Porter Advice

My take....

Stick with Fuggle or East Kent Goldings for hops no more than 30 IBUs
Add some LME or DME to the boil, ~6% or less of the malt bill
Use Maris Otter for the Pale Malts 40% - 60%
Add 8 - 10% Mid range Crystal Malts 30L - 60L
Add Victory Malt to 10%
Keep the heavy Roast Wheat or Black malts to 4%
Add some Munich to 5%
Chocolate Malts to 10%
Some Lactose sugar in the boil or rolled oats in the mash improves mouthfeel

Let us know what you do and how it turns out!!

Prost

 

All solid advice. I'm curious as to why you add a little DME?
Also, I would recommend a British or Irish yeast. My favorite is WLP004.

 

Consider using some Brown Malt. It's like magic in porters.

 

A grainbill similar to Fullers london porter is always a good one for your first porter

it has brown malt

 

Was wondering that myself. IMO there are only two reasons to add extract to an all grain batch.

1) Mash Tun too small to hold enough grains for target volume and OG.
2) Missed target OG

But as a recipe building rule, i.e. some standard percentage of the fermentables? No.

 

DME and LME are generally produced from a mash that will derive maximum extraction and still provide a brewable product. This usually results in a medium amount of fermentable sugars in the DME/LME. For me, it adds some non-fermentable sugars (starches) to my brew and a tad more fermentables for a little extra ABV.

I did forget to mention adding calcium carbonate to the mash and sparge water. mash on the high side, 152 - 156 single infusion mash for 60 minutes.

 

Hmm... okay. I think it's safe to say that industrial extract producing mashes are probably generally very efficient. "Maximum extraction" as you say.

Not following this logic.

If you mean LME/DME are less fermentable than the wort from a homebrewer's all grain mash, I'll have to say "maybe." Depends on the mash. I would agree that LME/DME are not as fermentable as the most fermentable homebrewer's all grain mashes. But we can control our mash parameters to the Nth degree if we choose.

I suspect you mean unfermentable dextrins and/or higher ratios of partially fermentable maltotriose. LME/DME that contains significant starches would be have to be produced by some half-assed process.

 

or even sodium bicarbonate...if you don't get carried away ...really depends on your base water

 

LME and DME are produced to provide a mid range beer. That is why we aren't extract brewers anymore. We wanted more control over fermentables in our wort. The qualifier was Maximum extraction that still produced a mid range brewing product.

it is my personal addition, I do not brew to style but to my personal tastes. It is a tweek I do to my Porter and Stout recipes and was only mentioned as a suggestion.

But I am afraid we hijacked the thread.

 

medium mash for me...now 158*F and we're talking high...but our/my thermometers are not really insync ...I know at least one of mine reads high...but I know that and can adjust accordingly...cheers

OP asked for advice on porters so not really a felony threadjack

 

Mash around 5.5 to 5.6 pH.

 

Why not use grains, mash temperatures, and mash lengths to get the fermentability you want?

Well sure, but any suggestion is subject to questions, especially if it's unusual.

Are you saying that you're getting better brewhouse efficiency (in terms of cost) from extract than from all grain? If so, You might want to check your math. DME is about $5 a pound. Base malts are around $2 a pound. And let's say 65% mash efficiency...kind of low end, but it will avoid stacking the deck in favor of the argument I'm about to make.

DME: 45 PPG x 100% mash efficiency (i.e. not subject to mash efficiency) = 45PPG. In one gallon of wort, those 45 points cost you $5.
Base Malt: 36 PPG x 65% mash efficiency = 23.4 PPG into the kettle. To get the same 45 points into the kettle, you'd need 45 / 23.4 = 1.92 pounds of base malt. 1.92 pounds x $2 is $3.84. Which is less than $5.

If your point is that you can't produce a "medium" fermentable wort ("mid range") as efficiently with grains as you can buy with extract, I'd say look to your process.

 

40-60% pale malts means 40-60% other malts too. That's a little aggressive IMO unless Munich is a hefty % of the remainder

 

IMO...or IMHO are powerful declarations ...as are emoticons cheers all

 

TBQH sometimes a point just needs to be made

 

TBQH = To be quite honest? ....or to be quintessentially humble?

 

ninja edit, Curt...sorry

 

I've made a lot of porters over the years, and have three big tips...

Use an English ale yeast. 1028 is my favorite.

Use brown malt.

Use European hop varieties, or be very judicious on your use of American varieties.

This last tip is more of a taste preference one, but I like a big hit of caramel and chocolate in my porters, and my favorite way to get there is C60, dark crystal, pale chocolate, and chocolate wheat