I decided, literally on the spur of the moment, to brew a Porter yesterday. I wasn't planning to brew, but my wife and kids went to the inlaws for the weekend and I really couldn't pass up the opportunity. I didn't have all the ingredients I needed, but I convinced Matt to swing by the homebrew shop right when it opened, buy what I needed, and bring it to my house. What a pushover. Or maybe it was the promise of sharing a bottle of Russian River Supplication (part of their barrel aged series). Or maybe he just wanted to raid my beer supply.
This Porter is a variation on the last Porter I brewed, which in turn is a variation of Jamil Zainasheff's recipe in Brewing Classic Styles. This time, though, I decided (or should I say Matt decided for me) to shake things up a bit by substituting Chocolate Rye malt for the chocolate barley malt I usually use.
Here's the recipe:
Stats
- OG=1.049
- Yield=11 gal
- IBU=~29
- Color=~28 SRM
Grain Bill
- 14 lb 2-row Pale Ale Malt
- 2 lb British Crystal
- 2 lb Brown Malt
- 1.5 lb Chocolate Rye
Hops
- 2.5 oz Fuggles for 90 minutes
- 1.5 oz Fuggles at knockout
Yeast
Process
- Mashed at 152°F to conversion
- Recirc'd while raising temp to ~170°F
- Sparged at 170°F to collect ~13.5 gallons
- Boil 90 min.
- Cool/oxygenate/pitch yeast
Due to the late decision to brew, and my laziness, I didn't make starters and just pitched the Activator™ packs into the carboys. The 1968 half had a nice layer of foam forming after about 18 hours. At that point the 1098 showed no signs of active fermentation. A few hours later, the head space in the 1098 half was completely foamed up and it was blowing off, and the 1968 half had about a 1 1/2" layer of foam on top. So, looks like the 1968 may be a fast starter/slow fermenter and the 1098 is a slow starter/fast fermenter. This is the same behavior I've seen w/ 3787 & 1214 (respectively) in my Belgian style beers.
