Park Beer Circle book "Old British Beers and How To Make Them" you will get a flavour for how they were used. The recipes are mind bogglingly strong the vast majority of the Porters & Stouts would average around 1.060s to 1.070's as normal with quite a few in the 1.080 zone, no wonder licensing laws were brought in to keep the workers at their benches

I'm off to see him in a week or so to have a look at his new micro, taste some of the inevitably superb beer and hopefully pick up some more malt.

[Monkeybrew]

Apart from having to let it sit for 10mins after pouring to let the CO2 escape, it's a pretty special drink IMHO

MB

I am getting really confused with this brew, as the high carbonation issues just won't go away!! I treated this brew like any other, and only bottled after consistent FG readings over a couple of days.

In the height of summer, I had one presumably weak glass bottle explode in one of my plastic crates that are in my garage, which I didn't discover until the liquid in the crate had turned to porter vinegar!





After this episode, I then decided that I would de-gas every one of the remaining 30+ bottles, by carefully easing the crown cap of each bottle to allow excess CO2 out, and then when the escaping CO2 started to tail off, I immediately closed the crown cap with my bench capper.

I did all of this de-gassing BS last Tuesday, and decided to crack one open last night and finally enjoy my porter.

As I merrily popped the crown cap off a bottle last night without a care in the world, I was showered in dark porter, not to mention the kitchen cupboards and carpet!!

Bearing in mind all of my de-gassing antics, does this mean that my porter is infected or just the spawn of the devil??

The little taste that I got when licking the porter off of my forearms didn't taste or smell rank.

Cheers

MB