So the first real recipe vomited from my brain (and Google) is a smoked porter. The naked part comes in because it uses Simpsons Golden Naked Oats (I wasn’t naked for THIS batch, or any batch, because sanitation and windows and won’t somebody think of the children. Gasp. Faint).
My sister gifted me with a box of brewing goodies for Christmas, including smoked malt, midnight wheat, and golden naked oats. Until this point I had never heard of golden naked oats, but the guy at the brew shop assured her they were excellent and what most home brewers are missing in their brews. Supposedly they provide better head retention and a fruity finish. Cool. These grains were all un-milled so prior to brew day I found a local-ish brew shop and purchased a Victoria Grain Mill (will review shortly). Look, milled grains!!!
This is my first real dark beer, so there is a bit of fear surrounding bitterness and drinkability. I have no idea how to actually balance these types of flavours, and to make it all a little more sideways; I don’t even drink Porter. This is a Brian beer. He is a fan of anything dark and recently found an excellent, but fairly expensive, wine barrel aged porter. The plan, in theory/ hopefully/ on my knees begging for divine intervention, is to create a similar smokey/fruity flavour profile using the smoked malt and golden naked oats. I also read that midnight wheat is a safer way of getting that earthy porter taste without venturing into the realm of bitter, dark, and unpalatable (I might be talking about my soul here).
So the recipe:
| Servings |
gallon
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- 1.0 pounds 2-row malt (453.5 g)
- 5.0 pounds Smoked malt (226.8 g)
- 3.0 pounds Chocolate malt (136.1 g)
- 2 pounds Midnight wheat (90.7 g)
- 2 pounds Golden naked oats (90.7 g)
- 1.9 litres Water
- 3.79 litres Water
- 0.4 ounces Fuggle hops (11.3 g)
- 1/2 packet Safale US-05
Ingredients
Mash
Splarge
Boil
Fermentation
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|
- Heat water to 160 F
- Add milled grains
- Steep for 60 minutes at 150 F
- Hot break at 170 F after 60 minutes
- Heat water to 170 F
- Filter water through mash (for those who aren’t familiar with all-grain brewing, the mash and accompanying liquid is placed in a strainer over a pot. The water is then poured over the strained mash. Then you stick the strainer over another pot and pour all of that liquid over the mash. To avoid mess I sometimes use a ladle to evenly distribute the liquid over the mash pile)
- Boil for 60 minutes
- 50% hops at beginning of boil, 50% at 45 minute mark
Cold break
Instead of ice, I cool my brew pot by dunking it in a sink full of cold water and ice packs from my mom (who is paranoid about food safety and travelling with food) and the local sports injury clinic.
Fermentation
After the beer has cooled add filtered beer plus 1/2 packet of yeast to carboy and shake vigorously.
Using my handy hydrometer, I determined that the specific gravity of this batch is 4.4. In theory, the final product will have an alcohol content around 5.4%. Generally, the alcohol level is slightly lower because not all of the sugar is converted to alcohol.
The beer has been deposited in the fermentation room (cough cough bathroom) and it should be ready for bottling in 2 week. I plan to cold-crash it for a day or two before bottling to help with clarity. This means I stick it in the fridge for a day or two so that the yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy firms up a bit (just like testing total suspended solids in sewage samples. Tasty).
Will update you with tasting notes!