Brown Porter- Greg Hughes Recipe

[jayk34]

Looking for some input from anyone who has brewed this before.

It has only been in the bottle 3.5 weeks but just wanted to see if anyone has tested theirs early and found a sherry like taste. Was hoping that it wasn't oxidation and would mellow out with a bit of conditioning. Worried that it might be oxidation as I used a new syphon to transfer some of the beer that was sucking in air.

Cheers

 

[matt76]

I've made it a couple of times, plus other similar Porter recipes. General consensus is it should be a cracking pint.

I don't really know what sherry tastes like but you do see mentions here and there of sherry and/or vinous flavours developing as stronger porters age, but 3.5 weeks is pretty young.

First time I made it I tried a bottle at 2 weeks and noticed a significant improvement after 4. If it's been packaged ok it should keep months and months.

Depending how many bottles you've got it see try one every week or two and see if it improves. If it doesn't then you know what you did wrong and can did it next time. The only challenge here is being able to be brutally honest with yourself if you know it's not right.

On a related note, if it's an auto syphon you're using chuck it in the bin. I'm sure they're great if they work but they're needlessly complicated and cause problems if they don't. A length of tube and a large syringe to start the syphon is all you need.

 

[jayk34]

I've made it a couple of times, plus other similar Porter recipes. General consensus is it should be a cracking pint.

I don't really know what sherry tastes like but you do see mentions here and there of sherry and/or vinous flavours developing as stronger porters age, but 3.5 weeks is pretty young.

First time I made it I tried a bottle at 2 weeks and noticed a significant improvement after 4. If it's been packaged ok it should keep months and months.

Depending how many bottles you've got it see try one every week or two and see if it improves. If it doesn't then you know what you did wrong and can did it next time. The only challenge here is being able to be brutally honest with yourself if you know it's not right.

On a related note, if it's an auto syphon you're using chuck it in the bin. I'm sure they're great if they work but they're needlessly complicated and cause problems if they don't. A length of tube and a large syringe to start the syphon is all you need.

I've made it a couple of times, plus other similar Porter recipes. General consensus is it should be a cracking pint.

I don't really know what sherry tastes like but you do see mentions here and there of sherry and/or vinous flavours developing as stronger porters age, but 3.5 weeks is pretty young.

First time I made it I tried a bottle at 2 weeks and noticed a significant improvement after 4. If it's been packaged ok it should keep months and months.

Depending how many bottles you've got it see try one every week or two and see if it improves. If it doesn't then you know what you did wrong and can did it next time. The only challenge here is being able to be brutally honest with yourself if you know it's not right.

On a related note, if it's an auto syphon you're using chuck it in the bin. I'm sure they're great if they work but they're needlessly complicated and cause problems if they don't. A length of tube and a large syringe to start the syphon is all you need.

Yeah. The autosyphon has been repurposed. Can't remember exactly but I think I done about 6 bottles with it and then stopped as there was constantly air bring dragged through at an alarming rate.

I tried 1 bottle from the last set of bottles done without the autosyphon and it didn't have the taste, so fingers crossed it was just the bottles that had been done with it or maybe a case of longer conditioning time mellowing out the flavour. Just have to try and resist the urge of drinking more to let it condition a bit longer

 

[matt76]

Yeah. The autosyphon has been repurposed. Can't remember exactly but I think I done about 6 bottles with it and then stopped as there was constantly air bring dragged through at an alarming rate.

I tried 1 bottle from the last set of bottles done without the autosyphon and it didn't have the taste, so fingers crossed it was just the bottles that had been done with it or maybe a case of longer conditioning time mellowing out the flavour. Just have to try and resist the urge of drinking more to let it condition a bit longer

Oh, OK, I see. Well I think you probably have your answer there! First two brews I ever did I used the autosyphon that came in a starter kit, it sucked in a load of air and sure enough after a couple of weeks they all oxidised and tasted of wet cardboard Threw the damn thing in the bin and never had the same problem again. So well done you for realising what was happening and sorting it on the fly

By the way, if you're into your Porters, the GH recipe is really good. This Josh Weikert recipe is also worth a look next time, it's not radically different but uses chocolate rye malt which adds something different. I've also made this one a couple of times and more recently tried a variation on it (see v1 here and v2 here).

 

[jayk34]

Oh, OK, I see. Well I think you probably have your answer there! First two brews I ever did I used the autosyphon that came in a starter kit, it sucked in a load of air and sure enough after a couple of weeks they all oxidised and tasted of wet cardboard Threw the damn thing in the bin and never had the same problem again. So well done you for realising what was happening and sorting it on the fly

By the way, if you're into your Porters, the GH recipe is really good. This Josh Weikert recipe is also worth a look next time, it's not radically different but uses chocolate rye malt which adds something different. I've also made this one a couple of times and more recently tried a variation on it (see v1 here and v2 here).

It's certainly a steep learning curve and making plenty of mistakes but hopefully never to be repeated.

I really love dark beers but have been trying to taste different kinds of commercial beers to get an idea of future styles to brew. Thanks for the recipes, will definitely have a look at those.

Edit:

Your description of your hurricane porter sounds right up my street.