Help me piece together recipe

[jEld]

Hi Guys, first post after lurking for a couple of weeks! I picked up a used brewing kit over the weekend from craigslist. The guy I got it from said it would include a Robust Porter recipe, but the only ingredients he provided for me is ~1/2 lb of Briess chocolate malt, ~1/2 lb of Munton's black malt, ~1/2 lb Weyerman Rye Malt, ~1/2 lb of Lactose and priming sugar. Being new to all of this, how can I make beer using these ingredients? He did mention that he couldn't find the hops, so I picked up some cascade and columbus per LHBS recommendation. I know I still need yeast, but is there anything else I will need? Also, yeast recommendation would be useful as well!

Also, this is my first 5 gallon brew attempt, so my skills aren't as finely tuned as most of you! Thanks in advance.

 

[BrewMU]

You need base malt. 8 to 10 #s of 2-row, or better yet maris otter, plus the rye, half the chocolate and an ounce or two of black malt with wyeast 1098 (British Ale yeast). You should probably add a little caramel for flavor and color. If you use all of the Black to make it dark it will be astringent and harsh - throw 1/2 to 1 pound of, say, English medium crystal, or some Briess caramel. Those are some tangy, citrusy hops for a porter, so I'd keep the late additions light - use 3/4 to 1 ounce of the Columbus boiled for 60 minutes, then maybe a 20 minute Cascade addition.
Mash at 152 F for an hour, then bring mash temp up to 165 for 10 minutes. Sparge with 165 - 170 F water until you've collected ~ 6 gallons.
I've never used lactose, in fact, I won't stand for it - I'm completely intolerant.
That's just off of the top of my head - you should probably look at some porter recipes and give it a little thought.

 

[jrobidoux]

Also, if you don't want to do a full mash, you can do a partial mash of the specialty grains you currently have as BrewMU suggested, and then instead of mashing the two row or Maris Otter along with it throw in like 6-7 pounds of pale LME or DME.

 

[BrewMU]

Also, if you don't want to do a full mash, you can do a partial mash of the specialty grains you currently have as BrewMU suggested, and then instead of mashing the two row or Maris Otter along with it throw in like 6-7 pounds of pale LME or DME.

That's a good point - I was assuming AG. I definitely think you should step back and formulate a plan/recipe, do some reading and research, then maybe post your plan here and get some feedback. It's worth a day or two of consideration to make your beer awesome. Good luck.

 

[jEld]

Yeah, I definitely want to go the LME route. Like I said, this is my first batch outside of *cough* Mr. Beer...so I'd like to keep it simple. I might just save these ingredients for another batch as I get more comfortable and just begin with an extract kit.

 

[nedvalton]

If it were me I would consider adding lme after boil to avoid scorching. This has been my method and has worked with great results. Some will not agree with me but I was the kid that never colored in the lines instead drew my own picture.

 

[jEld]

Hey guys...decided to go with a bells porter clone I found on another website that utilizes the grain I already have. Here's a rundown of what I'm going to try:

Bells Porter Clone w/Amber Extract

Style: Porter OG: 1.061
Type: Extract FG: 1.017
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 5.76 %
Calories: 200 IBU's: 32.99
Efficiency: 70 % Boil Size: 5.57 Gal
Color: 32.2 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 7 days @ 68.0°F
Secondary 21 days @ 70.0°F
Bottle/Keg 14 days @ 70.0°F

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
7.50 lbs 81.08 % Amber Liquid Extract 60 mins 1.036
0.50 lbs 5.41 % Barley, Flaked 60 mins 1.032
0.50 lbs 5.41 % Chocolate Malt 60 mins 1.028
0.25 lbs 2.70 % Black (Patent) Malt 60 mins 1.025
0.50 lbs 5.41 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L 60 mins 1.034

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.00 ozs 32.99 Centennial 60 mins 10.00

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg Irish Ale White Labs (null)

Additions
(none)

Mash Profile
(none)

Carbonation
(none)

Notes
Late addition of LME

1/3 at 60 minutes
2/3 at 20 minutes

www.iBrewMaster.com Version: 1.455



Whatcha think before I go buy the supplies?

 

[jEld]

Ok...well I decided to go with the ingredients I have to make a Bell's Porter clone recipe that I found elsewhere. Here's what I am thinking, and suggestions are appreciated.

7.5 lbs amber LME
.5 lb flaked barley
.5 chocolate malt
.25 black patent
.5 crystal 90 l
1 oz cenntenial for boiling hops

I am thinking about putting in 1/3 of the LME in at the start of the boil, and the rest of it about 40 minutes in to the boil. I loaded the recipe into iBrewMaster on my iPad and it seems to come out about right theoretically. For timelines, I am still debating on whether to leave in primary for 3-4 weeks or rack it to secondary after 1-2 weeks. Any thoughts?

 

[Jayhem]

Ok...well I decided to go with the ingredients I have to make a Bell's Porter clone recipe that I found elsewhere. Here's what I am thinking, and suggestions are appreciated.

7.5 lbs amber LME
.5 lb flaked barley
.5 chocolate malt
.25 black patent
.5 crystal 90 l
1 oz cenntenial for boiling hops

I am thinking about putting in 1/3 of the LME in at the start of the boil, and the rest of it about 40 minutes in to the boil. I loaded the recipe into iBrewMaster on my iPad and it seems to come out about right theoretically. For timelines, I am still debating on whether to leave in primary for 3-4 weeks or rack it to secondary after 1-2 weeks. Any thoughts?

When are you adding the hops? Usually hops are added at the start of your 60 min boil for bittering and then additional hops are added at least one more time toward the end of the boil for some flavor/aroma. Be sure to account for the fact that if you are not boiling your full 5 gallons that you will have to add more hops to get the bitterness you want. The Beer Calculus on hopville.com is my favorite as it lets you simply put in your batch size and your boil size so you can fine tune your hop profile.

There is absolutely NO NEED to rack a dark beer into secondary. I fell victim to doing so on my first stout and it never hit the target FG as a partial result.

4 weeks in primary at about 67 degrees will be perfect. My porter I bottled 10 days ago is tasting really good and I did a primary fermentation for 4 weeks at 67 F.

Good luck and have fun!

One last thing. LME is nice and all but DME (dried malt extract) is much easier to work with if you dump it into a bowl and then add to your pot.

 

[nedvalton]

I always secondary. Its not a necesity but I enjoy the clarity it leaves. I just brewed a bourbon vanilla imperial porter that is smelling nice. It has wlp090 san diego super yeast. First time using and hope it performs as well as my house yeast wlp001/us05