Porter

[pas8280]

Evening folks little bit of advice needed, I have a base porter recipe that I'm more or less happy with and I'm currently brewing 55 litre batches (2 x 25 litres and a demijohn tester) I have experimented with vanilla essence to the stage that I am happy enough to do a 25 litre batch of vanilla porter.
So I have been thinking off additions for the other 25 litres, initial thoughts are rum, coffee or plum can anyone assist ? It would obviously have to be post cooling additions either at bottling (which is when I do the vanilla extract addition) or during fermentation ? I have experimented a little with rum essence in the Demi john tester all to no avail.
All thoughts gratefully appreciated.
Paul

[DaveyT]

I've tried St Peter's Honey Porter but I ddn't taste the honey, although others who drank it did. There's a recipe for Bounty porter, like the chocolate bar, on this forum. I reckon that'd be cracking.
Molasses is meant to impart rum-like flavours. How about that? It could be used with spices for a 'pirate porter'.
How about Brett? Ferment with Windsor then rack it onto a Brett yeast. It'd take a while, but could be worth the wait.
Fruit that spring to mind a red/purple berries and apricots. I've gad two goes with mango and it hasn't impressed yet. I've got a harsh, cheap-booze taste from it so far. Not sure I'd recomend it.

Hope this helps.
David

[Matt12398]

I've been thinking of a flavoured porter and thought cherries would be a good addition. I think coffee and chocolate flavours of a porter would go well with the fruit.

[pads72]

I've done a coconut porter, like the 'Bounty' one described above, it was a local home brew comp winner!

[barney]

Quick thought, I have no brown malt left, you have used it all.

[DaveyT]

I've done a coconut porter, like the 'Bounty' one described above, it was a local home brew comp winner!

Fantastic! Is that your recipe on this site?

Without trying to hijack the thread, can I ask: Did it take a while to get the recipe? And did the coconut prove tricky to keep out of bottles/kegs when you racked it off?
My mango pulp went everywhere and it's refermenting in bottles, it seems.

[pas8280]

More or less settled on a coffee porter but getting tad lost in the research can anyone suggest the best way to add the coffee (boil or fermenter) and how much of what type ?
Cheers Paul

[bryanferry]

I've just started a smoked porter that I wanted to jazz up but thought coffee would be too much. I've instead gone for some Pecan extract from a local cake decorating shop. For fear of ruining a decent batch I'm hoping to add come bottling, possibly splitting the batch to see if the extra effort was a waste.

In searching for extracts I wondered if anyone had tried using the essences used for homebrew spirits, if they are just flavoring and could be added to ale that would open up a lot of tasty options.

[verno]

I did some coffee porter a few years ago, I only made a small batch of 10 pints as I didn't want to ruin 40. If I recall I just brewed some very strong coffee in a cafetiere, let is stew for a while and then poured the coffee into the FV. It was probably half a pint of coffee or something. It definitely added a coffee flavour and was very nice. I only haven't made it since as the fuller london porter clone I make is so good that I don't want to tweak it. Maybe next time I will try again as I am back to an experimentation mode.

[barney]

Whats you Porter recipe Verno?

[pads72]

Fantastic! Is that your recipe on this site?

Without trying to hijack the thread, can I ask: Did it take a while to get the recipe? And did the coconut prove tricky to keep out of bottles/kegs when you racked it off?
My mango pulp went everywhere and it's refermenting in bottles, it seems.

The coconut was a bit of a pain, it sat on the top of the FV, and I decided on the end to skim it off and filter with a hop sock. I didn't put that recipe on Jim's, I'll see if I can dig it out!

[Rookie]

More or less settled on a coffee porter but getting tad lost in the research can anyone suggest the best way to add the coffee (boil or fermenter) and how much of what type ?
Cheers Paul

I had great results cold steeping a cup of STRONG coffee and adding to taste in the bottling bucket, in a three gallon batch. Use whatever coffee you like to drink.

[pas8280]

Hi Rookie I was planning in something like that ie crushing coffee beans and cold steeping adding at bottling time, how much coffee did you use for your 3 gallon ?

[pads72]

I'm brewing a coffee stout tonight, my plan is to throw 50g of coffee grounds in at flameout. In the same way coffee gets too bitter if boiled, I think this will be a good time to add it, just off the boil.

[Barley Water]

Want to have some fun and make what I think is a killer beer? Google Denny Coan and find the recipe for his Imperial Bourbon Vanilla Porter (the recipe is all over the internet). Myself and a couple of the ladies in my brew club made it for the first time last year and it was great. We made another batch a couple of weeks before Christmas and I can't wait to have a few bottles of that stuff again this year.