Need a good porter (extract if possible)

I recently made Northern Brewer's Bourbon Barrel Porter from extract, turned out pretty damn awesome.
Expect to wait ~ 6 months for the best possible flavor though.
And listen to the instructions, I went ahead and aged it on the oak and bourbon for 2 months instead of 2 weeks....whew it came out strong man...perhaps a bit too much TBH.

 

6lbs extra light DME.
8oz 60L crystal steeped @ 150 for 30 min.
8oz Brittish Chocolate Malt steeped @ 150 for 30 min.
1oz Fuggles @ 60 min.
1oz Fuggles @ 15 min
WLP007 yeast.

Have fun!

 

Do you have a copy of "Brewing Classic Styles" yet?
If not, I recommend picking one up. The recipes are extract with all-grain alternates. And all of the recipes I've done from the book have come out great.

 

+1 on this. If you want to buy your own ingredients the list is here.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/BourbonBarrelPorter.pdf

 

The brown porter recipe in that book is a great one. I made the AG version but I'll bet the extract is good, too.

One thing I have to say, though, is that porter is a particularly varied style: you've got everything from very sessionable and simple browns up through relatively difficult and high ABV baltics.

JoeDurp, you might want to weigh in on what kind of porter you like best--if you give us a commercial example you really like, I'm sure you'll get some very specific suggestions for recipes.

 

NB's St. Paul Porter was one of my early extract kits. Excellent....!

 

I like the recipe that premierpro provided but I personally would not utilize Fuggles hops; I don’t like Fuggles since they have a taste like dirt to my palate. Maybe substitute East Kent Goldings for the Fuggles?

I have also brewed the NB St. Paul Porter and I enjoyed that beer as well. That beer is more of an American Porter style.

Cheers!

 

+1 also one of my favorite early kits.

 

I'm under the impression that pumpkin beers are in the slightly higher echelons of "not that easy." That's why I haven't made one, despite liking them quite a bit. Not making one this year either, maybe next. I'd go for the (smoked) porter if I were you. I think as long as you don't over-do it on the smoke*, that an excellent porter is in your near future.

A Deschutes Black Butte Porter clone may be in my near future. I really love this beer, it's probably my favorite porter I've found yet.

*use extreme caution with peated malt, or so I've heard

 

I will be brewing a porter this weekend with a malt bill similar to the one posted by premierpro, but planning to use an additional 8 oz. of crystal 60 or 80. Hops will be completely different (Citra and Amarillo) since I'm taking inspiration from FFF's Snow Weasel, a non-typical dry hopped porter.

 

I am unsure what you mean by "not that easy". I wouldn’t think it would be hard to make a pumpkin beer but I would think that getting the spicing down ‘just right’ could be tricky.

I have never brewed a pumpkin beer since I am not a huge fan of the style. If I were to brew a pumpkin beer I would be most concerned about the spicing aspect:

· Should I just use something like McCormick’s Pumpkin Pie Spice or should I formulate my own concoction of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, etc.?

· How much spice should I add?

· When is the ‘best’ time to add the spice(s)?

· Etc.?

Cheers!

 

The spices probably are the hard part. They're certainly the part where it's make or break for a pumpkin beer. Over-do it on the spices and it kills the beer (IMO, at least).

I really like Schlafly pumpkin and pumpking. I've occasionally had a few others that were good too. Some I've had were hardly suitable for coating the insides of the drain pipes in the sink. For that reason, I try to sample a single bottle before I take any chances on a sixer.

 

Striking a balance between beer and spice is absolutely the most difficult part. The other thing that comes into the equation for replicating batches of spiced beers is the age of the spices (potentcy) and manufacturer variance. When I was trying to nail down a chai spiced milk stout with vanilla beans, the tea manufacturer I used changed the spice blend in between my batch 1 and 2, thus it took me another 2 batches to get the spicing right.

BTW, personal note, pumpkin is a tough one to get to add any flavor even after roasting it. I switched to using yams in place of pumpkin (a shit load of roasted pureed yams in the mash) and have had great results in making "pumpkin" beers since then.

 

Ward, you da man!

Cheers!

Jack

 

I've heard rumor that butternut squash works well, and might be used by certain commercial breweries, but this is hearsay and speculation on my part. No evidence. Might be total bullshit.

I do love eating butternut squash tho.