Young's American Mocha Porter

Spotted that my LHBS had this new addition to the young's craft range and having an empty FV I thought it would be rude not to, especially as I appear to be becoming a bit of a young's fanboy.

The box is a 3kg kit to make 30 pints that has:
2.4kg of wort
650g (from our baking scales) of brewing sugar
10g American Ale yeast and
a bag of priming sugar.



I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a hops pack like in the IPA and AAA. However, when I opened the wort pouch I was instantly hit with a wonderful coffee/chocolate aroma, that got stronger and better as I mixed the kit up. The coffee/chocolate almost entirely masked any smell of malt from the wort and I now understood that no additional flavours were going to be needed from dry hopping.


I have possibly brewed it a little shorter than the 17.5 litres suggested in the instructions, mostly due to guesstimating on my FV.


SG from the very tasty wort sample was 1.050 with an advertised FG of 1.010, I think I'm going to be a bit short of the target 5.8% but can live with that if it tastes, even half, as good as it initially smells.


I dry pitched the yeast as I have done with all (5 now) of my young's kits to date, at around 24 degrees (maybe a bit high when rereading the instructions) and tucked it away in the shed in a thermawrap off cut blanket. No bubbles in the airlock within the first 5 hours, but I know that's not anything to panic about.

My starter kit came with the young's american IPA and my friends and I have been very impressed with quality of the final product of these kits. I'm a wee bit miffed that this kit is 75% of the size of the others for the same price, although I have seen several porter kits being only a 30 pint brew.
As mentioned above the aroma of this kit is amazing and appears to be what I wanted from this brew. I am looking really looking forward to having this to alternate alongside the IPA bottled earlier this month.

I'll keep you all in the loop.

No bubbles in the airlock this morning....as the top of the airlock was on the floor!
Gueas the party was in the FV last night :-)
Bubbling tube (quickly) set up and now off to work.

I have done the AAA from Young's which I am not massively impressed with (not helped by the fact that for some reason my batch prime didn't work very well and most of the bottles have been dead flat).... however Mocha Porter sounds right up my street, I love coffee porters / stouts so I had seen this one- I'll watch this thread with great interest!

Hengoedbrewer said:

I have done the AAA from Young's which I am not massively impressed with (not helped by the fact that for some reason my batch prime didn't work very well and most of the bottles have been dead flat).... however Mocha Porter sounds right up my street, I love coffee porters / stouts so I had seen this one- I'll watch this thread with great interest!

Click to expand...

I had to reprime my AAA due to a leaking co2 cap on my pressure barrel. It's now had 39 days in the barrel and about halfway down. The AAA is a nice pint but I enjoyed the ipa so much more.

Despite the 10 day to complete fermentation suggested in the instructions, I think this kit is going to be left for 3 weeks from the look of my calendar. Bubbling away nicely despite the FV stick on thermometer reading about 20 degrees.

I see there's also a new Youngs kit - Red India Ale - which is also only a 30 pint kit.

I have three questions:
1) are the 30 pint kits suitable for kegging or will there be too much headroom?
2) are there new kits really worth the 25% reduction in final product?
3) are youngs just getting stingy now that we're all hooked?!:evil:

1) I don't see why not - some forumites find that bottling a gallon or two actually helps the flow in their pressure barrels.
2) I'll get back to you. As mentioned I'm aware of other porter kits being just 30 pints.
3) I hope not.

How is your mocha porter going?

A week into fermentation...
Temp maybe a bit cold in the shed (16-18 degrees) so planning to give it a full 3 weeks in the FV, which fits the diary nicely too. Quite a lively start to fermentation but bubbling away nicely.

First reading today after just under 3 weeks in the FV. Lovely looking colour, very subtle coffee aroma. Sample jar was very tasty - nice bitterness, with a good mocha aftertaste, I'd possible like a stronger mocha kick but it's still got to condition :-)

Has dropped to 1.012 so about 5.1%

What was in the sample jar was really clear already. Planning on bottling on Thursday.

That looks superb

As planned, today was bottling day :???: (still not sure if I enjoy it or not).

Siphoned to bottling bucket, loving the rich dark colour following through the siphon.



Managed exactly 30 bottles including a carbonation bottle.


(Not all shown here)

Had half a bottle left over and had that as a sample, after thoroughly enjoying what I had tasted through suck starting the siphon (it hasn't bitten me yet - really hope it doesn't with this kit...).

I could honestly drink this right now, it has had 3 weeks in the FV at about 18 degrees. The half bottle, while flat, had a fantastic taste with a very nice coffee chocolate after taste, subtle but definitely there (better than Monday's trial jar but that might be because there was more of it).

Something has got to go badly wrong in the bottles for me not to enjoy this kit. Can see me doing this one again and soon.

Big thumbs up from me :thumbif you hadn't guessed).
Negatives are: it is only a 30 pint kit, it will probably disappear too quickly and I won't want to share it...:shock:

Decided to try one of my 330ml samples a week after bottling.

As expected very little carbonation, so minimal head and not that different from the sample jar at bottling. Reasonable head retention as it went down.

Nice hint of coffee aroma, and lots of flavour behind the initial bitter porter hit.

Will try to leave the 2nd 330ml sample for another week and will try the carbonation bottle at 3 weeks.

2nd 330ml sample bottle report.

More carbonation :-)
Good head retention :-)
Flavours maybe a little bit mellower... :-(
Still very drinkable :-D

couple of quick questions:

What temp are you storing the bottles at?

Also can you explain the purpose of the carbonation bottle

Got the Youngs IPA on the go and trial jar samples were looking good. Think these kits are high end

Kimo

I've been very impressed with the young's American craft kits (most of my Brews to date ).

My only option for brewing and bottle storage is the shed which varies greatly, and my current brews (finishing the end of this week) will be my last. Tried to build some insulated boxes, but the temperature swings have been too large. Temperature in the shed has dropped from about 18 to 12 degrees during the day the last few weeks.
Ideally bottles should be stored at the same temp you fermented at for 2 weeks and then somewhere cooler for a further 2.

This was my first time using a carbonation bottle, the idea is you can physically feel the build up of pressure in the bottle. The water bottle didn't appear to be the best choice, think a 500ml juice bottle may be the best option for future.

Cracked a 3 week old bottle of this while bottling this afternoon (and had another while capping....)

Good coffee nose and the flavours were very much back.

From a heavy handed pour of the 2nd (which had a much larger head) the mocha flavour is very present in the head so leaving these to properly carbonate may be what delays the consumption of the rest of the batch.

Very tempted to get another of these on before Xmas as I have an empty PB...

Mine appears stuck at 1.016 after three weeks in my kitchen. Only third ever attempt, first in a while...help!!!

What temp you fermenting at?
Did you brew short?


First idea would be give it a stir and warm it up a bit.

Not sure temp, or what brew short means! Didn't think I'd be "allowed" to stir...will try that now...! I am brewing 20l kit in 15l vessel...don't ask!!!

Sorry, temperature. Brew short refers to the volume of your brew, so if it's a 40 pint kit and you want it a little stronger and more body you make it to say 36 pints, 4 pints short, brewed short.

I won't ask! but I'm guessing you've brewed short and this is the reason why your at 1016, it's probably finished, it doesn't always ferment out to kit instructions and won't if you've added less water, but a stir won't hurt and yes your allowed to.
Good luck :grin:

Rob.