I recently discovered that on days the world has kicked the shit out of me I like to curl up with a Baltic Porter and lick my wounds. So naturally I want to brew one since this happens about every other day. One problem is that I have never fermented a lager, but Wyeast 1728 as a candidate. I was thinking I could keep a fermentation at about 60F. Will this work? Should I pitch at lager rates? Here is a grainbill and hop schedule I made up. Feedback appreciated or you can post your own tried and true receipe. I will use malty water and probably boil down a gallon of first runnings to syrup. 72% Two-row 20% German Munich II 3% Brittish Brown 5% Carafa III Special OG 70 FG 15 Hops all Sereberinka 3.5% AA 2oz 60 min 22IBU 2oz 10 min 8 IBU 7.1% ABV 30 IBU 28SRM
by definition your recipe will be an ale version of the beer (youre using ale yeast), 60F is a decent cooler temp for ale, if you can achieve lower to 57-58, id say go for it No you dont need to picth a lager rates, its an ale. Assuming a 5gal batch, pitch 2.7 things of liquid, or make a 3.35 liter starter (thanks to mr. malty calc)
If you're going to go with an ale yeast, you'll want something pretty clean - 1728 will work, so will 1056. Might want to try 2112, the Cal Common lager yeast, which will happily ferment in the low 60s.
*Recipe- damnit. I just did not know if at the low temp I should use more yeast. I will take a look at the 2112, thanks.
Those Serebrianka hops interest me, although (even at $9/ pound) I don't think I want a pound of them taking up freezer space.
Maybe im looking too much into your response, but i didnt mean to come off like an ass, if i did haha. Youre ok - temperature does not impact pitching quantities
I have used them in a few Belgian styles but still do not have a good feel for their flavor and aroma. They seem to work fine as a low aa bitter hop, nothing weird. I keep threatening to make a pale ale or IPA with alot of late additions to see what they bring.
It's not unheard of for commercial brewers to use ale yeast for the style; the best one I've tried was an ale. Just use a clean yeast, ferment cool and include a brief lagering before packaging. For ale yeast, I'd prefer 1728 since it can ferment very cool (down to low-mid 50's F) and doesn't attenuate as much as an American ale yeast. 2112 would be a nice choice too.
Well it looks like 1728 will work and I have it on hand, so I will probably go with that. Thank you for all the replies. Can anyone comment on the grain bill? I totally made it up. There must be some other lovers of this obscure style.
I'm a lover of Baltic Porters as well and think for very traditional Baltic Porters like Zywiec and Okocim, you're on the right track. The flavor of those are predominantly base malts, but with a touch a incredibly dark malt for color and a hint of bitterness. And they usually have little to no hop presence. However, some of my favorite Baltic Porters are the more recent American varieties, like Gonzo Imperial Porter and Smuttynose Baltic Porter. I think they offer more malt complexity by including some crystal malt. It gives them a wider spectrum of flavor than just using light and dark malt, and they counteract the added sweetness with higher hopping rates. That's opinion based, though. I think this recipe looks killer as is, and love the use of Brown Malt over Chocolate. Brown Malt is something I haven't used until recently, but it's become my new love.
So it's most common to use lager yeast for this style? I had no idea. I've used english ale yeasts of different varieties for my porters.
Yes and no. Truth of the matter is, "Porter" was historically considered a separate entity from "Ale", "Lager", or even "Beer". As a blanket statement, Porters as we traditionally know them are Ales, whereas Baltic Porters are Lagers, but there is also a ton of cross-over. Baltic Porter is definitely a style you could get away with using an ale yeast for, so long as it's fairly neutral and fermented on the cooler side.
Interesting! I am definately not an expert on the history of beer, but I love learning more about it.
This is a problem with the recent (and growing) assumption that top fermenting beers are ales and bottom fermented ones are lagers.This is in fact generally the case which probably led to the assumption.But it can lead to difficulties as it isn't always so.As it's repeated as often as "Edison invented the light bulb" the result is that it's accepted as fact. You don't have to look very far round here to see brewery signs "Ales and Stouts" or "Ales and Porters" because ales and porters/stouts come from different families.
