AG#6 Aire Porter

[broadfordbrewer]

Aire Porter - I'm aiming to brew a porter / light stout in an attempt to clone the excellent Porterhouse Plain Porter. They use a late kettle hop for added complexity and to acheive an aromatic character - I've gone for First Gold. I should get a rich roasty, dry, clean, bitter beer.

I'm planning to brew this one evening next week, after the festivities :)
Thought welcome, cheers.

Malts:
Maris Otter Pale Malt (3kg) – 81.1%
Crystal Malt (180g) – 4.9%
Flaked Oats (180g) – 4.9%
Roasted Barley (170g) – 4.6%
Black Malt (170g) – 4.6%

Hops:
Galena 10g – 12.0% @90mins
Galena 15g – 12.0% @30mins
First Gold 15g – 7.9% @10mins
First Gold 30g – 7.9% @5mins
First Gold 45g – 7.9% @0mins (steep 20 mins)

Final Volume: 19 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.3% ABV
Bitterness: 46.2 IBU
Colour: 33.6 SRM
Yeast: Nottingham
Mash: 90mins @ 67c
Boil: 90mins

 

[Franklin]

I could be wrong, but I don't think Roasted Barley is usually a component of a Porter, think Choc malt, Pale Choc, Black malt.
You could probably double the Crystal
Any further thoughts on this?

 

[leedsbrew]

My thoughts exactly. I have found that brown malt is really the defining malt of a porter.

Now if you want to get really clever mix special B with rauchmalz to emulate the traditional english diastatic brown malt like they had 'back in the day'.

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Thanks guys. Would Roasted Barley be acceptable if it was a light stout?

 

[thejesmonddingo]

Yes,I think you'll enjoy your Aire Light Stout all the more for knowing what it is :whistle:
Ian

 

[leedsbrew]

I reckon it'll be grand Dave!

BTW are we still on for Sat at Foleys? Any idea of time?

 

[Franklin]

to tell you the truth, I'd totally forgotten it was this Sat until like... yesterday!

 

[leedsbrew]

me too. I don't mind putting it back if no one can make it!

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Yes,I think you'll enjoy your Aire Light Stout all the more for knowing what it is :whistle:
Ian

Thanks for that, really helpful

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Ade / Neil,

I've taken your advice and tweaked the recipe. Out with the roasted barley, in with brown malt. Cheers for the advice.

I can't make Saturday as you know...sorry to be a pain. I'm happy for you to meet without me. Other wise, the first two weekends in Feb should be ok for me.

 

[leedsbrew]

Nice one matey! I think you'll defenitley enjoy the brown malt!

As for 'black IPA off' Feb is fine by me man! Never leave a man behind! might add a bit more Amarillo in the keg though between now and then! Or is that being a bit cheeky?

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Hop away!!

Cheers, I don't really want to miss out, but also don't want to stop it taking place (I.e. I know you will be busy soon!!) I'll tweet the others and see what they think.

 

[broadfordbrewer]

I brewed this on Saturday 7th.

Malts:
Maris Otter Pale Malt – 76.1%
Brown Malt – 8.4%
Crystal Malt – 7.9%
Black Malt – 3.8%
Flaked Oats – 3.8%

Hops:
Galena 10g – 12.0% @90mins
Galena 10g – 12.0% @30mins
First Gold 10g – 7.8% @10mins
First Gold 40 g – 7.8% @0mins(steep 20 mins)

Final Volume: 19 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.2% ABV
Bitterness: 31.4 IBU
Colour: 28.9 SRM
Yeast: Safale US-05
Mash: 90mins @ 66c
Boil: 90mins
Water treatment: In the HLT 1 camden tablet. In the mash 3.4g gypsum. In the boil 4.4g gypsum, 3.8g epsom salts.


Got a green light to brew late yesterday afternoon and sprung into action. It’s always good to have bought in what you need for your next recipe to allow you to seize the moment. This was my sixth full mash brew (AG#6) and an attempt to brew something similar to a beer I recently enjoyed. This will be my take on the Porterhouse Plain Porter. I understand it should have been bittered with Cluster hops, but substituted these for Galena (due to availability). The late kettle hop is First Gold and the idea was to brew something dry, clean and bitter without any sourness.

As with most brew days, there is at least one thing that will go wrong, in this instance it was the last minute realisation that either I made a mistake on my order and ending up with Flaked Barley rather than Flaked Oats. An eagle-eyed brewer spotted this when I posted a photo of my grist on Twitter. Thanks Sean

Moving on from this minor glitch I used what I turned the HLT on and weighed my malts out. The mash was the next thing to go slightly wayward, when you have your 4 year old being helpful and when you are trying to help cook the dinner and get the kids to bed, things tend to slip. I had the HLT to strike temp of 78C and added a kettle of boiling water to the mash tun to pre-heat it. Time passed. I came to mash in, but forget to re-heat the tun, this meant that I had to mess around to get the mash temp to my target 66C.

Mashing out, HLT temp set to 78C again and a quick temperature check on the tun told me that something had gone wrong. It was 62C, I usually only lose a degree over 90 mins. Carried on with the brew, batch sparging. I usually try to take hydrometer readings throughout the mash, but decided to try to do this by tasting the wort. This worked in that I got some experience of this method. I stopped sparging with 3L water left in the HLT.

Got the boil on, 90 minute boil with the additions detailed above. FOr my 19L brew length I collected 13.6L at around 1.058 (temp corrected). I decided to liquor back and added 5L boiled/treated liquor. giving me a final volume of 18.6L at OG of 1.044.

Pitched the US-05 yeast when the temp hit 23C Happy with this, but there are some learning points:

- Check your ingredients well before your brewday.
- Always pre-heat mash tun with boiling water.
- When the mash tun is half empty, correct the strike temp? or at least give the tun some external insulation.
- When sparging, use the calculated liquor volume to avoid having to liquor back so much.

You can see the rest of the pics here http://s1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/broadfordbrewery/AG6 Broadford Aire Porter/.

 

[broadfordbrewer]

now with pics

 

[leedsbrew]

Nice work D! Very slight mishaps that probably won't interfere with te final beer anyway! Looks like it'll e a winner! You gonna bring it to the 2nd Leeds HB meet of the year? Are you gonna be there on thursday?

 

[broadfordbrewer]

Cheers mate. I'll bring it to the 2nd meeting if it turns out ok and yes I'll be there on Thursday, hopefully for 7pm this time...I missed out last time. Are you taking your BIPA? can't decide whether to take mine?

 

[leedsbrew]

Cool! i was thinking about it as the galaxy amber I planned on taking is still on the dry hops. although I may be able to get it carbonated in time as i plan on banging it in a corni. I think I'm going to have a taste of Ulysses tonight and decide.

Have we decided on a date for BIPAO yet?

 

[broadfordbrewer]

I didn't reply again re: the BIPAO as I was feeling sheepish for getting the meet cancelled. I could do second week in Feb (not the first weekend as I mentioned as it's my sons birthday - a slight oversight) or another weekend, but would need to see what thy suggestions were first.

 

[leedsbrew]

no worries man! Like I said, as far as I'm concerned everyone should be there. Best to get on twitter and try and get is in everyones diaries eh!?