Porter Recipe Critique

[benkbenkbenk]

I thinking of making a porter and have been putting together a recipe using up some bits I have in. Please could someone cast their eyes over this recipe to see if you think it would be ok?

Grain
Marris Otter 4.5Kg
Munich Malt 0.6Kg
Crystal 120 0.7kg
Chocolate Malt 0.2Kg

Mashed at 69C

Hops
Perle 60mins 35g
Saaz 30mins 20g
Saaz 10mins 20g

Yeast SafeAle English Ale

Estimated OG 1.053
Estimated FG 1.013

SRM 34

Thanks!

 

[benkbenkbenk]

Well I brewed this one up at the weekend. Hopefully the recipe will be fairly balanced. I ran out of Saaz, so chucked in some Williamette I found in the fridge to make up the difference.

I pitched the dry yeast straight onto the wort at about 28C. Aerated and stuck in the fermenting fridge. However, the cooling packed in and the wort was up at around 35C when checked a few hours later.

I left the door open and it slowly cooled back down to a more acceptable 18C where I have it set now.

The weird thing is, despite lots of airlock activity, there is no Krausen what so ever. Anyone else had this with Safale S04?

 

[benkbenkbenk]

Feel like I'm talking to myself, but may be useful for someone to read and learn from!

I think the high mash temp has resulted in too many unfermentable sugars, and the fermentation has stopped at about 1.020. I also missed my OG by a couple of points, so it's coming about at about 3.9%. A little weak alcohol wise and a little sweet to my taste, but it's drinkable, and it's all still a learning curve!

Gonna bottle next week.

 

[Mbarn]

I'm a beginner, but also about to do a porter. Mash temp doesn't seem crazy. Have you tried brew mate software? Free and gives strike and mash temp recommendations matching your equipment, weight of grain etc.
Hope it loses some of the sweetness.

 

[benkbenkbenk]

So I bottled two weeks ago and it's actually come out alright. I also I had some left as ran out of bottles (the cat had knocked three on the kitchen floor earlier and broken them!), rather than waste it, I thought I would try out some freeze distillation (partial freezing).

I filled a tupperware box with the beer and popped it in the freezer, 4hrs later it was partially frozen so I took a sterilized sieve and poured it through removing the whiter crystals. I repeated this process 3 times, and ended up without about a third of the original liquid. I had this in a jar in the fridge for a couple of days, before sharing as shots with friends. It tasted pretty damn good, the extra sweetness worked well with the increased maltiness and alcohol flavours, the thickness and overall taste was a bit like Sierra Nevada Narwhal. I don't suppose it came out much more than 15percent, but as a first experiment I was pretty please. Definitely something I will try again!