Brew date: August 5, 2019
Bottle date: August 25, 2019
Walrus is my American-style porter, BJCP category 20A. My starting point for this recipe is a clone recipe I had come across for Founder’s porter, but I’ve also modified it quite a bit. I am targeting the mid-range for ABV but towards the upper range on IBU. As with all my beers, it will be bottle conditioned, which is not my preference in this case but I will work with what I’ve got.
I mashed all grains together, rather than cold steeping the dark grains. I will likely try cold steeping in future batches. I had planned to use Escarpment Labs’ Scottish ale yeast, but upon making a starter I found the yeast to not be viable any longer.
Batch size: 20L into fermentor (Actual: 21.6L)
Mash volume: 17L
Sparge volume: 13.75L
Target OG: 1.062 (Actual: 1.061)
Target FG: 1.014 (Actual: 1.012)
Target IBU: 45
Water additions (Vancouver tap base water):
6g Chalk
4g Baking soda
3g CaCl
2g Gypsum
2g Epsom
Salts were added to full volume (at 55C) and portioned off for mash and sparge afterwards.
Grain Bill:
4.00 kg BC Select 2-row pale
0.50 kg Munich II (Weyermann)
0.25 kg Flaked oats
0.20 kg Pale Chocolate (Thomas Fawcett)
0.15 kg Chocolate (Thomas Fawcett)
0.18 kg Crystal 120
0.08 kg Black patent
Mash Schedule:
55C for 20 minutes
67C for 70 minutes
75C for 10 minutes
Mash out with 73C water
Boiled for 90 minutes
Hopping, etc:
25g Nugget (14.8% AA, 2016) added at 60 mins (~38 IBU)
35g Willamette (5% AA, 2019) added at 20 mins (~7 IBU)
Whirfloc 1/2 tablet added at 20 mins
Fermentation:
US-05 (1 x 11.5g packet) pitched at 70F
FTSs set to 64F for first 48 hrs
Bottled Aug 25 with 99g dextrose (2.1 vols)
Brew Day Notes:
Brewed on the patio. Mashed in 12:45pm at 55C. Bumped up to 67C at 1:10. Reached that temp at 1:20. Raised to 75C at 2:30. Sparge started 2:45, finished 3:00. Boil start 3:45. Transfer took about 25 minutes. Pitch temp was 74F, but set the FTSs to 64F.
Tasting Notes:
[Aug 17, 2019] Primary pull. Down to 1.012, below target FG by a couple points. Aroma of chocolate and coffee. Nice full body, quite a dry finish with a touch of perhaps some higher alcohols. The warm fermentation is a little evident on the finish.
[Sep 27, 2019] This beer did finish a little more dry than intended, but the flavour is full of bitter chocolate and light coffee; quite pleasant. It wasn’t adversely affected by the warm fermentation, though I am confident it would be taken to the next level with a cooler ferment.