Thoughts on a baltic porter

Beer Recipes
1

I’ve been thinking about brewing a baltic porter with the chillier months coming up.

I’ve brewed an imperial porter using Denny’s BVIP recipe, only leaving out the bourbon and vanilla. Quite an enjoyable porter.

So I am thinking of using basically the same recipe:
        65.8% 2 row
          7.6% brown malt
          2.5% crystal 40
        12.7% munich 10L
          5.1% crystal 120
          6.3% chocolate
    Magnum at 60 minutes and East Kent Golding at 10 minutes to a total of 30 IBU
    S-23 yeast
    lager at 32-35* for 4 weeks after fermentation is complete.

Using the efficiency of my system this comes out to about OG = 1.085. Looking for a FG = 1.025 or so.

Any thoughts or suggestions? All are welcome.

2

Right off the bat, I would ditch the S-23 yeast.  Are you looking to do a lager yeast or cooler ale strain?

3

I haven’t brewed but one baltic porter in the past so my experience is limited and I used a Kolsch yeast for that. But from my reading and my understanding is that a lager yeast would be preferred over an ale strain.

I was looking at dry yeast and have little experience with liquid lager yeast.

My LHBS carries White yeast so possibly Copenhagen Lager WLP850 or German Lager WLP830.

4

here’s mine that i just posted on after 8-months-quite tasty. i use london ale yeast

Amt                               Name Type #                   %/IBU
9 lbs               Pale Malt Avangard (3.3 SRM)           67.9 %
1 lbs 8.0oz      Munich Malt light-Avangard (5.0 SRM)   11.3 %
1 lbs               Brown Malt (Crisp) (65.0 SRM)           7.5 %
12.0 oz       Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)           5.7 %
8.0 oz       Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)  3.8 %
6.0 oz       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)     2.8 %
2.0 oz       Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)             0.9 %

5

Just a thought. Baltic Porter is neither roasty or hoppy. You can use fair amount of dark Munich in there.

Happy brewing.

6

Agreed. When I think Baltic Porter, the first words to come to mind are “rich” and “balanced”. I get a fair amount of roast out of something like Sinebrychoff (love that beer!), but the malty richness comes first and the roast is just there to balance it out.

To the OP, if you’re looking for a dry strain, 34/70 is a good choice for this style.

7

my bad- mine is robust porter not baltic…12B

8

riceral, that recipe looks pretty good.  Here’s the tweaks I would suggest:

Mash hot and fast, about 153 F for just 30 minutes, to ensure a higher final gravity.  Otherwise it’s going down to about 1.020, which is okay but perhaps not in line with your goal of 1.025.

Maybe try a different yeast such as Wyeast 2206 or 2308, or the dry W-34/70, rather than S-23 that would make it more fruity.

Consider trading some of your chocolate malt for black patent for even more complexity.

Also consider that your efficiency might suck with a big beer like this.  If you normally get 75% efficiency with 1.060 beers, keep in mind that your efficiency might drop to as low as 50% for a monster like this.  If you set up your brewing software like this, you are more likely to achieve your OG goal of 1.085.  Otherwise you might only hit 1.060s or 70s.

The above tweaks are all optional.  Recipe looks pretty tasty as it is!  Enjoy.

9

Use a lot of Munich and Vienna malt. Some sugars would help, even some Molassas if used judiciously.