Chocolate and vanilla porter

[howyoubrewin]

So for tomorrows brewday i am having a bash at a choc&vanilla porter. Recipe as follows

225g chocolate malt
225g crystal malt
1can amber malt
1 can dark malt
115g cocoa powder
3 oz vanilla extract
1oz citra 45 mins
1 oz citra 2 mins
500g dextrose.
Will steep the grains at 153F for 40 mins and make cocoa syrup by mixing cocoa powder,sugar and 250ml water and boil. I will add this to the boil and add half the vanilla to fv before yeast and half added before syphoning to bottles.

Feedback would be welcome on whether this sounds ok.

Cheers! :thumb:

 

[Joeyriles]

I can't help you but I will just say that whenever you're done: send me a bottle and I'll pay postage and packaging. Sounds bloody lovely!

 

[morethanworts]

I had Brass Castle's 'Bad Kitty' from cask the week before last, which is just this sort of thing. One of nicest beers I've ever had. If you can get to Malton's forthcoming 'Beertown' festival, you may get to meet the brewer! Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[howyoubrewin]

Joey if it turns out ok and i am happy with it i will send a message and get a bottle to you. Cheers!

 

[Pjam]

Really does sound lovely ........... What size is it? and what yeast did you have in mind?

 

[howyoubrewin]

Going to brew it to 21L with a windsor yeast. Hopefully it will turn out ok but time will tell.

 

[morethanworts]

You wanted some feedback... What's the idea with the Citra? Sounds like a dimension to the taste it might not need, and which jars in my imaginary tasting of it.

Is this based on an existing recipe?

 

[howyoubrewin]

The recipe is my own that i came up with after doing some research into porters and their ingredients. The citra is the weak point i will admit but it is all i have at hand, although i am taking receipt of fuggles, kazbek,summer,delta and bravo hops tomorrow so hops in the recipe might change.

 

[Pjam]

Yeah, Citra might not be right, could be too spicy ......... perhaps something trad English like your Fuggles or Golding.
Porter should be well hopped though I think.

Must admit, I'm thinking of stealing this recipe and doing 10 litres. Hope you don't mind :thumb:

 

[howyoubrewin]

It's here, it's here! Brewday for my choc and vanilla porter. I will post later today on how the day goes and how the beer looks and smells. Stay tuned!
Cheers :thumb:

 

[howyoubrewin]

Yeah, Citra might not be right, could be too spicy ......... perhaps something trad English like your Fuggles or Golding.

Must admit, I'm thinking of stealing this recipe and doing 10 litres. Hope you don't mind :thumb:

Well i'm glad you mentioned because i have some fuggles just in today so let's go with that and see how it turns out! The recipe is there for all to enjoy so be my guest.
Can i put an idea out there for anyone who might be interested? How about if we brew this up and send a bottle to each other for taste test and comparison. Open to anybody who wants to do this recipe or even use it as a base and tweak it to their own liking. Would be fun to see what we all come up with.
Thumbs up or down to that idea?

 

[Pjam]

:thumb: tis a good idea. Though I might be slow starting ........... all my equipment is occupied

 

[DethApostle]

I've made a Chocolate & Vanilla Stout (AG) but used 500g of Cocoa Powder in 23l. It's a bit too Chocolatey for my liking but not unpleasant, and it does drwon out the Vanilla.
The Vanilla was 3 split pods soaked in Rum for a week and then added to secondary.

Will be interested how this turns out as I need to tweak my recipe!

DA

 

[morethanworts]

OK, an AG version is on my list, though it's probably a couple of months away to be honest with the limited opportunity I have. Anything that gets close to Bad Kitty is a winner for me.

I will watch with interest in the meantime. :

EDIT - I'm not sure about the dextrose. I wouldn't want mine to finish too dry and, although it's a relatively small amount, it's going to thin things out slightly. I can't see any advantage in that here. I'd decrease batch size or increase malt, if you want the same OG.

 

[Pjam]

As Porter was big in London I thought I might try East Kent Goldings. And the vanilla pods are a good idea too :)

 

[howyoubrewin]

Brewday complete! On the whole it went very well and apart from a momentary lapse of concentration that led to a boil over the brew went well. I even managed to have a homebrew or two while i worked!
Few changes to my recipe in that i used 250g of both crystal and chocolate malt and 125g of cocoa in 300ml of water with 250g dextrose as opposed to 500g (cheers for your advice fellas). I did 25g fuggles @45 mins, 12g mount hood @10 and 25g fuggles @2 mins. I used safale 04 ale yeast in place of windsor. Wort smelled bloody good so here's hoping it ends well! Will keep you posted. Stay tuned! :thumb:

 

[Pjam]

Keep us up to date and I'll post here when I start mine :)

 

[morethanworts]

Yum. :drink:

 

[howyoubrewin]

Day 2 in the fv and porter is going great guns! Can't really get a good smell of brew but i am holding out hope that it will smell and taste awesome!! Stay tuned for bottling day update!

 

[howyoubrewin]

Well, the porter was bottled this morning. Colour looks great, a nice dark, rich colour in keeping with the porter style. The chocolate comes through in the aroma but not so much on the taste. It is a strong beer to taste but flavour wise it's not unpleasant.
I am new to porters so i don't have much experience to compare flavours but it does taste nice.
A week or so in the bottles and i will have a proper taste but so far it looks like a porter,smells like a porter and more importantly,tastes like a porter. Jobs a good un!!