Blending two batches of Porter

Beer Recipes
1

So, I had that moment, “I need to get a move on if I’m going to brew this weekend.”

I went from work to my LHBS on a Thursday afternoon and bought varying amounts from a list of ingredients that I would later choose to use or ignore when I actually put together a porter recipe.  One of those ingredients was 5 lbs of Baird Brown Malt (and had 3 more lbs, pretty old, at home).

My plan in the back of my mind had been to definitely incorporate brown malt, and checked through a few recipe books including a book full of historic English porters.  Yeah, I know, that historic British brown malt is different from what is used today.

That night I decided to use Kristen England’s Fullers London Porter clone that is available through BYO on the internet.  So I busily added it into Pro Mash and adapted for my batch size and estimated brewhouse efficiency, calculated my water spreadsheet in Bru’n Water, and went to sleep since I needed to get up the next morning (Friday) at 3:00 am to head out for a day-long salmon fishing trip.

I returned from a good day on the Columbia River, even if fishing was only so-so.

Come the next day (Saturday morning) I put together my grains and milled them and brewed the beer.  After all was done, THEN I realized I had doubled the already generous amount of brown malt called for in the recipe, up to 24% of the grist.  I tasted the beer on 3rd day of ferment and sure enough it was too roasty/toasty.

So, I decided to make a second, adapted recipe batch (Imperial Pub yeast is fast anyway, right?), and blend the two 50/50.

In 2 days I’ll be blending them, into four 5-gal cornies, except for one of the 5-gal portions which at that time, while still in a bucket will be getting a can of raspberry puree added to then ferment out.

Anyway, below are the two recipes.  It won’t be Fuller’s London Porter, but I’ll report back if it comes out well.

Fullers London Porter
10/14/17

Batch Size (Gal):        12.00    Wort Size (Gal):  11.00
Total Grain (Lbs):      24.69
Anticipated OG:          1.054    Plato:            13.38
Anticipated SRM:          35.3
Anticipated IBU:          28.8
Brewhouse Efficiency:      74 %
Wort Boil Time:            60    Minutes

Actual OG:  1.054

%    Amount    Name                          Origin        Potential SRM

60.8    15.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)              Great Britain  1.038      3
24.3    6.00 lbs. Brown Malt                    Great Britain  1.032    65
  8.1    2.00 lbs. Crystal 75L                  Great Britian  1.034    75
  6.1    1.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt                America        1.029    350
  0.8    0.19 lbs. Roasted Barley                Great Britain  1.029    525

Amount    Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time

3.50 oz.    Fuggle                            Pellet  3.64  25.0  60 min.
  2.00 oz.    Fuggle                            Pellet  3.64  3.8  15 min.

Imperial Pub Yeast (same as WYeast 1968 London Extra Special Bitter)

Saccharification Rest Temp : 153  Time:  60
Sparge Temp :                168  Time:  10

Fullers London Porter Redux
10/21/17

Batch Size (Gal):        12.00    Wort Size (Gal):  11.00
Total Grain (Lbs):      23.00
Anticipated OG:          1.052    Plato:            12.97
Anticipated SRM:          31.2
Anticipated IBU:          28.0
Brewhouse Efficiency:      74 %
Wort Boil Time:            60    Minutes

Actual OG: 1.054

%    Amount    Name                          Origin        Potential SRM

81.3    20.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)              Great Britain  1.038      3
  4.2    1.00 lbs. Crystal 75L                  America        1.034    75
  6.3    1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt                America        1.029    350
  4.2    1.00 lbs. Black Patent Malt            America        1.028    500

Amount    Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time

1.00 oz.    Northern Brewer              Pellet  8.00  15.7  60 min.
  1.00 oz.    Willamette                        Pellet  4.00  7.8  60 min.
  2.00 oz.    Willamette                        Pellet  4.00  4.2  15 min.

Imperial Pub Yeast (same as WYeast 1968 London Extra Special Bitter)

Saccharification Rest Temp : 154  Time:  60
Sparge Temp :                168  Time:  10

2

Has anyone else ever experienced a brewing mistake on a batch that rendered it unpalatable, and attempted to remedy it by blending in a second batch?  Of course I realize that blending beers is quite common, such as fresh beer with a lambic, a solera brew, etc.  But how about a standalone style (if such a thing exists anymore :o)?

Just curious since this is the first time in almost 18 years of brewing this has happened to me.

I’d also be interested in any observations as to whether you think my recipe development is on a good track given my situation.  I’ve only made 5 or 6 porters so far.

Given the standard ingredients in porter, I feel that I responded with a pretty safe, but still flavorful adaptation.

3

This is a good way to hit your target.

I was at a small brewery in Germany, and they were doing a second brew, as the one the day before was 1/2 a degree Plato low, so he was brewing the second to be 1/2 a degree higher for blending. He smiled when he hit that the second day. Must be some German regulation.

4

In his book, “Brewing Porters & Stouts”, Terry Foster states that his research leads him to believe that even though the process used for ‘modern’ brown malt is different brown malt has been in continuous production until today and the maltsters would most likely have tried to keep the flavor as close as possible to the ‘older’ style of brown malt.

5

I believe that’s kind of “pie in the sky” speculation given the range of malts that are referred to as “brown” these days.

6

I appreciate both of those statements, but my research so far favors what Denny said.  Some of the old British recipes use the historic ingredient of brown malt IIRC as high as 40% or so.

As for what is commonly sold today, I normally use Crisp brown malt, but this time bought the Baird that was available at my LHBS and it is definitely a very different color than the Crisp.  And the Baird website warns to use theirs with reserve.  My Google research of online homebrew recipes and forum threads (right after I discovered my mistake) led me to believe that a general consensus is that 12% of grist is most brewers’ upper threshold for brown malt.  My one sample of the fermenting beer - it was a little uncomfortably roast and toasty and had a lingering roast character on the finish.

7

Thanks Jeff.  I’ll blend them tomorrow and report back!  :smiley:

8

I just blended one of the kegs 50/50 with first and second batch of porter, purged, rolled on the floor to mix it up, and hooked it up in the kegerator, including the faucet (he-he).  It turned out really well.  I think I’ll call it Fat Lady Singing.

Lots of brown malt character, little bit of coffee notes, great level of roastiness and complexity without roastiness lingering dominantly on the finish, good body (1.018 FG), malt emphasis from the water treatment.  The addition of black patent in the second batch marries very well without adding burnt flavor/harshness.

I wouldn’t want more brown malt character - it’s right there as prominent but not overbearing.

I’m very happy with the result.

9

Thanks, glad it turned out for you.

10

I’ll choose a less offensive name for it.