Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a sad state of affairs here at the homebrewery. That's right, I've officially (almost) run out of beer in the kegerator. It hurts my heart to say it, but the only thing I've got kegged up right now is a tasty, but not quite sessionable, oak-aged barleywine. This is partially due to the fact that my roommate likes to "share" things of mine a little too liberally. He "shared" quite a bit of my highly-drinkable low-gravity saison with himself and his friends, and I was caught unawares with no back-up brew ready! So I had to have the "kegerator is off limits" talk with him, and maybe I won't have to go so far as to install faucet locks to enforce that. Hopefully.
In the mean time I'm trying to crank out some tasty ales that will not take too long to get into the keg and on tap. I know it's not really porter season (although it was colder than a witch's tit here in NYC today), but I've had this brew in mind for quite a while. The last time I brewed a Hoppy Robust Porter was over a year ago, but it scored really well in competition, and took first in porters at Homebrew Alley 2.
This time the recipe bears only minor changes: a slight increase in chocolate malt, cutting out the half pound of munich which couldn't have been even tastable in a beer this malty, and a little water adjustment. Oh yeah, and an English yeast instead of Cali ale yeast. And I used an oxygen stone setup to aerate. So much for changing only one variable at a time!
If you try to brew this recipe, you should either look for Glen Eagle brand marris otter malt, or increase the specialty grains just a smidge. My experience with this malt is that it is significantly darker than most marris otter (5 Lovibond as compared to 3 Lovibond), and I lower my crystal malts because it seems to be less fermentable too. So If you use a regular marris otter malt, or an American 2-row, you should probably increase the crystal 40 and maybe add some munich malt.
Anyway, here's the freakin' recipe. I don't have a name for this beer yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Recipe is for 5.9 gallons (post boil), all grain. Mash Efficiency 83%
O.G 1.064 IBU's 58
10 lb. Glenn Eagle Marris Otter malt
10 oz. Chocolate malt
.5 lb. Breiss special roast malt
.5 lb. Crystal 40
.5 lb. black patent malt
.25 lb. Special B malt
31 gr. Chinook whole hops 13% AA, 60 min
28 gr. Cascade pellets 6% AA, 15 min
28 gr. Cascade pellets 6% AA 0 min
Mash: 3.75 gallons water at 150 for 60 min
(Checked pH at 30 min, 4.9. Added 1 tsp Calcium Carbonate to increase pH to 5.3)
Mash out to 170 over 15 min
Sparge: 5 gallons at 170
Collected only 6.2 gallons at 1.057. Added 2 quarts of top-up water.
Boil 60 min, hop additions as noted.
Whirlfoc at 15 min
1/2 tsp. Wyeast nutrient at 10 min
Chilled to 66, racked to carboy, and oxygenated for 1 minute.
Pitched 1/2 cup slurry of fresh Sixpoint ale yeast (WLP 007 Dry English Ale Yeast)
Fermenting at 67, will raise temp to 70 towards the end.
The fermentation looked awesome after 20 hours, I think this beer is going to ferment hard and fast.
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4 comments:
I didn't know that sixpoint used the dry english ale yeast. That's good to know. I used it for several batches a while ago and was really happy with it. It's a great attenuator (sp?).
Yep, that's a confirmed fact and I can let the cat out of the bag now without fearing retribution, as it was printed in the New York Times!
What's up with using grams for your hop additions? Not to bust your balls, but this ain't rocket science, so do you really need that level of precision?
I like to use grams because the scales that homebrewers use aren't that accurate when measuring ounces. If it weighs down to .1 ounces, that's still over 2 grams, which is a lot of leeway when you are using a high-alpha hop to bitter, for instance.
Do you really need that level of precision? I guess it's up to you. I just stick with that unit so I'm not always switching back and forth. Thanks for the question though.
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