My first porter (tasted like soy sauce)

[BrewFrenzy]

I was hoping to get some expert opinion on this recipe I used for my first porter. I adapted it from a 5 gal. batch recipe I found on the web and made a 2.5 gallon batch. I'm almost positive I screwed up the math and used too much Black Patent. I think it should have been about a quarter pound.

Steeped @ 160F for 30 minutes:
0.5 lb 80-90 L Crystal
0.25 lb Chocolate
0.85 lb Black Patent

Extract/Hop bill:
3.0 lbs Dark LME @ 60 minutes
0.5 lb Amber DME @ 60 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade hops @ 60 minutes
0.5 oz Northern Brewer hops @ 30 minutes

I pitched a full pack of Wyeast 1056 American Ale

[uncle_bad_touches]

I would definately cut back on the black patent - 1/4 lb sounds about right . Also, if you're using steeping grains to get your color there is no need to use dark or amber LME. I would replace those with 3.5 lbs of light LME, or if you want something maltier use an english LME made from marris otter.

Other things that can cause that kind of off flavor would be a concentrated boil or even yeast autolysis if the beer sat around for a couple months. When you boiled you wort did you boil the entire 2.5 gallons, or did you boil a smaller amount and add back water at the end? Also, how long did the beer sit on the yeast in primary?

[stadelman]

I say... why fight it? Toss is some chopped veggies, cook up some rice and enjoy!

[BrewFrenzy]

No concentrate boil. The reason for the 2.5 gal. batch was so I could use my 3 gal. kettle. I fermented in the primary (no secondary) for 21 days.

I still have a lot of ingredients so I might give this another try and I may go with your light LME recomend.

Thx

[tavish2]

i have heard people describe autolysis as a soy sauce like flavor. did you use a lot of yeast nutrient/engergizer? these are normally made from autolysized yeast. or did you leave it on the yeast cake for like 3 months?

[uncle_bad_touches]

if you did a full boil and only left it on the yeast for three weeks then the off-flavor is probably recipe related and not from your process. and that's easy to fix. good luck!

[Weenie Boy]

Water may also be the culprit here if you don't have a good tasting water supply. I agree that you may need to cut back on your black patent malt.
I would lean toward checking your water supply, cutting down on the black patent and maybe tasting after two weeks in primary.

Don't worry, my first soy sauce tasted like a porter

Weenie Boy

[BrewFrenzy]

I think we have pretty good water and I do charcoal filter it when brewing. Although I don't know if porters may benefit from some particular water profile. We have a local brewpub (Bosco's) and their brewmaster told me he only filters our local water through charcoal.

Didn't use any yeast nutrient; I even forgot to add it to my starter (another mistake).