Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

All Grain Brown Porter Recipe

On September 4, 2009

I don’t brew too many porters. I can only remember two in my lifetime. But I have become intrigued with the Brown Porter style (BJCP 12A). I have never used Brown Malt before and this recipe and style seems like a perfect way to get a taste of it and see what its like.

For a 6 gallon batch
70% efficiency
1.046 OG
154F Mash Temp

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
10.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)	Grain	81.63 %
1.00 lb	Brown Malt (65.0 SRM)	Grain	8.16 %
0.75 lb	Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)	Grain	6.12 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	4.08 %
0.75 oz	Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min)	Hops	20.0 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [3.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	5.7 IBU
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	English Ale (Fermentis #Safale-04) [Starter 1000 ml]	Yeast-Ale

I’ll actually be pitching some yeast slurry of Safale-o4, from a current batch of Ordinary Bitter.

This recipe is slightly based from the Brown Porter in Brewing Classic Styles.

BREW ON!

Rebuilding the Brewery Part 2

By Mike

On September 2, 2009

In Equipment

Hey remember this post, where I told you about my desire to redesign some of my equipment?

Here is an update. MoreBeer.com has been having a gadget sale so I pulled the trigger on a couple items to help with the rebuild. First off I finally broke down and bought a brewing pump. I plan to use this pump for do wort recirculation, transferring wort from the mash tun to the kettle, and performing a whirlpool chill with my somewhat new 50 foot immersion chiller.
The second piece of equipment I bought was a stainless false bottom, with pick-up tube and ball valve assembly. I will put this in one of my converted kegs to make a direct fired mash tun. I combination with the pump, this should allow me to heat strike water in the same vessel I plan to mash in. Then I can recirc with the burner going to raise the temp for step mashing or at least to achieve an appropriate mashout at ~168F.

Hopefully, these two upgrades will start to make the wort generation phase a little easier, or at least more fun with more equipment.

On another note, I have been making some crystal clear wort lately. My last two brew sessions resulted in wort that was crystal clear going from kettle to fermentor. I performed my boil in my old 10 gallon stainless steel pot. This pot has no valve on it at all. The limitation to this is that I have to either pour or siphon the wort out of it. This past weekend, I tried something new…it’s called patience.

After I was done chilling, I used my sanitized brew spoon to create a very aggressive whirlpool. Then I covered it and let it sit for a good 30 minutes. Normally, I only let the wort sit for like 5 minutes because I am normally paranoid about leaving the cooled wort exposed to the air. After 30 minutes I could practically see the bottom of the kettle through the Berliner Weisse I made. I was astounded. I racked the beer off using my auto-siphon and transfer ZERO, trub and hop debris. The same technique was employed for the Ordinary Bitter I did the same day. Again ZERO trub or hop debris into the kettle.

I am pretty excited to see how this impacts flavor of the beers. Fermentation has been really thus far as best as I can tell from just looking at it. (Gravity readings to come maybe tomorrow night).

So why work at getting clear wort? Well first its usually just bragging rights to your process. Secondly, it limits the amount of trub needed to settle out of the wort which helps clarity. It also limits the amount of extra protein and hop vegetal matter in the fermentor which can effect yeast efficiency and flavors a bit. Lastly, I want to reuse some of the yeast from the Ordinary Bitter for a Brown porter. Less carry over of trub means a cleaner yeast for the next batch. I also want to harvest yeast slurry from my upcoming lager attempt, so getting cleaner yeast for that is crucial too.

So now I am at a dilemma. I had plans to redesign the wort kettle with a different pickup tube for transfer to fermentor. But using my old pot with a racking setup is giving me exactly the results I want, as in clear wort. Well I’ll have to see if I can get the larger 15.5 gallon keg/kettle to make the same efficient transfer with a pick up tube, so I don’t have to clean and sanitize the racking cane as often for siphoning.

I am still thinking it over and tinkering. Stay tuned.

BREW ON!

Recipe Update

By Mike

On September 2, 2009

In Recipes

Just an FYI:

Yesterday I updated the recipe for Ordinary Bitter. I had brewed this over the past weekend.
My normal “Pub Style” is still available; however I posted my latest version of a darker more complex bitter underneath it. Sort of a dark bitter. In fact, I fear it may actually come out tasting like a Mild rather than a pale ale bitter.

Only time will tell…

BREW ON!

Oktoberfest Lager Recipe

By Mike

On September 1, 2009

In Recipes

Here is the recipe for my Marzen/Oktoberfest.
I kept it simple after consulting several other recipes I have seen.
I don’t normally name my beers, but this one is going to be called “Mike-toberfest”. (Hopefully, I’ll be drinking it by the end of october.)

This recipe is for a 5 gallon batch size.
At 70% efficiency I’ll be shooting for an OG of 1.055.
IBUs com in at ~24. A single bittering charge to keep the malt presence the focus to the flavor.
The calculated color is ~11SRM.
I’ll use a 90min boil.

As you can see this recipe is for a true lager, not an ale hybrid style (though there is nothing wrong with that IMO). My fermentation regimen is going to be 3-4 weeks at 50-52F. Then rack to a keg and cold lager for 4-5 weeks at 32F.

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
6.00 lb	Munich Malt – 10L (10.0 SRM)	Grain	47.06 %
6.00 lb	Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)	Grain	47.06 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	3.92 %
0.25 lb	Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM)	Grain	1.96 %
2.00 oz	Hallertauer [4.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	23.7 IBU
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	German Lager (White Labs #WLP830) [Starter 2000 ml]	Yeast-Lager

[Do you like this recipe format?
It was a copy and past from a beersmith readout.
I have been using beersmith lately and like it. I’ll write up a review soon.]

First Lager Preperation

By Mike

On September 1, 2009

In Brew Log, General

So I am thinking about my strategy for my first lager attempt. I am going to be shooting for a Marzen/Oktoberfest style beer. The biggest step will be preparing enough yeast in advance. My recipe it to make 5.5 gallons of 1.055OG wort. According to Mr.Malty and the pitching rate calculator, I will need 2 vials in a 1.7 Liter starter!

Luckily I have a 4L jug I think will fit on the stir plate. This should work just fine. I may make the starter a little bigger than the calculator recommends, just to be sure I pitch enough yeast for my first try. I’ll set up the starter 4-5 days in advance giving it plenty time to finish out, and settle. Then I’ll pour off the spent wort and pitch mostly yeast slurry.

The second phase of this Lager prep, is that after the Oktoberfest is done, I’ll have a rather large cake of lager yeast ready to use. I am thinking I may plan to pitch some of that cake into two more lager batches; a Munich Helles and an pseudo-American light lager (recipe to follow soon).

Then I’ll lager all three at the same time at 32-34F.

Stay tuned, I’ll post up the All-grain true lager oktoberfest recipe and my psuedo-American lager to the recipe page.

BREW ON!