Porter water questions

zwiller - kegged this last weekend. had a little bit that didn’t fit into the 2 kegs, so i carbed it up in a 2L bottle.

I’m sure it will get even better with some time, but wow, what a great porter. I feel like it is pretty close to EF but i have no way of confirming given it is not available here. i wonder if a smidge more medium crystal and maybe fermenting with WL007 or WY1028 might not make it exact.

i may mess around with those changes next time, but maybe not - so far, even though its not on tap yet, i’m thinking this recipe is about perfect for my tastes.

[quote=“blatz”]

i may mess around with those changes next time, but maybe not - so far, even though its not on tap yet, i’m thinking this recipe is about perfect for my tastes.[/quote]
Awesome. I’d really like to have a clone recipe for O’dell Cutthroat Porter. That’s my fave!

Sorry I missed your post again, my notifications are wonky. By chance my wife wanted to see nighthawk’s post again…

Glad this turned out well. I concur with the crystal, GLBC beers are heavy handed…

I owe my wife credit for help with the recipe as she was brave enough to chew on various dark malt mixtures and sips of EF until we arrived with something she felt was “on”.

Happy to ship a “yeast sample” of this fine beer. Shoot me PM.

O’dell doesn’t make it’s way here, but give the method above a try…

Finally brewed this porter Sat. Made a few adjustments though.

“Gordon Lightfoot”
75% pale (2 row brewer briess)
15% briess 80L crystal
5% english chocolate
5% english roasted barley

OG 1.060

Neutral (had some galena) bittering/.5oz willamette + .5oz cascade @ 15m to 37IBU Mash @ 155F, both mash and sparge pH 5.5.

Giving WL007 a first try on this one. Will post back tasting results. I am a little intimidated as this is my first ever brew for the missus…

Wow, that’s a lot of crystal. Will be a full bodied brew for sure. I’d be surprised if it fermented drier than 1.016-1.018 with that much specialty malt. But I’ve never used WLP007, so I guess I don’t know.
I’d got a taddy porter that’s ready to keg that finished at 1.016 with Wy1084. It tastes freakin’ fantastic. I used baking soda to bring the mash pH up, and I agree, I think the added sodium really lends to the roast character really nicely; rounds out the flavor.

I wouldn’t be worried about 15% crystal in a normal-gravity porter (an imperial porter with 15% 80L crystal might be a different story). Frankly, I think the crystal is one of the main things that sets a porter apart from a stout.

I think it will turn out just fine. Keep us posted on the results!

I’ve gone over 20% crystal with Chico before and no issues and WL007 is well documented to be dry so I bumped it.

I opted to use pickling lime for this beer. First time I ever used it. Kinda bizarre how little of the stuff I needed to use… I should mention that I wimped out on the higher pH target since I think I want more of a craft brew porter. Next dark beer will be a stout at 5.7, I want that smooth velvety thing going on. That said, I have an IPA and saison next, and maybe a NGP before that though.

Beersk, what pH did you target on that taddy?

[quote=“zwiller”]I’ve gone over 20% crystal with Chico before and no issues and WL007 is well documented to be dry so I bumped it.

I opted to use pickling lime for this beer. First time I ever used it. Kinda bizarre how little of the stuff I needed to use… I should mention that I wimped out on the higher pH target since I think I want more of a craft brew porter. Next dark beer will be a stout at 5.7, I want that smooth velvety thing going on. That said, I have an IPA and saison next, and maybe a NGP before that though.

Beersk, what pH did you target on that taddy?[/quote]
I targeted 5.5 using Bru’n water. I didn’t actually measure the pH though, so it could’ve been 5.3 for all I know. But I used over a gram of baking soda in the mash so I doubt it go too low. Very smooth though out of the fermenter.
5.7 is pushing the upper limits. I’d think you’d run the risk of leaching tannins if you get too high.

Yep 5.7 is pushing the upper limits but I want to see what happens. I am inclined to think that it will make the beer exceptionally smooth. Do keep in mind that I acidify sparge to same so there is no risk of going beyond 5.7. I estimate a .2 drop during the boil (150+ppm Ca) and a full point or more during fermentation so I should be under 4.5 in the end.

I finished fermenting a Brown Porter last month using the London Porter profile that was presented in the May/June 2014 issue of Zymurgy. That profile includes a fairly significant level of sodium and chloride, so I was concerned. But I can report that the resulting beer is not ‘salty’ in the least bit. Very round and full. The inclusion of brown malt was also welcome. However, I recommend keeping the brown malt percentage very low unless you want those smokey notes that it provides. I recall targeting a pH of about 5.5 for that one. Very smooth roast character.

My brown porter also used brown malt. It was essentially the brown porter recipe out of Brewing Classic Styles. Somewhere around 9% Brown malt, 9% medium crystal, and 6% chocolate malt. Pretty awesome tasting. Finished at 1.016, which is about perfect for most dark beers, I think, except maybe schwarzbier and dry stout. I think the finished profile maybe had 30-35ppm sodium, so not too super high.

Beer looks done so I checked gravity and it is a bit high 1.024… It appears WLP007 is more of a picky eater than chico. No argument I pushed the crystal and mash temps… Doesn’t taste overly sweet though. Gonna give it another week and swirl fermenter now and then. I’d be happy if it came down to 1.018 or so. All that being said, I am happy with my initial impressions with the new yeast. Definitely a marked improvement over chico. Wife had her first hydro sample. We are both brutally honest with stuff like this and she said it tastes remarkably similar to Ed Fitz. I agree, but I think the finish hops could be bumped up.

In the end, FG is just a number. If it doesn’t taste underattenuated or worty, and you like it, then it doesn’t really matter what the FG is. Not all FG’s are created equal…

I might have to brew this up as my next brew as Eddy Fitz is one of my favorite porters. I just pitched WLP007 into my Ruination clone this weekend and it seems to be going to town. It took off quick! I am fermenting at 66* and hit it with pure O2 for 30 seconds before pitching. I plan on bumping it up to 70* in a couple of days. Hoping it finishes very dry. What temp did you ferment at?

WLP007 is faster than chico. It was basically done at day 3. I did 65F ambient but pitched into 60F wort. Hoping to harvest yeast and pitch into my house IPA Saturday. REALLY excited to use it for that!

I’ve always wondered if EF was dryhopped since there is a pretty significant cascade flavor/aroma. Do you think it might improve by dryhopping with maybe 0.5oz of cascade per 5gal or would that be too much?

I don’t make it to GLBC often or find EF on draft but I don’t recall a dryhop aroma per se. That said, I definitely pick up some aromatics from what I suspect is a late addition or whirlpool. I would say a hopstand would replicate this really well. Maybe as much as an ounce of willamette and cascade for 30 minutes.

No change in FG readings so it is being crash cooled. Will hopefully post results of the “initial qualitative analysis” this weekend.

Any update on this? I am thinking about brewing this or a similar recipe. My wife is also a big fan of Edmund Fitz so she requested this as my next brew and I have WLP007 harvested from my last brew.

Despite the higher FG, this beer is the best I’ve ever made. I think this mainly attributed to Paul/Blatz suggesting me try WLP007 over chico which I’ve used nearly 20 years. :cheers: I found my new house yeast! Planned to snag a sixer of EF and do a side by side this weekend for you guys but struck out…

Is this an exact clone? No, but I am being brutally BJCP about it. It is 90% there and will please anyone who is a fan of EF. Based on my limited experience with 007 and memory of EF, I bet if you would back down the crystal to 10% and mash lower (150F) and bump the finish hops to an once per you’d be near 95%. I will post ramblings once I get a chance to do a side by side.