Black Stuff (Porter)

Here is one I made earlier, January to be precise, which has been a success. Picture link below...

All Grain Recipe
Batch Size: 19.0L
Total Grain (kg): 4.170
Total Hops (g): 44.00
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV: 4.88 %
Colour (SRM): 40.4 (EBC): 79.6
IBU: 44.2 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 80

3.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (71.94%)
0.270 kg Crystal 120 Dark (6.47%)
0.270 kg Crystal 75 (6.47%)
0.270 kg Wheat Malt (6.47%)
0.180 kg Black Malt (4.32%)
0.180 kg Chocolate (4.32%)

22.0 g Chinook Leaf (12.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.2 g/L)
22.0 g Brewers Gold Leaf (6.9% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (1.2 g/L)

Safale S-04

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 75 Minutes.

an interesting post. How 'stout' like is it ? Does it have a high or low hop profile ? High I imagine with 44 IBU's. Why the choice of the modern hops ?

Lots of questions I know but my very next brew is going to be a porter ... I am looking to do the traditional Victorian style porter as proposed by Terry Foster (the doctor) in his book all about porter. I'll be using Goldings ... traditional. Unfortunately, I don't know what I am heading for, not having tried a pint of porter ever. My old dad, who is from the east end, tells me that is more like a stout. Judging on the figures, I imagine it is more of a thinner, hoppier but dark beer ... all input would be appreciated. :

Your dad is pretty much right. It could easily be classed as a stout. Except that there is no clear differentiation between a porter and a stout. Stout originally meant strong and the word was applied to different types of ale to mean strong, so a stout porter was a strong porter.

Nowadays stouts are widely interpreted as having a more roasted flavour - so more of the darkest malts, esp roasted barley and/or black malt. This recipe is relatively low, having no roasted barley, and 4% ish black, so it's probably between the two styles, I think. The roast malt flavour is low for a stout, but more than a Porter, I guess.

I wouldn't say it's overly hoppy. The malts dominate. And you can't tell it uses non-traditional hops, in my opinion. I chose them to see what would happen. I like Chinook as a bittering hop, and I am a big Brewer's Gold fan. The beer has a richness, probably a mixture of malts and hops. BG is quite a fruity hop, in my experience.

It's not a thin beer. It has a very smooth mouthfeel, more oily than watery, I would say. I would happily brew it again, but I would probably change the yeast. The S04 has done a grand job, I just prefer other yeasts, I think. I did a stout with US-05, and that really accentuated the malt flavours, I really liked it. Not traditional, but it works. American stouts use clean American yeasts, and American hops. But I would probably use WLP002, which is a great yeast, and would make a great Porter. It's Fullers' yeast, supposedly, and Fullers Porter is a highly regarded traditional porter. Which uses pale malt, crystal, brown malt and chocolate malt. No RB or black, which would make it a stout, in modern terms.

I currently have a Black IPA in the FV, with WLP002. Looking forward to sampling it in a few weeks.

Thanks very much for the FULL reply.

I know I have been imagining my beer more as a dark beer where the bitterness comes from the 'malt' rather than the hops without it going over into the 'stout' thing. I had imagined that the beer would be of similar consistency to an ESB but with the extra speciality malts dominating the background ...

The clues on the yeast are more than welcome. I have been using the Gervin GV 12 and I am currently experimenting with Safale US 05 ... results in a month or so. Getting hold of the White Labs yeast is not possible for me, I'll have to stick with the readily available dried yeasts ... or develop my own strain, and seeing the sanitary conditions downstairs I think I would be more likely to hit upon a sour beer ... so I'll stick with what I can get hold of.

The Black IPA is interesting ... keep me posted

Muchos Gracias :hat:

The Gervin yeast will do a good job. Mauribrew Ale 514 is a good yeast that would suit a porter well too. I've not tried any Mangrove Jacks yet, maybe one of those would work.

That porter looks and sounds great, will have to put that on my to do list. am doing a wit beer next then a stout, so might switch to your porter instead.

Question, is the porter more like an old english stout, as opposed to the irish bitter version?

Also a black IPA sounds good, will have a crack at that once I have sampled my first IPA which is now maturing in bottles down in my cellar

Do I follow the same IPA recipe but use dark or chocolate malt instead ??

Yes, it is more like an old English stout than a bitter Irish stout. It's not too sweet though.

The Black IPA has turned out fantastic, it is quite roasty, so it is like a very hoppy stout. But is is smooth, not harsh or acidic.The WLP002 works well in it, but it would be good with Nottingham, US05 or SO4 etc. See here...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=45520&highlight=cascadian