"Brown Porter"

Ah! I remembered the story I wanted to tell. Over the weekend I helped a friend brew a brown ale/brown porter thing he wanted to brew. The recipe seemed to change all the time, but below is the basics, with my comments following:

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
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12-A Porter, Brown Porter

Min OG: 1.040 Max OG: 1.052
Min IBU: 18 Max IBU: 35
Min Clr: 20 Max Clr: 30 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (L): 19.50 Wort Size (L): 19.50
Total Grain (kg): 5.10
Anticipated OG: 1.052 Plato: 12.75
Anticipated SRM: 24.8
Anticipated IBU: 35.6 (BU:GU ratio = 0.68)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
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Evaporation Rate: 5.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 24.37 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.041 SG 10.29 Plato

Grain/Extract/Sugar

%	Amount	Name	Origin	Potential	SRM
60.8	3.10 kg.	_Pale Malt (2-row) Harrington	Canada	1.037	2
15.7	0.80 kg.	_Munich Malt - Dark	Germany	1.037	9
5.9	0.30 kg.	_Crystal 40L	unk	1.034	40
4.9	0.25 kg.	Victory Malt	America	1.034	25
2.9	0.15 kg.	_Crystal 90L	Great Britian	1.034	90
2.9	0.15 kg.	Crystal 105L	Great Britain	1.033	125
2.0	0.10 kg.	_Chocolate Malt	unk	1.034	475
2.0	0.10 kg.	Melanoidin Malt		1.033	35
2.0	0.10 kg.	White Wheat	Belgium	1.040	3
1.0	0.05 kg.	Black Malt	Belgium	1.030	525

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops

Amount	Name	Form	Alpha	IBU	Boil Time
32.09 g.	Sterling	Pellet	5.30	28.5	60 min
15.00 g.	Bramling Cross	Pellet	5.50	4.6	20 min
15.00 g.	Bramling Cross	Pellet	6.00	2.5	1 min

Extras
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Amount	Name	Type	Time
1.00 Tsp	Irish Moss	Fining	15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
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WYeast 1335 British Ale II

Comments...
Well, as you can see the malt bill got a little crazy. That'll happen when you have lots of malts sitting around. At least there was ~77% malt with diastatic power and fermentable sugars. Most of the other malts only add colour and flavour, with little to no fermentable sugar.

The mash was just a one hour mash at 67 C with a water:grain ratio of 1.8 L/kg, which is fairly thick. We then did three batch sparges with 6 L of water at approx 77 C. We then boiled in three seperate pots for 60 minutes.

This whole method worked quite well apparently... we got 1.060 final gravity for the 19.5 L batch! That calculates to 76% efficiency rather than the 65% I predicted. Its possible that the thick mash I used this time around helped. But the three batch sparges worked pretty damn well.

Its pretty much not a brown porter anymore, but its something alright. It sure smells friggin malty though! The hopping rate dropped a bit too because of the raise in initial gravity. Now the BU:GU ratio is 0.59, so the balance will be even more towards the malt! It was never meant to be a hoppy beer though, of course.

We did all the work at a frat house, so there were plenty of interested helpers, too :)

Cheers!