Pumpkin Porter Recipe

It was two firsts for this homebrewer.  1. Adding spices to a beer (excluding coriander in the wit-bier).  2. Adding fruit/vegetables to a beer (excluding the orange peal in the wit-bier, or grape juice, or honey).

Yep, two firsts in this Pumpkin Porter recipe.  As for adding the pumpkin, straight from the can baby!  No cooking it here.  Oh, you are supposed to cook it or roast it?  Or does it really matter?  It gets boiled.  Simple on the pumpkin...open can, and add to mash.  As for the spices, I could have gotten the basic Pumpkin Pie spice, but we chose to create our own.  Experimentation commences.

For a 4.25 gallon final volume, here are the ingredients.

5.5 lbs 2-row pale ale malt
1 lb Munich malt
.5 lbs Crystal 40
.5 lbs. Chocolate malt
2 lb can of pumpkin
.5 lb Turbinado sugar
1 oz Hallertau for 60 minutes
.5 oz Hallertau for 5 minutes
1056 American Ale yeast

Spices:
2 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp ginger
.5 tsp nutmeg
.5 tsp allspice
A pinch of clove

OG: 1.061  |  FG: 1.015  |  ABV: 6.27  |  IBU: 32

Simple enough, right?

Jose Marti America Porter - Beer Review

Surprisingly balanced. The Jose Marti American Porter from Cigar City Brewing boasts high hopping levels to give an IBU of 65... Much higher than one would expect from a porter. Yet this is called an American Porter. (In general the American title addition lends to an increased amount of hopping.  It's not the rule but seems to be the way things work.)

This beer pours deep brown in color with an ivory head.  Hops and  malt are in the aroma with hints of toffee and vanilla.  Dark malty goodness is present as to be expected...without too much sweetness. Hop bitterness helps cancel the sweet while maintaining balance. A lingering bitterness persists.  Mouthfeel is silky with a nice little bite at the finish.  There are some hints of chocolate in the flavor, dark chocolate.   It has a nice full dark malty flavor (not too roasty), like a porter should have.  It's pretty good.

And who is this Jose Marti guy?  Well, it seems a little Cuban history will give us the answer. In short, he
was an influential Cuban political activist, writer and poet around the time  Cuba gained independence from Spain in the late 19th century.  Fighting for independence and freedom, his life was eternalized by his words and deeds.  An additional remembrance for Jose Marti is to be found in this beer.

It comes in 4 packs.  If you see it, it's worth the purchase.

Differences in Porter and Stout

Both are dark, both are malty.  Both come from the same region historically.  What are the differences (and similarities) between a Porter and a Stout?

The Beer Judges Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines have three subcategories for Porter and 6 for stout.  Let's look at a few comparative sub-styles, as an example, and look at the "Vital Statistics" of each, to see how they stack up and what we may discover.

           Brown Porter      Dry Stout           Sweet Stout
OG:    1.040 - 1.052      1.036 - 1.050    1.044 - 1.060
FG:     1.008 - 1.014      1.007 - 1.011    1.012 - 1.024
IBU:    18 - 35                30 - 45              20 - 40
SRM:  20.0 - 30.0          25.0 - 40.0        30.0 - 40.0
ABV:  4.0 - 5.4               4.0 - 5.0            4.0 - 6.0

Among the three, there are actually more differences between the Dry and Sweet stout than with either of them and the Porter.  The chart below illustrates this too, while using the average number from of each category above.

 

The subtle differences shown by the data may be stated as such; that on average the Porter will be lighter in color (SRM) and less bitter (IBU) than the two Stouts.  The only category where the two Stouts are more closely similar to each other than either of them are with the Porter is with the SRM.  And this may not be too surprising.

A key difference between the styles is the use of Roasted Barley with the brewing of Stouts, whereas Porters will generally use darker malts (chocolate and/or Black Patent malt) and not the un-malted Roasted Barley.

The 2008 BJCP Style Guideline has the following to say for each regarding the Overall Impression of these similar styles.

• Brown Porter: "A fairly substantial English dark ale with restrained roasty characteristics"
• Dry Stout: "A very dark, roasty, bitter, creamy ale."
• Sweet Stout: " A very dark, sweet, full-bodied, slightly roasty ale. Often tastes like sweetened espresso."

Historically the Stout evolved from the Porter, initially as the adjective, as in Stout Porter.  While Stout took off in popularity, with the help of Guinness, the Porter almost became extinct as a style.  The histories of the two styles can be interesting, if you are interested.

Three from One...

...continued  (See here for the background if you missed it.)

This batch of Porter will become three different variations.

1. Bottled as it.  The raw Apotheosis Porter.  This smelled and tasted fantastic, and it just didn't seem right not to bottle as brewed.  I bottled just over 1.5 gallons without any additions.

2. Java Porter:  I cold brewed some coffee (see below for details) and simply added the coffee to the bottling bucket, gently stirred it to mix in with the beer, and continued to bottle the remaining gallons.

3. This is three of the four gallons I started with.  The fourth is in the single gallon carboy
For this variety, I added some cherry flavor to the beer, for a Cherry Porter.  The local Homebrew Shop actually was giving away some of these flavors, with the promise to share a few beers with them.  This is a way to see if the flavoring is any good, and to get a sense for the results.  The recipe calls for 4-5 ounces per 5 gallons.  I did some math and conversions, and this equated to two tablespoons per gallon.  For fear of creating cough syrup beer, I halved the recommended dose and placed only 1 tablespoon into the single gallon batch.  Swirl it around, add the priming sugar and bottle away.

In a few weeks, I'll get the chance to try all three.

Make three beers from one

I'm on a quest to make the perfect Porter.  As you may recall, I won a brewing competition not to long ago.  If you forgot about it, it's OK.  I will remember though!  I'm still excited about it.  For a refresher, click here.  (You know you want to.)  Long story short, it was a Porter which won.

This winner was an extract with specialty grains brew.  My most recent was a similar recipe, only all grain.  My batches are a bit smaller than the norm, yielding about 4 gallons.  This way, I can rack to secondary into a 3 gallon carboy and into a 1 gallon carboy.

Two Beers From One:  When I rack to secondary, it effectively splits it into two.  With two batches, I can dry hop one or add oak chips, or just about anything as an experiment, without risking the ruination of the whole batch. (Not that it's a real risk).  This also helps to identify the difference the additives made to the beer.

Three Beers From One: Upon bottling, there is the opportunity for an additional additive to the second half of the three gallon batch.  For example, adding coffee or a flavoring, or even spices can be done at the time of bottling.  Simply bottle 1.5-2 gallons, and then add the adjunct straight to the bottling bucket and swirl.

It's important to keep track of which bottle belongs to which version of this new beer.

Check back tomorrow with the story of what I did with my three from one beers.

My Favorite Label (So Far)

Which came first, the label idea or the name of the beer?  In this case, it may very well have been the label idea.  We were in DC in March of this year.  We toured the Capital and I learned that the fresco on the capital dome is called the Apotheosis of Washington.  Check it out here.  In short, George Washington in on a throne and angels (representing the states) are gathered around and worshiping as if he were a deity.

I was shocked and appalled!  How could this possibly be?  After all this is a Christian nation and the founding fathers were all Evangelical Christians, right?  Why wasn't Jesus on the Capital dome?  Or the Ten Commandments?  Hmm, oh yeah.  Maybe it's not so much that way after all.

So naturally, it was a great idea for a beer and beer label...My Apotheosis Porter.