I have time for one more beer before I start making my NHC 2015 beers.  Not much time so I figured I’d make an English style beer that is a bit quicker turn around and one I have haven’t brewed before.  After kicking it around a bit I settled on a Brown Porter for no real good reason other than I’ve brewed most of the other English low gravity styles.
I did my normal research and reread the Porter book from the Classic Styles series, Brewing Classic Styles and old NHC recipes.  Jamil’s recipe seemed like a good place to start so I took his recipe and tweaked it a bit.  In reading the BJCP style guide it mentions low roast and chocolate and possibly some coffee notes.  I find most chocolate malt to be a bit harsh (acrid/astringent) so I decided to take Jamil’s chocolate and split it half and half as pale chocolate and coffee malt.  Also, I find fuggles to be a bit too earthy / woody so I used Willamette instead which I really like.  Otherwise I basically stuck with his recipe.
Brown Porter 1
12-A Brown Porter
Date: 4/1/14
Size: 8.44 gal
Efficiency: 85.0%
Attenuation: 77.0%
Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.040 – 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.008 – 1.014)
Color: 20.34 (20.0 – 30.0)
Alcohol: 4.99% (4.0% – 5.4%)
Bitterness: 26.1 (18.0 – 35.0)
Ingredients:
10.5 lb (75.0%) Maris Otter – added during mash
1.25 lb (8.9%) Brown – added during mash
1.25 lb (8.9%) Caramel Malt 40L – added during mash
.5 lb (3.6%) Pale Chocolate – added during mash
.5 lb (3.6%) Coffee Malt – added during mash
2 oz (66.7%) Willamette (5.3%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 oz (33.3%) Willamette (5.3%) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 ea Wyeast 1028 London Ale™
Notes
mash salts:
1.1g Gypsum
2.6g CC
1.6g pickling lime
sparge salts:
2g Gypsum
5g CC
acidify sparge to below 5.8 (~10ml of 10% phosphoric in 10G of water)
should give mash pH of 5.4
14 lb of grain
1.5 qt/lb = 21 quarts = 5.25 gallons
mash @ 152
mash in water temp 162.1 so 162.1 into mash tun and measure before mashing in
pitch @ 66 and ramp to 68 over 2 days > hold for a total of 2 weeks minimum. rack to clean keg and force carb to 2.3 volumes.
8/25/14  Fairly normal Brewday.  80F and sunny out which is always nice 🙂  Efficiency was super high (84%) so I had to dilute my work with 1G of water to get the gravity right.  pH was a bit high but not way off.  I measured water temp in MLT pre-mashing in and it was spot on it looks like Mash temp was good.  Cooled wort to 65 but it was 69 by the time I pitched.  Not a big deal but I was aiming for 66 at pitching time.   Pitched 1.3L starter.  Set the brewpi to drop 1 degree F over 24 ours and hold at 68 through end of primary.
8/26/14 @ 8am 1 inch kreusen and VERY active fermentation.
8/27/14 @ 8am yesterday afternoon ferment was ferocious!  amazingly no blowoff.  this morning ferment still steady but seems to have slowed
8/28/14 @ 8am wow, kreusen totally dropped and zero bubbling.  definitely my fastest ferment ever.  hopefully it has finished out.