AG#17 - Big Smoke Porter

[Monkeybrew]

I finally got around to brewing this Porter yesterday, after it was originally planned for November last year!

The brew is closely based on GW's Fullers London Porter recipe, but I swapped out some Maris Otter for some Weyermann Smoked Rauch Malt, and upped the Chocolate Malt % a little. The Rauch Malt smelt and tasted mildy smokey, so it wil be interesting to see how it comes through in the finished beer.

I was aiming for 1.054 @ 23L, but ended up with slightly more wort @1.052OG. As it was a fairly cold January morning, I estimated a slightly higher evaporation rate than normal, so I feel that this was the reason for missing my figures.

This was the second brew using my new SS Brewtech Mash Tun, which is a lovely piece of kit and I really enjoyed the hands-on job of fly-sparging. I still got a relatively low overall efficiency, but it was an improvement over my first brew with it, and I was still using up a different base malt to what I usually use, so it will be good to brew again with it, along with my regular Maris Otter Malt for a truer comparison to my homemade MT.

I will add a few pictures in the week once I get some more time, but fermentaion took off like a rocket, with the Krausen being forced out of the blow-off tube on my FV. I'm using some second generation Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale yeast, that was used to ferment a 1.038 pale extract/kit brew. I used a mixture of some top cropped yeast and also some of the slurry from the bottom of the FV.





Big Smoke Porter
Brown Porter

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 24.0
Total Grain (kg): 6.204
Total Hops (g): 78.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.052
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.36 %
Colour (SRM): 25.2 (EBC): 49.7
Bitterness (IBU): 33.9 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 65
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
3.600 kg Maris Otter Malt (58.0%)
1.240 kg Weyermann Rauch Malt (20.0%)
0.620 kg Brown Malt (10.0%)
0.558 kg Crystal 80 (9.0%)
0.186 kg Chocolate (3.0%)

Hop Bill
----------------
57.0 g Fuggles Leaf (5.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (2.4 g/L)
21.0 g Fuggles Leaf (5.7% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
0.15ml/L CRS
3.5 g Calcium Chloride @ 90 Minutes (Mash)
3.5 g Calcium Chloride @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
1.0 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with 2nd Gen. Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale



Cheers

MB

[Soay4699]

I have brewed the London Fuller's a couple of times and it makes a nice brew. I would be very interested in how the Rauch Malt has changed the taste.

My grain proportions were Maris Otter Malt (65.9%), Brown Malt (17.1%), Crystal 60 (14.1%), Chocolate (3.0%) giving a colour of 51.8 EBC.

Rob.

[Monkeybrew]

Here are a few picks from Saturday's brewday -

Plenty of tasty grains


Mash all done for a 07:30am start


That's a good start.....


Not quite so good after 90mins


Still in love with the sparge head!


Sometimes the simplest of designs are the best


Nice and clean run off from my boiler


Leftovers


Dark ruby brown coloured wort


Some reclaimed Wyeast 1332 all ready to cause carnage in the FV


This glass was clean and just contained some sanitiser a couple of days ago!

[Monkeybrew]

I have brewed the London Fuller's a couple of times and it makes a nice brew. I would be very interested in how the Rauch Malt has changed the taste.

My grain proportions were Maris Otter Malt (65.9%), Brown Malt (17.1%), Crystal 60 (14.1%), Chocolate (3.0%) giving a colour of 51.8 EBC.

Rob.

I'll let you know in a month or so. Where is your recipe from, as your percentages of Brown and Crystal Malt are higher than the recipe I've got?

Cheers

MB

[Soay4699]

I have brewed the London Fuller's a couple of times and it makes a nice brew. I would be very interested in how the Rauch Malt has changed the taste.

My grain proportions were Maris Otter Malt (65.9%), Brown Malt (17.1%), Crystal 60 (14.1%), Chocolate (3.0%) giving a colour of 51.8 EBC.

Rob.

I'll let you know in a month or so. Where is your recipe from, as your percentages of Brown and Crystal Malt are higher than the recipe I've got?

Cheers

MB

I confess I got the recipe off someone called Colin. Thanks Colin for it makes a nice brew and your Whitbread porter recipe is great too.

[Monkeybrew]

I checked the gravity on this brew last Sunday and it was down to 1.016, just checked it again and it's now down to 1.012, which is a bit lower than I would have liked, but my mash temp did drop quite low.

I wouldn't say it tasted very smokey, but it certainly tasted good though.

The stuck on krausen mess around the top of the FV smelt a bit funky, so I'll rack this into a clean FV in the morning, with a view to bottling later this week if the gravity holds stable.

Cheers

MB

[sbond10]

Something about ranchmalz that makes for volcanic eruptions mine bent the lid and spewed constantly for 2
2 hours it was just pouring out

[Monkeybrew]

Something about ranchmalz that makes for volcanic eruptions mine bent the lid and spewed constantly for 2
2 hours it was just pouring out

I think that it was down to lots of yeast and dark malty goodness!

Either way it's smelling and tasting quite special, just happy to have racked it from that filthy FV!







Cheers

MB

[sbond10]

Mine was only 11.5g of notts it just exploded wrecked the carpet ha

[Monkeybrew]

Bottled this all up this morning, and primed @3g/L with some brown muscavado sugar.

I'll try and give it 2 weeks before I sample a taster bottle.

Cheers

MB

[Monkeybrew]

This brew has been bottled for a little over 2 months and is starting to drink quite well.

The smoked malt hasn't really had the effect that I wanted, but it is there in the background. It tasted slightly sour to start with, but that has conditioned away to leave a fairly roasty porter.

I have to say that the standard GW Fullers Porter is still a better drink, because it slips down a bit easier. I'm no expert, but I would say that this is verging on more of a Robust Porter, than a Brown one.



Cheers

MB