My favourite beer is Emerson’s London Porter, a nice easy drinking Porter somewhere between a Brown Porter and a Robust Porter. So as my first brew day on my replacement Robobrew and I decided I would brew my favourite, a Brown Porter. I’ve started a bit on the lighter side and built on it each time I brew to get it dialled in as I want it.
The first iteration of this brew was pretty standard and based on Gladfield Ale Malt, with Medium Crystal and Dark Chocolate Malts, and some oats thrown in for body. 50 grams of Fuggles for bittering is the only hops this beer will see. So nothing out of the ordinary happening with this Porter, pretty standard stuff.
Brew Day
Brew day was pretty successful, except for forgetting the oats and putting them in at 60 minutes and extending the mash time out. I also forgot to start the robobrew program so the mash temp dropped to 63 but once I started it regained its temp of 68 after ten minutes. No harm is done to the end brew, but it may be a little thinner than I would like.
Fermentation
I fermented for 12 days at 20 degrees with SafAle English Ale s04, and then crashed it in for 1 day and added gelatine. I didn’t have enough controllers as I’m fermenting 3 beers at once so left the fridge to do its thing but unfortunately it froze solid so I had to defrost it before I could keg it. Freezing it did make it very clear!
Taste Test
It’s still early days and the beer needs aging but it has come out better than expected with no obvious off flavours – a dark beer does hide all manners of sin though. The appearance is clean, with a ruby red hue and a nice thick white foamy head. Taste is chocolate, with a nicely balanced bitterness in the background. There’s not too much roastiness so it fits the bull of a Brown Porter. I’d probably go for a bit more roastiness next time, apart from that I’d change very little. This will certainly become a regular on my brewing roster.
Recipe Specifications
————————–
Boil Size: 29.30 l
Post Boil Volume: 25.00 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 21.49 l
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 51.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 25.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
————
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.80 kg Gladfield Ale Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 1 77.9 %
0.45 kg Gladfield Medium Crystal Malt (111.0 EBC Grain 2 9.2 %
0.40 kg Harraway’s Rolled Oats (2.8 EBC) Grain 3 8.2 %
0.23 kg Gladfield Dark Chocolate Malt (1300.0 EB Grain 4 4.7 %
50.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] – Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 25.5 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 –
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 7 –
Mash Schedule: Robobrew, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.88 kg
—————————-
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 19.03 l of water at 73.8 C 69.0 C 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min
Sparge: Fly sparge with 15.16 l water at 75.6 C
Notes:
Mashed in at 72 dropped to 69ish
Forgot to press play so dropped to 63 but went back to 68 after 10 minutes
Forgot oats so put them in at 70 mins and then mashed for 10 more minutes.
Went from 1.061 to 1.071 after adding the oats.
1.076 after 2 hour mash
1.078 after mashout
18 litres of mash water – added an extra as it seemed quite dry
14 litres of spare – 1 less due to extra 1 litre at mash in
28 litres preboil @ 1.044
Post boil 25?
Fementer 23 litres @ 1.049
Fermented for 12 days at 20 degrees, crash for 24 hours and gelatine.
No temp controller so it froze after 24 hours with gelatine. Turned off the fridge and kegged after another 25 hours.
————————————————————————————-
Robobrew #1
