This beer was originally brewed on 12/1/07. It took 1st place in porters at Homebrew Alley 2.
The basic idea was to brew a nice, drinkable porter with a bigger than average American hop profile. I used some homegrown Chinook hops for bittering, which were generously sent to me by my friend "Chillindamos", a homebrewer from California. The finishing hops were Cascade and Kent Goldings, which I planted when I lived in Ohio. My mom continues to tend them for me, dry them in a food dehydrator, and send them to me every autumn (Thanks mom!).
The beers I turned to for inspiration while formulating the recipe were Captain Lawrence Smoked Porter, Avery New World Porter, and Jamil's robust porter.
Damn, I wish so much that I had a bottle of this to drink right now to make notes as to the flavor. I just sent the last 2 off to the AHA club-only competition for porters. But that left me high and dry. I am going to brew this again with smaller flavor and aroma hop additions.
Recipe is for 5.7 gallons,post boil, all grain.
O.G 1.064 F.G. 1.019 IBU's about 50+ ABV 5.9%
9.5 lb. Glenn Eagle Marris Otter malt
.5 lb. Chocolate malt
.5 lb. Munich malt
.5 lb. Breiss special roast malt
.5 lb. Crystal 40
.5 lb. black patent malt
.25 lb. Special B malt
Hops:
34 gr. Chinook, homegrown, guestimated at 10% AA, 60 min
28 gr. Cascade/Kent Goldings mix (75/25%) guestimated at 5% AA, 15 min
28 gr. Cascade/Kent Goldings mix " ", 0 min
Mash in 3.75 gallons water to 151, hold for 1 hour
Raise heat to 170 over 20 min
Sparge w/ 4.8 gallons at 170
Collect 6.5+ gallons at 1.056 = 81% efficiency
Boil 60 min, hop additions as noted.
Irish moss at 15 min
1/2 tsp. Wyeast nutrient at 10 min
Chilled to 68 and strained
Aerated for 30 min. with air pump and stone
Pitched a 1 qt. starter made from an activator pack of Wyeast 1056
Fermented at 68 for 1 week, secondary for 3 weeks.
Racked to keg and bottled from keg.
4/11/08: I got my scoresheets back today from the perfect porter competition. The scores were good, averaging 38.3 I got good feedback but not much critique. One judge said it needed some more malty complexity, while another judge said it needed better head.
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2 comments:
1st Place! Awesome! The Chinook plants have surfaced already so the first harvest will likely be in July. I'll send some more homegrown your way at the end of the summer.
Speaking of hops, have you read this article: http://byo.com/feature/1715.html
Along with cascade being absent from shelves this year, "Gone also will be almost all of the C-hops — including Centennial, Chinook and maybe Columbus." Good thing I'm adding ANOTHER row of centennial and chinook. Too bad the cascade rhizomes never took hold!
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