Robust Porter

Finally! I have gotten around to brewing a batch of beer. The kitchen is still not completely finished but I decided to brew up a batch anyways. I was thinking of brewing either a Porter or a brown ale since I have been in the mood for something roasty and malty. I went with a Porter and pretty much followed Jamil's recipe except for some minor hop changes. I used half tap water and half R.O. water which did seem to work out pretty well. I did have some trouble in my last brew with astringency since I did not know that the drinking water that the city was providing was R.O. water. Not good for all grain brewing! I threw in a little less than one tablespoon of 5.2 mash stabilizer directly in the mash. I also tried to mash at a higher temperature since the us-05 dry yeast that I have been using seems to attenuate a little more than I desire. I had the great Idea of racking half of the beer on to a can of Oregon fruit red tart cherries from a can. I'm not sure I will get enough flavor out of the cherries to make a difference and think that I may need to buy some cherry flavoring to put in the beer for aroma before bottling.

Recipe Calculation 15A. Porter, Robust Porter All-grain Color Stats OG 1.068 FG 1.015 IBU 37 ABV 6.8 % SRM 43 Specifics Boil Volume 4.9 gallons Batch Size 3.25 gallons Yeast 78% AA Style Comparison Low High OG 1.050 1.068 1.065 FG 1.012 1.015 1.016 IBU 25 37 45 SRM 43 30+ ABV 4.8 6.8 6 Fermentables % Weight Weight (lbs) Grain Gravity Points Color 74.3 % 6.50 American Two-row Pale 51.8 3.6 10.0 % 0.88 Munich Light 6.2 2.2 7.1 % 0.63 American Crystal 40L 4.6 7.7 5.0 % 0.44 British Chocolate 3.2 63.9 3.6 % 0.31 British Black Patent 1.8 55.3 8.75 67.6 Hops % Wt Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time Utilization IBU 12.5 % 0.20 Northern Brewer Pellet 9.8 2.0 60 0.265 12.0 25.0 % 0.40 Willamette Pellet 4.3 1.7 15 0.132 5.2 25.0 % 0.40 East Kent Goldings Pellet 5.3 2.1 0 0.000 0.0 37.5 % 0.60 East Kent Goldings Pellet 5.3 3.2 60 0.265 19.4 1.60 36.6

Robust Porter

3.25 gallons all grain

Water 1/2 R.O. and 1/2 tap water

Date: 12/29/09

Gravity: OG 1.064 / FG 1.0

Efficiency: 70% ish

Temperature: 67
ABV:

- 11 qts - 180 - stir - 175 - doughed in - 158 - cooler blue ice and stir - 154.4 for 60 minutes (pillow on top of mash tun) 5.2 stabilizer after 5 minutes- stirred - 153.7 - stirred at 30 minutes

- Vorlauf 4 quarts (valve half open)

- collect first runnings

- Add 14 qts 177 - 170 ish (added about 10 qts first, and then the rest for a second sparge).

- Started to heat first runnings

- stirred - 5 minutes - vorlauf then drain second runnings. (valve half open)

- Add second runnings to boil pot

- Repeat with final 4 qts. or so.

- Boil 60 minutes

- 60 minutes bittering hops .6 oz Kent Goldings and .2 oz Northern Brewer

- 15 minutes .4 oz Willamette

- 0 Minutes .4 oz Kent Goldings

- Cooled down with wort chiller

- Siphoned into carboy

- Gravity 1.064

- 3.25 or 3.5 Gallons of wort

- Shook bucket to aerate.

- pitched yeast {safale s-04 rehydrated} @ 74

- Down to 67 within a few hours for fermentation temperature.

og: 1.064

fg:

12.30.09 - fermenter bubbling slowly this morning. temperature 66.
12.31.09 - fermentation very strong. Temp up to 74? possible thermometer is wrong.
1.1.10 - airlock pretty much done bubbling this evening.
1.4.10 - transferred 7 qts of beer onto one can of Oregon tart cherries. gravity 1.015.

Update

I hadn't posted here in a while so I thought that I would post an update. We are currently in the middle of a kitchen renovation and I am doing most of the work. It is coming along nicely but slowly. Anyhow, I told myself that I would not brew a batch of beer until the renovation is finished. I'm currently thinking about brewing a brown ale or a robust porter. Hopefully the kitchen will be done in the next month or so and then I will brew my celebratory ale! Hey we may even have a house warming type get together.

Honey Blonde Bottled Today

I bottled up the honey blonde ale today. The fermentation took a while to finish up which I believe is due to the honey. I was surprised to find that the final gravity was 1.005, a little lower than I expected! Maybe this is because honey is more fermentable than wort? Anyhow, I'm a little baffled. The beer did taste very good and surprisingly did have a sweetness to it. I'm excited to taste it when it is carbonated.