I'm attempting to formulate a robust porter recipe and would like help deciding which is more appropriate for the style; Black Patent or Dehusked Carafa III?
Black Patent Option:
76.8% 2-Row
10.1% Dark Munich
6.1% Crystal 40
4.0% Chocolate
3.0% Black Patent
Dehusked Carafa III Option:
78.4% 2-Row
10.3% Dark Munich
6.2% Crystal 40
3.1% Dehusked Carafa III
2.1% Chocolate
From what I have gathered Black Patent gives a very sharp, roasty edge to a beer, often with some bitter and acidic notes. To me there should be a well balance between roasty and sweetness in a Porter. My thought was to use Dehusked Carafa III to add color and body while retaining a nice smooth flavor without the bitterness. Thoughts?
Robust Porter Recipe Help
Moderator: Jimmy Orkin
- Thors Brother
- Posts: 50
- Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:31 am
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
I prefer black patent but why not use a little of both?
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
Quick question from a newbie: Is the % by volume, weight, fermentable content or something else?
Thanks for bearing with my inexperienced questions.
Thanks for bearing with my inexperienced questions.
- Bill Lawrence
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:18 am
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
In my humble opinion, the whole trick with porter is to get the balance right between the sweetness provided by the base malt and the crystal and the toast/roast provided by the darker character grains. If you can get an initial sweetness going with maybe some toffee/caramel followed up by some nice roasty flavors, well it's just sublime. With a robust porter, you can actually get away with a little bit of Roasted Barley (but not alot otherwise people will start calling it a stout). Dehusked Carafa is really good at adding color without very much roast at all, I use it all the time to color beers I want to get darker but without the roast. Another malt which you see in porters (especially the really good stuff) is brown malt. That stuff has a very distinct flavor which I really like, try Meantime porter sometime, really great beer. I agree with the previous poster though, I would probably go for a mix, unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly what proportion will work best, it's sort of a multiple iteration type exercise. I don't make the robust variety very often as I have this semi-erotic/sexual thing going with brown porter. A few years ago, I screwed around with a variation on an Edmund Fitzgerald clone that turned our really well and as I recall that stuff had some roasted barley in the grist. I will for sure be making another brown porter for the COC and Limbo (and I'll use the yeast cake to ferment an Olde Ale) and if I have time and space, maybe I'll dust off my old robust recipe and crank some of that out as well, it's been awhile.
Remember, brewers make wort, only yeast make beer
- Bill Lawrence
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:18 am
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
% by volume is a measure of the alchol percentage to the total by volume (ie; 100ml of beer that has 10ml alchol is a 10% beer). This is always greater than the % by weight as alchol weights less per a given volume than does water. Actually though, unless you make beer just to get drunk (which I doubt since Thunderbird is more effective from a cost/efficiency perspective than brewing your own beer), it's not particularly important when ginning up recipes. Just as a rough rule of thumb, a 1.050 beer is going to be roughly 5%, give or take. I would say that the top end for homemade beer would be about 10% as most beer yeasts don't do too well above that concentration (some barleywines reach this level). Of course meade might be a different story, some of that stuff gets up there. That's why you need to be careful when Wayne starts coming around with some of his offerings, it's very drinkable but it's also dangerous.
Remember, brewers make wort, only yeast make beer
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
Excellent. Thanks for the explanation. I was more curious about the % splits for the grains/malts discussed in this thread. Are those by volume, weight or something else?
- Bill Lawrence
- Posts: 374
- Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:18 am
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
Oh, I misunderstood your question, they are by weight.
Remember, brewers make wort, only yeast make beer
Re: Robust Porter Recipe Help
Thanks for the well thought out comments. Here is the revised recipe in it's entirety.
Code: Select all
BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Robust Porter
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (0.0)
Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 12.86 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.46 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 28.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
19 lbs Great Western 2-Row Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 77.6 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Weyermann Light Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.2 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Briess Crystal 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.1 %
12.0 oz Pauls Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.1 %
8.0 oz Weyermann Dehusked Carafa II (430.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.0 %
4.0 oz Pauls Black Patent Malt (550.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.0 %
1.20 oz Magnum [13.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 27.1 IBUs
1.00 oz EK Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 6.0 IBUs
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 10 -
1.00 oz EK Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg English Ale (WLP002) 3L Starter Yeast 12 -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Equal Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 24 lbs 8.0 oz
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 30.63 qt of water at 167.3 F 154.0 F 60 min
Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, 4.54 gal, 4.54 gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
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Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
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