“If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.”
-David Daye
“I like beer. On occasion, I will even drink a beer to celebrate a major event such as the fall of Communism or the fact that the refrigerator is still working” - Dave Barry
Well it took a few months, but I finally put the beer in the bottle. It’s tasting a bit sweeter than v.1, but maybe that’s because it has a less overpowering alcohol taste to it. We’ll see how it turns out in a few weeks!
Rochester in its natural environment
“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline; it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” - Frank Zappa
Just moved the new and improved Yellow Dot Maple Porter into secondary fermentation. Terrible picture here, but the beer is looking good!
“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.” -Dave Barry
So there was a slight problem with take two of the maple porter…my thermometer broke in the wort, and the batch was ruined! But I wasn’t to be deterred! Instead, I returned tonight, fresh in a new year and at the beginning of a new semester, for another try.
All the details were the same as v.2, with a slight change (I used 3 lbs. amber DME, 1 lb. light DME, and 1 lb. dark DME). The only reason for this change is that Beers of the World sells 3 lb. bags and 1 lb. bags, so it was slightly cheaper than doing 2/2/1 as in v.2.
Anyway, my plan was successful in that the wort still seems quite maple-y and potentially delicious, but I’ve reduced the expected ABV to ~8% (initial gravity of 1.060). In drinking two of the v.1 maple porters (~12% abv) I was reminded that this was a good decision. We’ll find out in a month or so!
Hi everyone! I know it’s been a while, so there are some things to catch up with on the homebrewing front, now that the semester is officially over!
First, Yellow Dot Maple Porter v.1 is a success, and I’m drinking one as we speak!
Cheers!
I find it to be delightfully maple-y, but not overpoweringly so. The only downside (maybe) is that it’s 12% abv. Now, normally I’m not really against that, except that I’m not used to being kind of wastey-faced after a single beer. Also, the first few sips do taste a bit more alcoholic than I would like, although I tend to stop noticing by sip 3 or 4 :)
So, that brings us to v.2! My goal today is to create an equally delicious maple porter that is more like 8-9% abv rather than 12%. I stuck with the same specialty grains:
1/2 lb. roasted barley
3/4 lb. crystal malt
10 oz. chocolate malt
1/4 lb. black patent
But made some alterations (read: reduced) the malt extract to cut back on the alcohol-i-ness:
2 lbs. amber DME
2 lbs. light DME
1 lb. dark DME
I went to 2 oz. of Northern Brewer hops, and will soon be adding 16 oz. maple syrup and British Ale yeast. It’s gonna be a good new year with delicious maple porter! Maybe we’ll have it at an upcoming cask party, DK?
Now that George Dieter for Town Council IPA is ready (I’m drinking one right now!), it’s time to move on to a beer I’ve been wanting to try for a while - Maple Porter. Several years ago, Rohrbach Brewing Company made one of these, and it was one of the best beers I’ve ever had. Unfortunately it was a season special, and to my knowledge they haven’t made it again. If anyone knows of a maple porter out there on the market, let me know, I haven’t yet found one!
A bit over-carbonated, but still turned out pretty delicious!
Anyway, now for the gory details (recipe can be found here, I made a slight modification). A few specialty grains in this one:
1/2 lb. roasted barley
3/4 lb. crystal malt
10 oz. chocolate malt
1/4 lb. black patent
I wanted the beer to be a little bit on the darker side, so I went for:
3 lbs. amber DME
3 lbs. light DME
2 lbs. dark DME
It was already looking pretty dark just from the specialty grains, so I guess we’ll see if that was a good choice! I stuck with the recommended hops, 1.5 oz. of Northern Brewer, which were in the boil for 60 minutes. Also added the 16 oz. (probably a little more actually) of maple syrup for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Lookin’ pretty dark and delicious! I think that block of ice sunk the titanic!
All right well, check back in a couple weeks, we’ll see how it turns out! So exciting!
Slight Update: Initial gravity is 1.092…could potentially be a 12% beer, hooooooo boy!