I'm going to be brewing using my own recipe for the first time. I've been playing around with some ideas, but I've finally settled on an English Porter. I'm planning to rack a portion of it over nibs after primary just to experiment (I was originally planning a vanilla porter, but decided to hold off). I'm hoping for some dark chocolate and espresso notes with this brew. Do you think I hit it with this recipe? Or are there things you would change? 6 lbs 12.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter 67.5 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 10.0 % 1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 10.0 % 8.0 oz Barley, Flaked 5.0 % 8.0 oz Pale Chocolate Malt 5.0 % 4.0 oz Carafa Special II 2.5 % Hop Additions: 0.75 oz Fuggle - Boil 60.0 min 1.00 oz Fuggle - Boil 30.0 min
It looks like it'd come out fine, but I'd consider simplifying the grain bill a bit, unless you've got a strong reason to believe that all those grains are necessary. I find it easier to get a feel for different ingredients if I brew something simple first and then try adding more stuff in to fine tune it on a later iteration rather than sticking everything in on the first run through and never really knowing what contributions all the different ingredients are making. So on that basis I'd suggest replacing the Munich and flaked barley with more Maris Otter and probably the Carafa with more pale chocolate.
I agree with @Dave_S on replacing the Munich and flaked barley with more Maris Otter, but I'd replace the Carafa Special II with Carafa II or Chocolate malt, and up it to 8oz. You're not going to get too much roasty flavor from a 1/4# of debittered malt
I agree, leave as-is and brew it. Looks great. The pale chocolate will offer milk chocolate type notes and carafa will bring a light roast. Even only using 2-3oz in my Dunkel, the only specialty malt, the Carafa III offers a nice punch of chocolate/coffee note. Everybody who has it comments on the chocolate right away. FWIW... Some of my best beers have had "complex" grain bills. I view the grain bill like when I cook various foods (which I am usually very spice heavy, blending tiny amounts of 10+ spices/herbs to develop flavors i'm after), so I view grain/hops the same. Have fun with it and blend away...! I love Munich malt, so I'd personally leave the 1# in there. The 1/2# pale chocolate mixed with the Carafa will offer the roast profiles. The caramel malt will offer the caramel-like sweetness of course. Marris Otter is a more bold base malt to begin with, so it looks like you will have a nice malt 'backbone' on this one. If you want more intense chocolate/roast, just consider adding a little more pale chocolate in (10-12oz).
I would absolutely drink this, but I agree with @MrOH that you will probably have better luck getting dark chocolate and espresso notes if you bump up the roast character a little.
I've got nothing against complex grain bills (or complex spice blends) in general, but for someone like the OP and like me) who's still learning to build a recipe it seems sensible to start off with something relatively simple, evaluate the beer, try to understand what the different ingredients are bringing to it, decide whether it needs anything extra (which it might not), try a new version with an extra ingredient, see whether the new ingredient did what you expected etc. Similarly, I also tend to use fairly complex herb and spice mixes sometimes, but I think I'm probably better at it for also having used much simpler recipes to get an intuition for how the individual components work together and what they go with. Of course, cooking's easier because you can cook every night and you don't have to wait a month to see how things come out...
As some have said, this recipe will work just fine. However, I do believe that it is complex for the sake of being complex and some of your malts will not reveal their character in the amounts that you are using them. Which yeast are you planning on using, btw? Personally, I'd keep much of what you have, but get rid of the flaked barley, as it isn't really going to do much for you, and up the Munich and the Carafa. Maybe something like this? 4 lbs Maris Otter 4 lbs Munich 10L 1 lbs Caramel Malt 60L 0.5 lbs Pale Chocolate 0.5 lbs Carafa II Predicted English Porter Compliance Original Gravity 1.050 Terminal Gravity 1.012 Color 26.07 °SRM Alcohol (%volume) 5.0 % 100 % overall You could certainly hop your beer this way, but I always aim for simplicity. One first boil addition will do just that. You could use 1 oz. at 60 and get around 21 IBUs or 1.5 oz. at 60 and get around 32. Both would be within the style description, so it just depends on how much bitterness you want in your beer.
I'm thinking Wyeast 1098 because, from what I've read, it's fairly clean. I live in California, so fermentation temps are going to be on the warmer side. I'm going to leave the wort in a well-insulated room with the thermostat set at 67º (actual room temperature will probably be higher than that at times). If you have any recommendations, I'd be interested to hear them. I've never used an English strain before, and with the warmer temps, I'm a little worried about the beer coming out too estery. I'm considering increasing the roast profile, given everyone's recommendations. However, my homebrew shop (the only one within a 40 mile radius) only carries dehusked carafa.
That'll do. You might also consider these two: http://www.wyeastlab.com/yeast-strain/scottish-ale http://www.wyeastlab.com/yeast-strain/irish-ale That will work just fine.
Yes, I would drink it. Would I make it? Probably not exactly. I usually do not use Munich in my English styles and outside of dry stout, I don't think I ever used flaked barley. However, I can see how you might get there. If I set out to develop an English porter and wanted to experiment with more body or more malt, I probably would try some adjunct flaked grain and some Munich. There are also times where I want less crystal malt, and rarer times where I want more. 1lb isn't a bad place to start. I like the the 1098 yeast choice
I love the head and taste flaked barley give vs when I do not use it. Definatly prefer it over oats in a stout unless it is an oatmeal stout.
