Recipes for Saturday

i stand corrected.

i first tried that pilz, and i will say it did not trip my trigger. but at the urging of jeff to try it again, i was flat ass wrong.

at first it seemed bland lacking in any real character (too much like a miller). but in fairness i have no idea what i had before i drank it. so my palet could have already been screwed.

the spice from the hops comes through very well now, great beer aroma (more to the spicy hop , than any strong malt) i do smell a little i will say bready (not really the word i am looking for) but it is a light malt aroma. but the flavors have melded very well, i did enjoy it.

special thanks to jeff for encouraging me to try it again, can't say i would have otherwise.

so all that to say i really enjoy that pilz good job on the recipe Randi!

Beer Dealer wrote:

I dont where you were looking but i have san fran cali in wwlp....and maybe i shoud've asked as i have yeasts in three drawers and two shelves in 4 diffrent bags and boxes...next time if just give me the list of prefereds in order and I will do my best...i just thought you got what you needed/....really sorry about that .well next time//Jeff

dkwandt wrote:

it should provide good attenuation for this beer, and it is pretty common to use a lager yeast for a baltic porter. octoberfest might be a newer one, but it should still work well. i would have went cal lager though. then again i would have used maris otter as the base malt too.

The Oktoberest will be a good yeast. It emphasizes the malty qualities of the beer but doesn't create as much sulfurous compound as the California Common yeast and it shouldn't require such a rigorous diacetyl rest, unlike other lager yeasts, including the Bavarian lager yeast. There's not really anything the California Common would bring to the beer that the Oktoberfest doesn't. Thanks for the offer Jeff, next time we'll have to request the yeast in advance so you can order it for our club brew, though I think we'll be good this time around.

As far as the Marris Otter goes, it's not really necessary to use it instead of a pale base malt in this case. With the Munich malt, roast barley and caramel malts, I don't think any character it might impart would be detectable. In addition to that, it doesn't have quite the diastatic power or extraction rate of 2 row pale malt, which does make a difference in a bigger beer like this one. You have to remember that the primary purpose of a base malt is to provide fermentables for your beer. While it's a great malt, it wouldn't make a sizeable difference in this particular beer. Now if we were brewing an bitter, pale or red, etc, then it would do the trick. Personally, I appreciate seeing all the feedback and discussion in this thread. Next time we have a recipe brainstorm, I hope all the folks who offered their input, and didn't make it, can come to the meeting and provide their input during the development process.

In this case, since we didn't get much of a starting point, Randi went to bat for us and did a lot of leg work and research to find award winning Baltic Porters as a reference for our own recipe. Normally, it takes a lot more tweaking than this one did to get a good initial recipe. Either way, it's always easier to critique than create. I do think she did a very good job and I feel we'll have a great beer coming out of this if all goes well. In fact, since she's sort of the unsung hero(ine) of our club, I'd like to take a quick moment to thank her for her efforts. And not because I'm her husband.

I dont where you were looking but i have san fran cali in wwlp....and maybe i shoud've asked as i have yeasts in three drawers and two shelves in 4 diffrent bags and boxes...next time if just give me the list of prefereds in order and I will do my best...i just thought you got what you needed/....really sorry about that .well next time//Jeff

Yeah, that California Lager is a good one for the Smoked varieties. There wasn't one available so the decision was made for us. I think the Oktoberfest is a good yeast.

it should provide good attenuation for this beer, and it is pretty common to use a lager yeast for a baltic porter. octoberfest might be a newer one, but it should still work well. i would have went cal lager though. then again i would have used maris otter as the base malt too.

The group decided to do a lager yeast at Tuesdays meeting. We had originally planned to try the Bohemian, but there wasn't one available. We'll probably do a diacetyl rest to knock any off flavors out.

Wyeast recommends for Baltic Porters:
1084 - Irish Ale
2124 - Bohemian Lager
2112 - California Lager
2633 - Octoberfest Lager Blend
1338 - European Ale
1728 - Scottish Ale

Just curious on the use of Octoberfest lager yeast. I thought a London Ale yeast or American Ale yeast might work better, and not have the diacetyl flavors, and yet still handle the higher alcohol content.

It is a really nice tasting malt, and I'm not that huge on smoke.

Oh no, no peat. Mike and I were going to tinker with a recipe that had a high peat content, but that's not something we'd ever suggest the club brew.

We'll miss having you there!

to be honest i thought you guys were going to to use peat, so it was a pleasent suprice to see cherry wood, cherry should be complimentry. look forward to tasting, i will miss brewing unfortunatly i have guard drill.

Actually it should be pretty subtle.

The Cherrywood Smoked Malt isn't as harsh as most others. We've only got 2.7% usage.

I've used double this before in a recipe and had a hard time tasting it.


Briess Smoked Malt (Cherry Wood)
Briess Smoked Malt delivers an intense yet smooth, sweet, smoked malt character not available in any other commercially available smoked malt, and that lends itself to use in many beer styles.
It is characterized by:

* Intense smoke flavor
* Smooth, sweet, smoked malt character
* Smoked with cherry wood
* No astringent, phenolic harshness
* Alpha Amylase 50
* Smoked in small batches
* Delivers consistent smoked flavor

Usage:
5-10% - Noticeable smoke character in lighter styles such as Scottish Ales and Oktoberfests
10-20% - Pronounced smoke character in lighter styles like Scottish Ales and Oktoberfests
30-60% - Noticeable to pronounced smoke character in darker styles like Stouts and Porters
We recommend limiting usage to 60% (but we really can't tell you what to do...you rebel)

the porter is going to be pretty smokey huh?

Always good to have more than one set of eyes doing this.

Here's a modified version of the Porter

Muddy River Mashers Baltic Porter Recipe

Note: Had to change yeast due to what was in stock.

I'd agree.

Typically Baltic Porters are 30-75% Munich or Vienna. That's not to say that it's necessary to go that high, but I'd raise the 1.6% amount a bit in an effort to make sure it's malty/grainy enough to stand up to the alcohol level.

I'd step the munich up in this recipe. This is going to be a very "thin" porter otherwise. Just my opinion.

Here's the recipes for Saturday's brews!

These are going off the suggestions and characteristics we decided on during Tuesdays meeting. Feel free to post your suggestions here.

Muddy River Mashers Czech Pilsner Recipe
Muddy River Mashers Baltic Porter Recipe