AG#3 - Brown Porter

[SiHoltye]

Am wanting to do a heavier beer for the winter times. I plan to bottle this. Is there any experience of Porter making out there, this would be my first attempt and have created this using textbooks rather than experience.

Prepare Liquor 43 L
Efficiency Expected 75%
Brew Length 23 L

Mash @ 66°C 90 mins
Grain: 5.000 kg 300 Amber Malt
0.300 kg 300 Chocolate Malt
1.000 kg 240 Brown Malt

Boil 90mins AA%
Hops 65 g 4.5 Fuggles 90mins 25.4
20 g 5 EKG 15mins 0.0
25.4 IBU Total
OG 1060
FG 1012
ABV % 5.9

Notes: Add 1 crushed campden to all liquor, & 5.2 stabiliser to MT
Use 2x S04

[oblivious]

You may want to replace that amber malt with diastatic amber as far I am a wear none of those malts have diastatic power

[oblivious]

Not like they used to be in the old days

One for the, I remember when thread……….

[oblivious]

Actually you may need to add some base malt, as the diastatic amber my not have the power to covert the brown malt and its self

but one of the other lads my know

still it should be a very nice porter

[Barley Water]

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of having a pint of Fullers London porter poured from a keg. It was one of those great beer moments for me that I will probably never forget. God that stuff was great, good roast flavor but not overly bitter or harsh, smooth with a caramel flavor underneath the roast plus a hint of butterscotch (I am guessing from the yeast employed). I have a very good formulation for a robust porter but I would love to get hold of a good formulation for a brown porter. Most over here make robust porter and in my opinion, many get very close to a sweet stout because of the excessive use of roasted barley. You guys in the UK should be all over this style, does anybody have a good recipie?

[Barley Water]

Keg, we rarely get cask conditioned beers over here. Also, I am not set up to deal with casks, I am currently serving out of corney kegs (I only bottle specialty stuff like Belgan ales, Christmas beers etc.).

[Barley Water]

I wish I had tried it over there, however I am but an impovrished father of two daughters (one in college). Some day, I would like to travel to your side of the pond and sample some of you beers in their native state.

[SiHoltye]

OK so I'll alter 4.5kg of amber, to 3.5kg Pale Malt and 1kg of Amber, what do you think? Will it still be that dark?

[oblivious]

What about adding 250g of chocolate malt, wont be as dark as a stout but nice

Are you still adding brown malt

[SiHoltye]

I've been looking in the wrong section of Charlie Papazian's Joy of HB'ing, his recommendations for style of Brown Porter I looked at were for Extract. I'll now use a grain bill of:

3.500 kg 300 Pale Malt
1.000 kg 300 Crystal Malt
0.500 kg 300 Chocolate Malt

[oblivious]

Looks good; 1kg of crystal malt is a lot though, you can still add in around 500g of brown malt if you want something like fullers London porter

[SteveD]

Pale malt will convert roughly 35% of its weight of non-diastatic grain. Pale amber is diastatic, so you can use that in conjunction with pale to help convert non diastatic grains. I would think that its diastatic power is pretty good, being made from a higher nitrogen barley than pale is, and kilned quite gently. Brown, Amber, and Chocolate malts are all non-diastatic. Brown malt is historically correct in earlier porter, although brown malt made now is not the same as original brown malt, which was diastatic. Black malt is also historically correct. Crystal malt isn't, nor chocolate malt. It depends on how near you want to be to an old time porter. Most modern interpretations seem to feature crystal and chocolate malt a lot, and roast barley (keynote in dry stouts, which evolved from porter)

I did a semi historical one in February which is drinking nicely now, and tastes bloody good - no crystal or chocolate anywhere near it.

OG 1070

30% Pale
30% Pale Amber
28% Brown
10% Rauch
2 % Black

7.65kg mash for 24L in the FV

Goldings to about 50 IBU, no late additions. You could leave out the black malt for a lighter colour. Mine is black but with transluscent reddish tints. You could also leave out the Rauchmalt and substitute more Pale, or Pale Amber. Conversion was fine, implying sufficient extra diastatic power in the Pale Amber and Rauchmalt to convert the brown and black malts.

[oblivious]

Is that pale amber malt similar to diastatic amber malt?

[SteveD]

Is that pale amber malt similar to diastatic amber malt?

It's the same stuff - with two names.

[SiHoltye]

I have received the ingredients and have decided to mimic Fullers London Porter. I have a grain bill from the CAMRA Homebrew Classics Stout and Porter book.

It says:

Fullers London Porter
Pale Malt 76%
Crystal 10%
Brown 12%
Chocolate 2%
Bittering Fuggles
Aroma Fuggles
OG1053
IBU 33
Colour 140

I plan:

4.15 kg Pale Malt (5.9 EBC) Grain 75.87 %
0.66 kg Brown Malt (150.0 EBC) Grain 12.07 %
0.55 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 10.05 %
0.11 kg Chocolate Malt (500.0 EBC) Grain 2.01 %
75.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 33.4 IBU
25.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (30 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.89 %
Bitterness: 33.4 IBU
Est Color: 38.8 EBC

Does anyone know what unit the CAMRA uses for colour in this book (140 what's?), I can handle EBC's and SRM's but can't find what this is. My Choc malt is the less coloured type at 500EBC (usually 800 or so) and because of this I think it'll be lighter in colour than the usual Porter colour.

Any thoughts welcome. This will be the first AG brew (number 3 in total) that has had research from books and the use of beersmith in it, can't wait to brew it on Monday! I plan to 10 days primary, 14 days secondary, then bottle 12 pints, and corni the rest.