Brew 14: Disaster Porter 2

The original Disaster Porter is of my favorites so far, and a favorite of my friend Greg's. He wanted to get in on another batch and came over with Ed to watch and help out.

I realized something with this brew. Watching someone else brew is like watching someone else cook. If you really want to do it yourself someday it is cool to learn, otherwise it isn't that much fun. They were good sports though, and we brewed up 10 gallons of delicious porter that is now in secondary and will be bottled for them and put on tap for me in about 2 weeks.

This was the first brew with my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler, and the difference is amazing. I did a step mash as you can see below, and for the first time I nailed the temps and they held. The process went much faster even though I did 10 gallons instead of 5. The cooler could have held another 2 lbs of grain, but no more.

1:20 PM 5/2/2009 dough in at 154
1:32 PM 5/2/2009 Temp @ 140
2:00 PM 5/2/2009 Recirc 2 gals (draw off, boil, add again) + add hot water to 155
2:30 PM 5/2/2009 Recirc 2 gals to 165
2:44 PM 5/2/2009 Started Sparge
3:35 PM 5/2/2009 Started Boil of 12.5 gallons
3:45 PM 5/2/2009 Added 60 min hops
4:15 PM 5/2/2009 Added 30 min hops
4:40 PM 5/2/2009 Added 7 min hops + Wort chiller coil + Irish Moss
4:45 PM 5/2/2009 Added 0 min hops, started chill

Tasting: Bridgeport Imperial Porter

I love to travel. I lived in the Portland are for almost a third of my life, but I never full appreciated it. Of course, Portland has a lot more to appreciate every year, but I feel like I really screwed up during my time there. I could have done and seen so much more!

But at least once a year we return to Oregon, and this year I decided to pick up as many Oregon beers as I could. Due to the winter storm, the worst in 40 years, I was stuck in Salem for most of the stay, a decidedly beer-poor community compared to Portland to the north, Bend to the East and Eugene to the south.

But, after searching the supermarkets, what should appear in a grimy neighborhood just east of downtown but Capitol Market. An oasis. 2 full aisles of beer at room temp, and coolers around the perimeter served up hundreds of different bottles of beer from around the world. I filled a case with beer from breweries I had heard of but never visited.

The first of those beers I will be tasting is from one of the larger breweries in Portland; Bridgeport.

Tasting: Chilled to ~40 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 A rich black hole. No light can escape.

Head: 3/3 Nice coffee colored head that thins to a film that stays.
Aroma: 3/3 Malt leads the way, with chocolate close behind, followed by a touch of coffee.
Flavor: 2.5/3 Toffee and roast grains surrounded by sweetness. The flavor plays second fiddle to the aromas, but very pleasant. Not burnt. I know the hops are there, but they play a supporting role to the smooth malts.
Mouth feel: 3/3 Medium to thick body, low carbonation, velvety on the palette.
Overall: 3/3 A great porter.
Buzz: 3/3 Light buzz after 1/3 glass.

My first Bridgeport was not a disappointment. I think I will try to work a brewery visit into our next trip to Oregon.

Tasting: Disaster Porter

If you haven't been following the progress of this beer, read the articles where I brewed it, and then racked it first to see the history of this beer.

I bottled the disaster 2 weeks ago, and the taste at that time had improved yet again. I started to have a glimmer of hope and decided to bottle it rather than dump it.

Clearly, I have a lot to learn about hoppy beer (and most other types too for that matter). At each stage of production it tasted better, the bitter aftertaste subsided gradually and the flavors came slowly together. After bottle-conditioning for 3 weeks, it tasted great. Not what one would expect in a Porter, but good. At two different tastings with friends, it was a hit. I have never tasted a beer like it, and neither have my friends, although I am sure there is one out there. It doesn't fit into any category that existed 30 years ago, but it would be considered a robust porter now.

Tasting: Chilled to ~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 Very dark, opaque but dark, dark brown, not black.
Head: 3/3 Thick but light head that lasts for most of the glass.
Aroma: 3/3 Rich smell of burnt malt with the slightest hints of chocolate, under a rich aroma of hops.
Flavor: 2/3 nice light malty flavor with strong hop finish.
Mouth feel: 3/3 Velvety on the palette, smooth medium body with light carbonation and sharp aftertaste of hops with subtle malt.
Overall: 2/3 A good beer, complex flavors of malt dominated by Hops.
Buzz: 3/3 Solid buzz after 1 glass.

Brew #5: Disaster Porter

I spent Saturday attempting to create a Porter similar to the Black Butte Porter:

9 lbs 2-row malt
8 oz chocolate malt
4 oz black patent malt
8 oz honey malt
4 oz Victory Malt (subs. for Roasted Barley)
4 oz rice hulls for sparging

1 oz Galena Hops, pellets (60 min)
2 oz Cascade Hops, whole (30 min)
1 oz Tettnager hops, pellets (2 min)

Wyeast #1338 European Ale Yeast (from starter 30 hours old)

Final volume was 5 gallons, my final gravity was 1.055. In the image, the porter is on the right.

I wanted to do a step mash in 3 steps: 125 Protein rest, 154 Sach. Rest, 158 mash out.

It was a disaster. I was working alone and watching my youngest daughter at the same time. I could not hit the temperatures. I shot past all of them and had to add water to cool down and I think I ended up passing the 180degree point while trying to mash out because the wort has a bitter taste that arrives well after swallowing and remains on the palette for a long time.

I am going to let it ferment and taste it at racking, but I am pretty sure the batch is spoiled and I will need to toss it.

In the future I will not be doing step mashes.

In addition to the temp. problems, I dropped the lid in the brew pot and had to stop the boil to retrieve it and ran out of sparge water before reaching my target volume.

My volume at the start of boiling was 7.2 gallons, and I ended up with just shy of 5 gallons in the fermenter. I HATE WHOLE HOPS!!!