Roast porter

Beer Recipes
1

I’m a huge fan of Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter, and I want to brew something similar for a winter session beer. The beer has a huge roasted flavor, a nice hoppiness but still goes down real easy. They have a lot of info (ingredients, IBU’s & ABV) on their website, so I figured I’d take a first pass at cloning it.

This is my first time designing a recipe that uses this much roasted malt, so if anyone has feedback I’ll take it.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Stovepipe Porter Clone

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: Robust Porter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons
Efficiency: 80%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 4.29%
IBU (tinseth): 29.48
SRM (morey): 27.14

FERMENTABLES:
2.5 lb - Pale 2-Row (52.6%)
1 lb - Munich Light (21.1%)
0.5 lb - Caramel / Crystal 60L (10.5%)
0.3 lb - Chocolate (6.3%)
0.25 lb - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (5.3%)
0.2 lb - Roasted Barley (4.2%)

HOPS:
0.15 oz - Nugget (AA 14) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
0.5 oz - Cascade (AA 6.5) for 15 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
0.5 oz - Willamette (AA 5) for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:

  1. Infusion, Temp: 156 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 15 qt, Sacc Rest

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: London (British Bitter, Porter)

2

I just did a porter yesterday. I wanted to use black patent for the roasty flavor. I accidentally used black roasted barley instead. I keep reading that black roasted barley imparts more of a coffee flavor where black patent imparts a good roasty flavor. I went ahead and threw that in too. We shall see how it comes out. My recipe was the following:

Recipe: Ralph’s Muddy Paws Porter
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph The Wonderdog
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 36.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
8 lbs 8.0 oz          Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)          Grain        1        85.0 %       
8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)    Grain        2        5.0 %       
8.0 oz                Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)              Grain        3        5.0 %       
4.0 oz                Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)          Grain        4        2.5 %       
4.0 oz                Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM)        Grain        5        2.5 %       
1.00 oz              Sterling [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop          6        27.8 IBUs   
1.0 pkg              SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast        7        -

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs

Name              Description                            Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In          Add 13.50 qt of water at 162.8 F        152.0 F      60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.80gal, 2.98gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

I accidentally added black roasted barley instead of black patent. After much thought I decided to add my black patent as well. I really wanted a roasty tasting porter. As a result this porter is too dark for the style. Fortunately I am not entering it in a contest so if it tastes good I will be happy.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com

3

I can’t imagine anyone losing points for a porter being too dark, many of the classic styles in the guidelines are black and it is hard to differentiate the SRM of dark beers without diluting them.  I wouldn’t worry about it at all.  Granted, you’re not entering it in a competition so it’s not important, but I wouldn’t let it stop you if it turns out to be great.

4

I also don’t think that 4oz of each (RB and BP) will really put the roast high enough to be out of style. In 5 gallons, I am usually between 8-12oz of roast malt in my robust porters.

5

I bottled this today. I tasted a sample and I am very pleased with the flavor.

6

Reading through this I see I hijacked a thread. I apologize for that and would like an update on the OPs beer.

7

No worries. I finally got around to brewing this on Friday. Had a bunch of issues (overshot my mash temp, undershot my gravity, burned my toe, etc.), but the wort tasted great and is bubbling away as we speak. I’ll report back once the beer is ready.

8

I am convinced there is no such thing as a perfect brew day. I have done 57 batches and haven’t had a day go without incident yet. Often the mistakes or catastrophes actually improve my product.

9

I kinda have the opposite experience usually.  Most of my brew days are so uneventful that when I get done I worry that I’ve forgotten something!

10

Maybe that will eventually come with experience. In the mean time I have come to just accept them as part of my day  8)

11

I’ve been meaning to update this post for a while now. The brew came out good, but not great. I did a side-by-side tasting with the brew I was trying to clone the other night and have some ideas of things I need to change for next time.

The biggest issue was that this brew was definitely more acidic than I was expecting. I don’t have a pH meter, but up to this point Brunwater has gotten me right where I wanted for pale and amber brews. This is my first all-grain brew with a large portion of dark roasted malts. I shot for a mash pH of 5.4, but I have no real way to confirm that’s what I got. I’m not quite sure what the best approach will be to get me in the right range, but I guess I’ll just cut my acid addition to shoot for a pH a couple of points higher next time.

It’s amazing how much of a difference some acidity makes in a beer like this. When I tasted my brew side-by-side with Stovepipe Porter, my beer had quite a muted roast and hop character, while the commercial example had a big roastiness and a snappy hop bite (although some of that was sulfates, I’ll be replacing some CaCl2 with more gypsum when I rebrew). I could tell by color that I used more roast malt than the commercial beer, but theirs tasted a lot more roasty.

All-in-all, this was a good brew, but I definitely need to tweak it a bit.