One Gallon Smoked Porter Recipe
There is a lot going into the Grain Bill here but that’s how we build complexity and layers of flavor. The fermentable sugars will come from the Pale Malt - used here because it is so mild. The layers of flavor come from all of the other malts. Almost a quarter of the grain bill is made up of smoked malt but it won’t be overpowering in the final product - there’s just enough of it there to give the beer a light, smoky presence. Those other dark malts will contribute more of the overall flavor, which will be well a balanced roasty, toasty, dark-coffee tasting experience. Very smooth with just the right amount of bitterness for the early hop addition. A surprisingly easy drinker on a cold, chilly winter night or even as a night-cap on a warmer summer evening.
Ingredients
Grain Bill
Pale Malt - 29 oz (58%)
Smoked Cherrywood Malt - 11 oz (22%)
Caramel Malt 60L - 3 oz (6%)
Munich Malt - 3 oz (6%)
Chocolate Malt - 2 oz (4%)
Black Malt - 2 oz (4%)
Hops
Chinook - 5 g
East Kent Goldings - 6 g
Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001) - 1 package
Instructions
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Heat 0.8 gallons of water to 170 degrees F. Add the grains and mash at 150-155 degrees F for 60 minutes. During the last 10 minutes of mashing, fill a second pot with 1 gallon of water and heat to 170 degrees.
After 60 minutes, heat the mash up to 170 degrees F and hold for 10 minutes. Strain the mash into a large container. Sparge the grain in the strainer with the 170 degree water until you collect about 5 quarts of wort.
Bring wort to a boil and add the Chinook hops. With 15 minutes left in the boil, add the East Kent Goldings hops.
After boiling, cool the wort down to about 65 degrees. Pitch your yeast and let ferment at 65 degrees for three days with a blow-off tube. After three days (the bubbling should have subsided by now), replace the blow-off tube with an airlock and let it sit in the carboy for another 18 days (21 total days ).
Keg or bottle and enjoy
Optional - Water Chemistry Adjustments
Total water needed for this recipe is 1.8 gallons. To start, I measure that out into one pot and then dissolve in half of a Campden tablet and let that sit for 15 minutes
After that, I add in the following to the water:
Calcium Chloride - 1.1 grams
Epsom Salt - 1.1 grams
My resulting water profile looks like this:
Please note: These results are unique to my specific water profile.
After making these adjustments, I split my water into two pots - 0.8 gallons to be used for mashing and 1 gallon to be used as sparge water.
No lactic acid was needed here as the dark malt naturally lowered the pH of the mash to about 5.3