Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:19 pm
First, RDWHAHB (Relax, don't worry, have a home brew)
The recipe looks decent -- it will be a good beer.
Improvements/considerations going forward for you:
1) Don't use Amber or Dark malt extracts. This is not to say that they are all bad. This is because you will have a bitch of a time translating the recipes if you ever want to make the move to AG or if the store doesn't carry the exact brand of extract that you need.
Instead, always use pale extract and a medium crystal malt (like C40 or C60) instead of Amber. IMO, Dark malt extract is pure evil. Dark malt extract can be made with either black patent or roasted barley or both, with and/or without crystal and/or chocolate malt, etc. The substyles of stout or porter or schwarzbier or (insert your favorite dark colored beer name here) can be thrown off by using the wrong variation of dark malts. Dry stout for instance is typically all roasted barley, no black patent. Robust porter is typically the other way around. Some styles of stouts and porters need chocolate and or crystal malts, others do not. Nobody knows what the fuck they put into the dark malt extract, so <insert Forrest Gump voice here> "You never know what yer gonna git". Typically, they shoot for the middle, which doesn't help out for most styles. Instead, the rule is to always use pale malt extract and then darken it up yourself. Hope that makes sense. Post a question here any time you are unsure of recipe forumulation and any number of us will be glad to help.
2) Generally, when making a style of beer, consider where that beer style originated. For instance, Porters "grew up" in England. Lagers are (generally) from Germany. American versions are from America, etc. As such, those styles made use of the local ingredients, because back in the day, they didn't have MoreBeer.com or NorthernBrewer.com (our fine sponsors) from which they could buy any ingredient they wanted. Instead, they had to make due with whateve was local. So, to be closer to style, stay with British ingredients for British beers (ie, Porters), American ingredients for American beers, German Ingredients for German Beers, etc. Your recipe is an English style (porter) that bitters with German (Perle) hops and uses American (Cascade) flavor hops, with a British (1028) yeast. It is your second brew, so this is no big deal at all, but it is something to consider as you gain experience and start to take your beers up to the next levels. Like I said, Brew it, Drink it, it WILL still be delicious. But learning the finer points now will save you tons in terms of experiments (esp. the ones that go awry) in the future.
3) The fact that you know about starters on your second batch is a good sign. Use them. The Pope's calculator is awesome, but you can fudge it up or down a little, no big deal.
4) Extract Twang can be defeated by doing the Extract Late Method. Google that. It's easier than trying to fuck around with 2 burners. Besides, it is the boil time of the extract that makes the twang, not so much the boil size. Concentrated boils make more twang, but it's often still there if you boil the extract for the full boil time.
5) Add the espresso at your choice of times. Generally, though, aromatics last better when they are added later (like brite tank/secondary or just prior to bottling, unless they need steriliztion, which would point to very late in the boil).
HTH-
-B'Dawg
BJCP GM3 Judge & Mead
"Lunch Meat. It's an acquired taste....." -- Mylo
