Being my first porter style beer it was pretty good. So, I thought, why not see if there is a recipe out there that I can try myself… I have found a couple and they look good, but I wanted to check with the experts. Do any of you have a good porter recipe that is fairly easy to do and is close to the Russian River porter I had? Being it was in the 9% ABV I am guessing the grain bill must be rather large, so I would also need to make sure my kettle or the new grainfather I have coming could handle it. But, I digress, are there any porter brewers out there willing to share a recipe? Thanks in advance to any replies.
Found a conversation on another forum claiming a conversation with the head brewer at Russian River who did not provide a recipe but did offer some basic info including the grain bill. Not so sure about that OG and apparently neither was the OP so he added DME to bring the final ABV up to 9+%.
Grain Bill:
2-row
Crystal 75L (that’s what I assume he meant by C-75)
Smoked Malt
Chocolate Molt
Aromatic Malt
Special-B malt
Honey malt
Carafa-3 Special malt
OG 1.081 (he gave it to me in Plato: 19.6)
Mash temp 153F
Hops (90 minute boil)
Bittered with Northern Brewer (apparently in interview vinnie has said they add bittering hops for 60 minutes even in a 90 minute boil so we can assume it’s for 60 minutes
He said Styrian Golding in the “mid-boil” (maybe 45 minutes?) and at 15 minutes
White Labs CA Ale Yeast
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The recipe looks like it could use some editing down to loose specialty malts (I’d pull the Special-B, the Honey, and probably the aromatic).
To the OP: Find a good published recipe (not from the internet, from a book that has an editing staff)- I like both Brewing Classic Styles and The Mashmaker as they both contain solid, tried-and-true recipes from expert brewers. Best approach for your first porter.
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OP, try sending an email to Vinnie at Russian River. He has been very supportive of homebrewers in the past.
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The notes I posted came from Vinnie at RR.
Well that’s confirmation that they are still homebrewer friendly.
To all who replied I appreciate it. Got some great ideas and will be trying one or two and see where it leads me.
Vinnie will give you the shirt off his back. I’ve never had anything but great interactions with the man.
Same. A friend and I talked his ear off about homebrewing for like twenty minutes at GABF and he was extremely polite about answering questions and hanging out with us.
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