Am i modifying this porter too much?

[khkman22]

I bought a Vanilla Porter extract kit and I wanted to make some adjustments to it. First I wanted to add toasted pecans during secondary fermentation (this is the primary modification I want to make). Then I was thinking of adding some bourbon to half the batch. The last thing I was thinking of doing was priming with brown sugar instead of the standard priming sugar that comes in the kit. Am I going over the top with these modifications or do you think these changes will complement each other fairly well?

 

[McGarnigle]

Personally, I would say yes, it's over the top, but I like to keep it simple (adding vanilla to a porter is arguably a bridge too far for me). However, it's your beer.

I might go for either toasty nut vanilla or bourbon vanilla, but not both. Certainly, either element alone should go well with vanilla.

The brown sugar could get lost in the shuffle and might not be worth the effort. I really don't know. That's something you could do for part of the batch only.

ADD: looking at the reviews for the kit, a lot of people say the vanilla is subtle, so it might get lost among all the other ingredients. On the other hand, multiple reviewers report success with bourbon. So bourbon sounds good, or you could strike out on your own with the nuts.

 

[hbrookie]

I'm a fan of brewing it according to the recipe the first time, then making modifications one at a time after that.

I'd brew it up "as is". When you rack to secondary, use smaller vessels and keep one true to the recipe, rack one onto nuts, and rack one onto bourbon. This gives you a control group and two individual experiments.

I wouldn't prime with brown sugar. If you want some more brown sugar flavor, just add some to the wort the next time you brew (after you've made this one "as is" so that you know what it tastes like) and prime with corn or table sugar. The end result will be almost identical.

 

[stpug]

I'm all for getting a good sample after fermentation is complete and then making an informed decision. Pull out a good hydro sample (4-6 oz) when you're ready to move the beer. Determine your gravity and then sit down with your sample and critique it. You can even add some bourbon to the sample just to get an idea of how it would change. At least you'll be making an informed decision this way rather than gambling on hope.

I've never used toasted or untoasted nuts in a beer. I would venture a guess that you might need to allow the nuts to breath for a week or so after toasting to avoid imparting an acrid taste but I might be wrong on this.

Scrap the brown sugar priming, go with normal dextrose. You'll be using so little brown sugar that the addition will be lost, not to mention it would be competing with the vanilla (nuts/bourbon). Besides, brown sugar can have an off-putting metallic characteristic to it when used in quantity (granted yours likely wouldn't).

 

[Beernik]

I'm all for beers-gone-wild.

I modified my second beer. It was a cream ale kit. Everyone said, "Don't put peaches in a cream ale." It turned out really good.

That cream ale kit was the last kit I ever did. After that, I started winging it by modifying recipes I found in books. Some modifications were good. Some were bad. It's all about learning.

With that said, my advice is to stick with one or two modifications at a time until you get a better feel for what the end product will taste like. And vanilla is a mellow flavor. The burbon might drown it out. And if they gave you beans, make sure to cut them in half, scrape the insides, & and put all of it into the beer.

 

[cluckk]

Funny thing is you may find many of the flavors you are trying to impart (roastiness from the pecans, vanilla, sweetness) may already be present in the porter with no additions. I have a porter I make that is all grain with no additions--and being a porter there is of course the roastiness. Everyone swears it has vanilla and chocolate in it when they taste it. It is your beer and you can do what you want and what you like. However, if it were me, I'd make it according to the recipe see what it is like. Then start tweaking and adding layers to future batches of it. But, that is just how I do my own. It gives me more excuses to brew.

I see it often. Guys will add a ton of stuff to their beer, not like it and then start trying to figure out which element or elements is the culprit. Seems backwards to me.