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| Label Inspiration: I thought of the name of this beer and then decided to spell it phonetically instead of the "normal" spelling. |
Based on the
Midnight Beatdown Wheaten Porter by Northern Brewer
*Partial mash, five gallons*
FERMENTABLES/SPECIALTY
GRAIN:
6
lbs Wheat malt syrup
2 lbs. Rahr 2 row
2 lbs. Rahr 2 row
1
lb Flaked Wheat
1
lb Chocolate Wheat
0.5
lbs Caramel Wheat
HOPS
& FLAVORINGS:
1
oz Summit (60 min)
0.5
ox Cascade (10 min)
0.5
oz Centennial (10 min)
0.5
oz Cascade (flameout)
0.5
oz Centennial (flameout)
YEAST:
Safale
US-05
FININGS
& OTHER ADDITIONS:
Cinnamon,
dash (during mash)
1t
Irish Moss (15 min)
½
t Wyeast Nutrient Blend
OG: 1.062
Actual OG: 1.059 (unknown ambient temp- sample
left in “baster”)
Brewed beer on August 25, 2015. Brew day went well overall. Mashing went
well. The 60-minute mash was at 154 degrees, which I pretty much held to
without a lot of tweaking (one small hot water addition). I wasn’t sure about
how much water to add to the boil so I just added enough to get to a little
over 3 gallons in the boil kettle. I forgot about the addition of the syrup (6
lbs Wheat) so the boil kettle water hit 4 gallons. It turns out that was fine.
I kept the boil to a small rolling one…almost has a boil over with the first
hops addition (Summit) but I caught it in time.
I used a strainer on top of the fermenter this
time because I remembered what the Brooklyn Brew Shop had on their
instructions- to use the strainer as a filter AND also as an aerator. The worst
part of my brew day was when I tried to insert the airlock into the grommet on
the lid. The vodka I had in the airlock started going into the beer. I tried it
again and it did it again. Finally, I got another airlock, sanitized it, and
installed it. It worked. I hope the vodka didn’t hurt the wort.
Temps started in the 70-72 range. I added a frozen
water bottle to get it to drop a few degrees just in case it really took off
and got over 73-75.
August 26, 2015. No activity in the airlock in the
morning. Temps around 66-68. Temp at 66 in the afternoon, still no activity in
the airlock. It finally started to bubble at 2030 tonight
August 27, 2015. Airlock activity constant but not
as “deliberate” as last night. Fermenter temps hit 72 by the time I got home at
1630 hours so I draped a wet t-shirt over the fermenter and added a frozen
water bottle. I can smell the US-05 working! I just hope it’s not too hot.
For the next week or so, the temps ranged from 68-70. These temps were too high and might have affected the final product. I tried to lower temps on several occasions, placing frozen water bottles in the swamp cooler.
Racked to secondary September 8, 2015.
Things went well enough, so I hope. I’ve read on the Northern Brewer website
that some people have left this in the secondary for up to 4 weeks!
October 5, 2015. Bottled beer.
Tried one on October 20, 2015. Man, I like a hoppy
porter! I’m not too happy with the smell (smells like homebrew), but I like the
taste. It’s actually close to a Black IPA. AND, the viscosity…it’s pretty
thick…medum-bodied! I think it still needs some time to blend and mature.
October 27, 2015. I’ve had a few beers since the
20th and it’s mellowed out a bit. The refrigerator does it justice,
believe me. I’m tasting one now that’s been I the refrigerator for about 5
days. It’s light to medium bodied, hoppy (a little bitter), slight
coffee/chocolate notes, coffee/malt smell. I like it. Tzied with Boots’ Best
for 2nd place, IMO. Needs more carbination, though.
November 19, 2015. I DO like this beer, but the slight “homebrew” taste and (mostly) smell makes it only a decent, drinkable beer. I’ll have no problem finishing this beer, but it definitely could’ve been better.
December 16, 2015. Still pretty
good. I have 8 left and I’m chilling 6 of them. Definitely some bubbles left
and nice bitter hop flavor for a porter.
LESSONS LEARNED: I would've liked a more fuller-bodied beer. I would've added about 4 oz of maltodextrin or a specialty malt to increase the body/mouthfeel. With partial mashing, sometimes it's tough to keep adding malts because there's no room left in the double-mesh strainer!
TASTING
PROFILE:
AROMA:
Malty, slight chocolate notes with a tinge of hops, “homebrew” smell after I got down to ½ glass
APPEARANCE:
dark brown with a slight copper hue, head was 1/4 to 1/2" right after the pour, 1/8”
head still after 15 minutes, small bubbles
FLAVOR:
malty, chocolatey, roasted/caramel notes, slight coffee, light hop
bitterness at the end that stayed on the tongue a little but it wasn’t too
hoppy
MOUTHFEEL:
slightly watery, maybe medium-bodied or just above light bodied, bitter on
the tongue but not too bad aftertaste
OVERALL
IMPRESSION: Definitely drinkable, hoppy porter with chocolate/coffee notes
OVERALL
SCORE: 7 of 10
Here's an advertisement I did for this beer, thanks to Apple's iMovie...
Here's an advertisement I did for this beer, thanks to Apple's iMovie...
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