porter kit or partial

[malty_me]

Hi I'm just starting out and I need some advice. I'm a big real ale drinker and iv tried hundreds of different ales. My favorite one is badgers poachers choice. As my name suggests I am a fan of malty sweet ales. I was wondering if there are any porter kits out there that will suit my tastes. Or a partial recipe that would bring the desired effects. I'm really looking for a ruby/dark ale with a sweet malty flavor and minimal hoppy bitterness. Any help would be great thanks

 

[pittsy]

if your up for it extract will be better than kit brewing but if you haven't brewed before i would try a kit or 2 first just to get the hang of it , have a look at some of these viewforum.php?f=58 if not re post and i'll see if i have an extract recipe and here is a how to for extract brewing that is very useful viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2672 :

 

[malty_me]

Ok thanks mate. I would like to do a darker ale for my first. Any kits you can recommend. Iv read through the reviews and not a lot I fancy tbh. I would probably enjoy most of them but for my first I want to do something a bit special. Iv also heard that most kits can end up a bit weak and watery and I want something thick and strong flavored with an abv above 5%

 

[alanywiseman.]

You could do a double Coopers Irish stout plus 2kg of fermentables. Gives a beer at about 9% abv but requires a good 6 months conditioning. I can not comment on the mouth feel as mine is still conditioning but i added some cocoa powder to mine to make a chocolate stout.

I got the idea from MDs Coffee Stout

If 9% abv is too high though you could cut back on the fermentables

 

[pittsy]

personally 9% is too high , it may sound good but will be un drinkable , some beers do have such a high vol but they usually involve things like candy sugar that ferment without giving a 'ohh my god that's strong' taste to it , if i was you i would buy a kit (if you can afford it by a quality 2 can kit which are better but pricey ) and maybe add some light dried spray malt poss around 1kg (if 2 can kit) or around 2kg (if cheaper 1 can kit) this should give you a brew from anywhere from 4.5% to 6% depending on what you bought . Can't say which as ive only brewed a few kits myself and porters wasn;t what i did do .

 

[malty_me]

Cheers gents ill let you know how things go and the recipe I go for. Really appreciate the advice. Hoping to get my stuff next week so won't be long. My Mrs uncle owns a pub so ill be getting a load of grolsch bottles to bottle up with :)

 

[malty_me]

Did my first kit yesterday. Decided to go for something simple. Bought a bitter kit and replaced half the sugar with light spray malt. Added slighty more sugar than advised to get a higher abv I did notice that the fermenting vessel didn't have an airlock. The man at the shop said to just loosely put the lid on. Is this ok or will I have problems? Will let you all know how it turns out

 

[alanywiseman.]

That's fine :thumb:

It's what I do.

 

[RobWalker]

Good porter kits are hard to come by but you could always get a decent bitter kit and some chocolate malt to steep in. You don't need a whole lot of it and it'll deliver the deep flavour you're after.