I love Sierra Nevada’s porter but for several years have rarely encountered it at my liquor stores. Who has a clone recipe for this beer that’s tried and true and you can vouch that it’s fairly spot-on? Thanks in advance.
I definitely do not have a clone for it, but this is on SN’s website. You probably have already seen it.
Malts
Two-row Pale, Caramelized malts, Munich, Chocolate, Carafa, Black
Hops
Aurora, Yakima Golding
Yeast
Ale Yeast
5.6% ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
32 BITTERNESS UNITS
13.8° ORIGINAL GRAVITY
3.5° FINISHING GRAVITY
183 CALORIES
16.5g CARBOHYDRATES
Thanks Megary - yes I have seen this from Sierra Nevada, which does at least give me some guideposts thank goodness. Am also though wondering what proportions/quantities folks have determined makes for a pretty decent knock-off. Interestingly it looks more complex (i.e. more ingredients) than many porters - - they say caramelized malts, plural, leading me to presume perhaps two shades of caramel/crystal versus just one, and utilize carafa, black, plus chocolate to get the roast & color whereas I see lots of porter recipes calling for just 2 dark malts - though I’m thinking the carafa may be more about color than flavor for the SN.
You can try emailing them. Some of the major breweries are pretty giving to the community. I will look in my Sierra issue of BYO and see if they have this recipe in it. I don’t remember what is…
Pale, Ruthless, Ovila Quad, Bigfoot, and Celebration. No Porter.
Thanks for checking. Yes, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to email - might just do that. In the meantime, I’d still love to see someone post a good clone recipe here. Anyone…??
It won’t be as good as what you’ll get from SN…
Just to follow up, for the few folks who responded to my OP - and I guess close the door on this one…
I emailed Sierra Nevada 10 days ago asking if they could provide any clue beyond what’s on their website that might help me formulate a homebrew recipe to approximate their porter. When you email it indicates they generally reply within a few days. I’ve heard nary a peep from them so I think that’s a no-go. Well, it cost me nothing to ask. In the meantime I’ve looked at a few recipes homebrewers have posted elsewhere for an SN porter clone and have devised something I’ll take a shot at next weekend. No doubt will be a tasty porter fit for the coming cold months even if it’s not exactly like Sierra Nevada’s.
Okay, so I have a total take-back!!! I’m constantly being presented with reminders to be more patient. It took several days but I got a very nice email from the folks at Sierra Nevada with the porter recipe. Prost!
Woot! Glad there was a happy ending. That’s my second favorite porter. Can’t find it ever so I mostly drink Black Butte lol
Any possibility of sharing the recipe?
Was just waiting for someone to ask! Here’s exactly what they said…
Malts:
82.6% pale malt [apparently in breaking it down to homebrew scale they retained the narrow percentages - right on!]
9.4% Munich malt, 10 Lovibond
3.8% chocolate malt
3.8% crystal 60 L malt
0.4% Carafa special type 3, dehusked roasted malt
0.2% black malt
Mash in 60 minutes at 154F
Salts favor calcium chloride over calcium sulfate 2:1
Hops are currently Sterling at start of boil, and Aurora mid and late boil, hopping rates are light. (These can change from time to time believe it or not, depending on what we have to work with). No dry hops.
Target beer specs are
OG - 13.8 Plato
AE - 3.5 Plato
ABV - 5.6
IBU - 32
Color - 39 SRM
Thanks for sharing that!
Let us know how it comes out if you decide to brew it.
Will do! I plan to brew it some time in the next 2 weeks, then will post my results. Ideally I would track down some of the SN porter to do a side by side, but as said in my OP part of the reason for wanting the recipe is because it’s hard to find the SN in stores where I’m at. I’m under no illusion that I’m going to replicate their beer - just hope to come close.
aurora is one of the most underappreciated hops out there.
Awesome! Did they say anything about the yeast? I guess Chico?
Something is wrong with this recipe. I put it into BeerSmith 3 and I am only getting an SRM in the low 20s even with darkest chocolate malt at 500 L. The amounts of Carafa Special III and Black malt are not enough to add much color, and perhaps not much flavor, either. Scaled to a 5 gallon batch, they are about 1 oz of Carafa Special III and 0.5 oz of Black malt. I suspect that those quantities should be higher.
What I included above is the totality of their email EXACTLY as sent, other than the niceties of “Thanks for getting in touch” and “Good luck and happy brewing!”
I’m going to assume the Chico SN yeast strain - they did not specify strain, nor did they specify fermentation temp.
And yes I too spotted the problem with plugging it into Beersmith and getting a lighter SRM than they cite. I will likely be using 2 oz of carafa and 1 oz of black malt and the dark chocolate malt I have available at the LHBS is 400L.
OK. Good luck and happy brewing!