Brewing a Porter, I hate Porters

[BigNastyBrew]

So, when the BYO came the other day, I was looking through and saw Jamil's Brown porter in it. I had never looked at a Brown Porter recipe before because I detest other porters (Robust in particular). However, I am a huge fan of British beers for the obvious reasons...esters and malts.

Reading over this recipe, it really looked delicious. Nothing like a "porter" at all, in the way I have come to think of them. So, I decided I'm givng it a go this weekend.

LHBS was out of Marris Otter. Um, what? The very backbone of a British beer and the one thing I know for certain I'll truly appreciate about this recipe (if nothing else). Because I could only go to the LHBS today and I can only brew this Sunday, I let him give me American Pale Ale malt instead. I'm not familiar wth this malt and he claims it's different than what's typically labeled "American 2-Row."

I've brewed American Beers, German Beers, British Beers, Belgian Beers, yadda yadda... but I've never brewed a British Beer with American base malt.

What am I in for?

[animaldoc]

It'll still be pretty good. You might miss a little biscuity-toasty background note, but in a porter I think the difference will be insignificant (note I didn't say undetectable).

I think the CYBI episodes of Firestone Walker beers talked about using a small percentage (5-10%) of Munich malt with american 2-row to add some of the biscuity flavors of the English pale malts.

Give it a try, and if you like it brew it agian with British malt!

[ScootsieDoubleday]

Agree with the previous post. Munich can definitely help with the body and "chewyness". Im a bigger fan of Brown Porters vs. Robust Porters (which I know puts me in the minority). Ive brewed JZ's recipe for Brown Porter, and if you hit it right (i.e. using the Brown Malt is essential), it'll turn out great. I've always thought of Brown Porter as "Mild's bigger brother", and I love English Mild.

Go to it!!!

[BigNastyBrew]

Good to know. I love Milds too and that's sort of the impression that I got just from reading the recipe too.

Too late for the Munich on this one. Picked up the recipe as is (with some adjustments made to my process/setup), just with the pale ale malt vs. MO.