Getting ready to to brew a Baltic porter and after grinding up all my grains (about 19 lb ). It finally dawns on me to look at the BS data and I see it says I need 10.7 gal of capacity in the Mash tun and I have a SS brew tech 10 gal Tun. It will hold a bit more but it will be pretty close. Trying to make a 6 gal batch to split with my older son. BS is calling for 27 quarts of water in the mash… maybe I will hold a few quarts back and see how the level looks after mixing in the grain. I need to learn to pay more attention to these details … i suspect I will remember this detail next time. Oh well thats what makes it interesting I guess.
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Sounds like you could get away with a old-school “top up”once it’s in the fermenter…Following your target original gravity.
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Thanks, my challenge is all the grains are mixed now. So I thought I could go a little thick on the mash then do sort of a batch sparge with an extra long pause in between runnings. The ABV on this recipe is close to 9% so I don’t mind if I lose some efficiency on this one and come in a bit lighter. I have a 15 gal boil kettle so plenty of space there. If it were not so cold out I would try to mash in that big kettle but I think the mash temp would be hard to maintain today.
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That must be an imperial strength brew… no BS there!
I like VooDoo’s idea…
Sneezles61
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Not sure I’ve done 19 lbs but I know i’ve done in the range of 17-18 lb grain bills BIAB in a 9 gal kettle in the past. You just need to mash thicker.
Thanks, it turned out ok, I could fit the grain and Mash water in …pretty close to the top, just did not have space for the “Mash out” water, which I don’t usually bother with as any time I have tried it, it never seems to raise the overall mash temp to that higher range.
It was pretty close though today. Definitely taught me a lesson. I don’t brew big batches of big beers often enough to get a larger mash tun. If my older son did not want to split it with me I would have scaled it back down to 5 gal. I am really interested to see how it comes out, 9 different grains plus 7 oz of molasses. I guess it will be either really good… or a dumper. It will be a beer to have when you are only having one though (abv around 8.5%), at least for me,
This is my third porter brew in the past couple of months so I think its time to change the channel after this one and try another style.
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I brewed a black strap molasses porter a couple years ago. Man it was good. I was really sad when the second keg kicked. Just don’t haven’t had the palate for those malty ales the last few years.
9 different grains…wow…seems…excessive but I’m a minimalist kinda brewer…haha
The grain bill seemed a bit over the top but it was from a write up in this months Zymugy magazine so I figured I would just follow it. Wasn’t until yesterday that I noticed it recommends lagering for 2 months before drinking . I did not larger the prior batch of Porter (that had a bit of an aftertaste) at all, now I am wondering if that one will get better with age. I will need to brew up something else that does not need lagering to fill the void while waiting for the molasses porter to be ready.
Most brews benefit from some form of “lagering”… A high gravity, very dark brew will certainly reward you better down the road…
Crank out some Ales, when the pipe line is full… set about your big brew…
Sneezles61
I can attest that cold storage greatly improves porters and stouts. I haven’t brewed one in years but I have a dry Irish stout on tap that’s been there for about 2 years and it’s fantastic. I’ve had porters on for well over a year and they absolutely get better with age.
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Next time substitute in some DME instead of all the grain. Its perfectly legit
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Just noticed the Baltic Porter calls for the Lager yeast and the other “standard” porters I did used an Ale yeast. I am anxious to see how this one comes out but I will need some patience I guess.
Yes a Baltic Porter is a lager all other porter to my knowledge is an ale. I’ve brewed my same recipe as an ale and a lager. I would have to try them side by side to notice a difference. I called the ale version an imperial porter
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Seems almost all things Beery on the south side of the Baltic Sea was lager aficionados…
the north side was consumed by the Kviek crowd?
Sneezles61
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Well the basement is the perfect temp for this yeast, which the recipe author suggests 60-62 deg (San Francisco lager WLP810), and it is percolating along maybe about 12 points per day according to the tilt (but that can end up with a clump of Krausen on it so I treat it more like a relative reading and watch for when its steady for a few days). I will prob give it at least 2 weeks to be sure. OG was around 1.090 supposed to finish around 1.024. They say the Baltic area liked the big beers for their “warming” effect. I can understand that.
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Yep. That thing is gonna drink like a smooth Old Rasputin. I’d taste it along the way but I’d put that beast in the back corner of the fridge and let it have a nice long rest. In a year it will be great. In two it will be fantastic. keller that bad boy and savor the way it evolves.
Thats a steam beer yeast. Ive never used it. Curious to hear your results
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Yea you can ferment that as cool as the high end of lager yeast right? Mid to high 50s?
edit:
Actually down to 50. If I were you I’d drop the temp on that bad boy slowly for the next few days. Get it as cool as you can in the 50s and ferment it slow. Then be sure to to a d rest. That yeast is famous for sulfur production too. So enjoy that in the brew cave.
Pretty sure it’s the same as WY 2112. I never compared them side by side but i did the same recipe with them multiple times and the beer seemed identical. Real workhorse yeast. Did I mention do a D rest?
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It’s going to be very challenging to leave this beer alone for a long time… I will have to brew a couple of others to get in front of it :).
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I dropped the temp to about 54 and will let it ride there until I raise it for a few days of rest. The recipe listed the fermentation temp as 60-62, then rise up a few deg for the rest at the end. What do you think the difference is in the two temperature ranges ?
Tilt is reading 1.035 now and still visible activity in the airlock. It’s only been about 6 days of fermention so I think it will hit the target.
Looks like we will warm up to the 50’s the weekend after this very cold one, I don’t know what I am going to brew yet but I will brew something that will be ready soon. Maybe an ordinary bitter or even a session IPA for a change. I think I have all the ingredients for both.
