Dad's Porter

My father enjoyed a bottle of Champlain Porter on the hottest summer days. When I was a young lad he would send me to the grocery to buy him one quart bottle, which he would have with his supper. I grew up thinking that good beer was black. I still like Anchor Porter and Guinness Stout!

The toasted grain used in this recipe is toasted in a ceramic smoker and barbecue called "the Big Green Egg". It allows excellent control of temperature. The grain was toasted for 60 minutes at 300° F, and apple wood chips provided some smoke to the grain.

Brewer:	Larry Maler		Email:	maler@attglobal.net
Beer:	Dad's Porter		Style:	Brown Porter
Type:	All grain		Size:	23 liters
Color:	55 HCU (~23 SRM)		Bitterness:	25 IBU
OG:	1.044		FG:	1.008
Alcohol:	4.7% v/v (3.7% w/w)
Water:	I use untreated spring water.
Grain:	3kg British pale 900g American 2-row toasted in a smoker 400g British crystal 70-80L 200g Flaked oats 100g American chocolate 100g American black patent
Mash:	65% efficiency
	Water heated to 155°F. All grain is added at this time, and the temperature stabilized at 150°F. The mash is left undisturbed for 1 hour at this temperature, except for stirring every 15 minutes to avoid hot spots. (I have a temperature controller that turns on a hot-plate when the temperature falls by more than 1 degree.) About two liters of wort are recirculated. I oversparged this time: I had expected to collect 23 to 24 liters and boil down to 21. Instead I collected 29 liters, boiled down to 23 and left 2 liters of trub and wort in the brewpot. My grain is about 30 months old by now, which I think explains my sorry mash (in)efficiency.
Boil:	90 minutes	SG 1.035	29 liters
	200g Brown sugar
	I use a heavy thick walled 37 liter brewpot with a half-centimeter base, heated on two burners of a flat-top stove. Irish moss is added with the last hop addition, with 15 minutes left in the boil. At this time the wort chiller coils are immersed in the boiling wort in order to disinfect them. At the end of the boil, the hop bags are squeezed so that trapped wort can be collected and returned to the brewpot.
Hops:	30g Willamette (3.9% AA, 60 min.) 28g Willamette (3.9% AA, 30 min.) 28g Willamette (3.9% AA, 15 min.)
Yeast:	Wyeast 1318 London Ale yeast III. Quote from Wyeast web page: "From traditional London brewery with great malt and hop profile. True top cropping strain, fruity, very light, soft balanced palate, finishes slightly sweet. Flocculation - high; apparent attenuation 71-75%. (64°-74° F)"
Log:	Brewed: Saturday March 13, 1999. Bottled: Sunday April 4, 1999. Fermentation at room temperature using a t-shirt as an evaporative wick to slightly cool the carboy. Primary: 11 days. Secondary: 11 days. The discrepancy in volume is due to the fact that some of the volume is lost when siphoning to primary (leaving trub, hops and some wort behind) and in the subesequent siphonings to secondary and bottling bucket. I attribute low mash efficiency to the fact that I am using grain that I bought 3 years ago, and that has travelled great distances during the hottest part of summer. Next time I make this beer, with fresh grain, I expect an efficiency between 75 and 80%, which is my norm.
Carbonation:	2.0 volumes	Corn Sugar: 90.9g for 19 liters @ 72°F
Tasting:	Months later, this is still a great beer. I had some tonight (Feb. 13, 2000) and both the chocolate malt and black malt really show through. Very malty, very good.

Recipe posted 02/23/00.