Peelout Porter

Porter

1999 BJCP style 15a

Recipe: Robust Porter
Volume: 5 gallons
Dates:

Brew date: 01-25-2003
Transfer to secondary: 02-01-2003
Bottling: 02-12-2003

Ingredients:

Water source: upstairs fridge filtered dispenser using 2 qt pitcher
Yeast: White Labs WLP002 English Ale (pitchable vial replacing yeast from kit)
Brewers Best Robust Porter Kit:
- 6.6 lbs Plain Amber Malt Extract (syrup)
- 8 oz Crushed Crystal Malt 60L
- 4 oz Crushed Chocolate Malt
- 4 oz Crushed Black Patent Malt
- Hop IBUs: 25-40 (per recipe)
  - 1 oz Cluster Hops (bittering)
  - ˝ oz Willamette Hops (finishing)
- Expected OG: 1.050-1.055, expected FG: 1.012-1.015

Activity Log

Steep/Boil (* possible points of contamination):

Steeped specialty grain in 2 gallons at 170 f on kitchen stove. Removed grain bag and used propane burner in garage to bring to boil. Stirred in extract and bittering hops. Boiled 55 minutes, stirring occasionally, then added finishing hops and boiled an additional 5 minutes. Cooled to 85 f using copper cooling coil attached to garden hose (*one clamp on coil leaked a few drops into the pot).

Added 3 gallons water to 6 gallon carboy fermenter. Siphoned wort into fermenter. (*large cutoff clamp didn't stop flow entirely causing a couple of false starts.) Aerated by tipping and rocking carboy back and forth on a folded towel and siphoned some out into cylinder to take OG reading. Reading was ~1.023. Poured thicker liquid that didn't siphon from the bottom of the pot into a pitcher and poured it into the fermenter. Mixed longer this time and siphoned some out. Reading was ~1.053. Pitched yeast and fitted with stopper and airlock.

Fermentation:

Built fermenting booth by hanging a bedspread from basement vent over a chair. Placed fermenter on folded towel. Vent didn't seem to help so closed vent and placed 60 watt bulb under chair. Temperature then steady between 65.5 and 67.5. Started bubbling at around 24 hours with Ľ inch head. At 40 hours, there was over 1" of foam and the bubbling was about 1 per second. At 52 hours the head grew to about an inch and a half and bubbles were about 4 per second. At 76 hours the head shrank a bit and the bubbling slowed back to 1 per second.

At one week the bubbling was about 3 per minute. Siphoned into 5 gallon carboy secondary. (*accidentally forgot to uncap other spout of primary carboy nipple and caused siphon to stop and some wort to be sucked back into primary along with some bubbles.) Small taste at beginning and end (top and bottom of wort) revealed nice taste. Fitted secondary with stopper and airlock. At 8 days bubbling about 1 per minute. At two weeks the bubbling in the secondary stopped.

Bottling:

Washed, rinsed and sanitized bottles using freezer baskets as a bottle rack. Took FG reading of 1.014. Boiled 4 oz of priming sugar in 2 cups of water. Siphoned into a 2 liter bottle until 4/5 full, squeezed the air out and put aside in fridge for forced carbonation. Put priming solution in bottling bucket and racked beer into bottling bucket. (*Accidentally left spigot open and lost between 1 and 2 quarts onto the basement floor. This will likely affect the carbonation since probably one third to one half of the priming sugar was lost) The bottling wand didn't shut completely off for the first few bottles. After that, botting went smoothly. Bottled, capped and labeled 38 bottles. Force carbonated the chilled 2 liter bottle the day after bottling. See labels here

Results:

We drank the 2 liter bottle the next day after it was force carbonated. It was a bit too carbonated for the first glass and just about right after a couple of hours. The hop bitterness was just about right for the style, but will be better to my taste when it ages a bit. We were very pleased with the flavor.
After 2 weeks a nicely chilled bottle was excellent! There was not any foaming as it was poured into the glass so I was worried that it was completely flat. It turned out to be lightly carbonated but is perfect for the style. I speculate that the priming solution stayed near the bottom of the bottling bucket when the loss of beer on the basement floor occurred and therefore not as much of the priming sugar was lost as I thought.
Many folks at the Feb 27 UKG meeting thought the beer was good but probably fit better into one of the Mild Brown (10a) or Southern English Brown (10c) Ale categories.
Testimonials here