I have never brewed this style, and found myself mashing together some recipes I have seen in various places. I was looking at a recipe that the Candi Syrup inc. people posted on their website, and like the idea of using a combination of D-90 and D-180. However, I also want a goodly amount of roasty/toasty flavor, and think perhaps the syrups might dominate the flavors. I’m thinking of a pound of Brown Malt in this, however none of the recipes I looked at had Brown Malt in them, so I was curious as to what you all think of it in this recipe.
For 5 Gallons:
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 49.1 %
4 lbs 4.0 oz Munich Malt 20 EBC (9.0 SRM) Grain 32.1 %
1 lbs Brown Malt (Crisp) (65.0 SRM) Grain 7.5 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
8.0 oz Candi Sugar, Dark (180.0 SRM) Sugar 3.8 %
4.0 oz Candi Sugar, Amber (90.0 SRM) Sugar 1.9 %
1.50 oz Perle [8.60 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 34.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 2.5 IBUs
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 1.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Lager (Wyeast Labs #2112) [125.00 ml]
Est Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.0 %
Bitterness: 38.2 IBUs
Est Color: 34.8 SRM
maaswinhester, that looks like a good beer, but it’s not a Baltic Porter. It looks to me more like a Foreign Extra Stout, but without any roasted barley. If you want more of a Baltic Porter per the BJCP guidelines (BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines - Category 12), then you need to knock your dark malts down quite a bit, and delete the 5-minute addition of hops. Bitterness is also way high – my calculator says 51 IBU, which is way too much for this style. Baltic Porter is sweeter than this, at more like 30 IBUs. I’m using Tinseth, which I find the most accurate, not sure what you’ve used. And this style does not have a whole lot of roasted flavors, not like a porter typically would. It is more caramelly, raisiny, etc. Consider trading in some of your dark malts for just a tad of Special B malt instead, for instance. Thoughts to ponder. But hey… if you’re not a style nazi, then by all means, go for it. Call it what you will, but IMHO it’s really not a Baltic Porter.
Whatever you do, make sure it’s the beer YOU want it to be, and enjoy it.
I am going to cut the chocolate malt to 4 oz, and may consider dropping the brown malt. I am trying to go for something that is close to style this time around, and then change in future recipes, if I so choose. I was thinking perhaps some Caramunich 80 in here (perhaps 4 oz?), instead of the Special B.
Now with the brown malt, I am thinking perhaps 4oz, but at the rate, and with the other ingredients, it looks like it might just muddy up the other flavors?
As for the hops, I will take your advice and drop the 5 minute addition, and cut back on the bittering. I can’t really do a big boil on my equipment, and had the boil size set at 5 gallons. My beersmith has been acting weird lately for some reason, and noticed on another recipe that the IBUs were way off, which may account for why you got 51, and I got 38. Low to mid 30s in the IBUs is what I will shoot for now, as that seems to be my sweet spot for beers I taste as balanced.
I noticed that the recipe in Zymurgy was not according to BJCP style guidelines either. Color is out range and IBU’s and alcohol are pegged on the top end of the range.
And then I had Alaskan’s Baltic Porter last night and everything was over the top on theirs: 9.8%, 53 IBU’s, 90 SRM. But is was good beer!
I’m not convinced that BJCP is necesssarily the end-all be-all for deciding whether a beer really deserves its name. BJCP guidelines are meant for competitions, where there’s a lot of value in defining relatively narrow guidelines in order to make sure that everyone has a common target to shoot for. Traditional brewing isn’t necessarily like that that; it’s a much more organic, living thing. There’s been a whole lot of variation from region to region and decade to decade in response to all sorts of factors.
So to me, there’s a huge difference between saying “That’s not a Baltic porter” and saying “I wouldn’t submit that to a BJCP competition under category 12C.”
You make a good point. On the other hand, I don’t think I could brew up a German pilsner and call it a Russian Imperial Stout without people laughing at me. So I do think there is a little style nazi in most of us, if not all.
