Beer Forum

I bought a B3 Porter kit that I've been waiting to brew because I've had some sanitation issues in quite a few of my batches. I've narrowed the problem down to having good source water so I've relegated myself to the fact that I have to do full boils (good for getting to all grain anyway).

So, the kit is meant for 5 gallons and has:

7 lbs of light LME
1 lb crystal 40l
8 oz black patent
4 oz chocolate malt

2 oz Glacier hops.

I reworked the recipe in Beersmith from 5 gallons to 3 gallons (as much boil as I can do) and instead of an OG of 1.56 it's coming out to 1.086. I'm going to pitch 3 packets of Safale-05 into the wort and give it a long fermentation cycle so it should still ferment dry enough without being too hot.

I don't think this is exactly an Imperial Porter but it looks close. Any ideas?

If this works out in the end I'll be doing all 3 gallon batches until I get a full boil setup.


*I'm going to buy a kegging system next, then burner and 8 gallon pot for full boils. I'm not as concerned about my sanitation during bottling because the bottles all come out of a starsan rinse but it's just one more vector. That and I'm tired of bottling constantly.*

i would get the turkey fryer befoer the kegging system...i saw the biggest improvement of my beer by doing the full boil

Sean

yeah, that's one of the reason for me to be doing the 3 gallon batches- I can still run it on the stovetop and then in a month I'll get the spigoted kettle and burner off B3.

You may want to back off on the specialty grains a bit so it doesn't come out too roasty...

I'd also focus on smaller beers until you get your complete process all worked out. It sounds like you are putting the cart before the horse. Just because you can't do full boils, doesn't mean you can't make great beers. I'd go the route of "late extract additions" in a session beer until you work out both temp control and yeast health (starters, 02, etc). Jumping to "Imperial" beers - just because you are buying kits designed for 5 gallons - is probably not the right choice right now.


Mylo

Option A: There's nothing saying you can't brew it as 3 gallons, but then boil 2 more gallons of water and dilute it back down to a regular porter. I do this sometimes to make bigger batches -- I too am a 3-gallon brewer, but sometimes I make 5 gallons by making a really strong beer, then diluting with boiled water. Boiling the water will kill any critters AND get rid of any hypochlorite in your water. Just be sure to cool all 5 gallons before pitching the yeast.

Option B: If you do go the imperial route, this would fall into the Russian Imperial Stout category, albeit sort of a plain-jane version of a RIS. A RIS probably needs some roasted barley and a few more specialty malts and hops to make it really good.

But for a regular strength porter, if you go with Option A above, this should be a fine recipe -- dark and roasty as a good porter should be.

If your source water is an issue, then I would go with dmtaylor's option A. I'm still not quite to full boils (hovering around 4.5 gallons) so I boil off a few gallons of water a couple days before I brew. Then I sanitize a few gallon jugs and keep the boiled water in the fridge until brewday. Then I not only have good top-off water, but it's also cooled and I can get to pitching temp quicker.

They've got the right idea. I used to dilute 3 gallon boils with water and bring it up to 5.5 gallons of finished wort. That way you get at least 5 gallons of finished beer. If you like the 3 gallon route, then follow dmtaylor's ideas. Just a thought... I bought a turkey fryer and can boil 7.5 gallons. I bought the $45 Cajun Kooker at Home Depot. It's aluminum, but John Palmer says it's okay to use, so I do. I like it. I also used the 54 quart cooler with Denny Conn's hose braid method. I works great and I get about 85% efficiency for my oatmeal stout. Hope this helps! Cheers!
Jeremy