Let There Be Porter!

Loyal reader(s) will remember that I went through the basic process of making extract beers. The extract is essentially wort - the liquid used to make beer - with all the water reduced out, leaving only fermentable sugars. It's a good low-effort way for beginners to make homebrew, but it's not the full process. Today, I make all-grain beer from scratch. Sorry to those using Internet Explorer, this is a picture heavy post.

When preparing to make an all-grain beer, I toured a number of homebrew informational websites and online beer supply stores. I didn't want to make anything too fancy or complicated for my first all grain batches so decided to go for an ESB and a Porter. I placed an order for bottles and ingredients from an online store but they had some issues so I had to buy from a local store - Brew & Grow on Kedzie. I'd recommend it.

Below is an image of the ingredients used to to make a batch of Porter slightly larger than two gallons.



Left to right. The scale is important for accurate weighing. The Erlenmeyer flask contains the yeast starter. There's a fun story about the yeast, but you'll have to wait a few days for that. The tiny shiny bags contain pellets of hops. It looks like hamster food but smells like a Dutch lounge. The varieties I used are Cascade and Fuggles. A big pot is necessary for cooking the malt and extracting the wort. The black pouch in front is Black Patent Malt, a heavily roasted barley malt used in porters and stouts to add dark color and very toasted flavors. Behind it is flaked barley, an unmalted, pressed grain used to add nuttiness, texture, and head retention. the gigantic bag holds 2-row pale malt which is used as the base grain in most beers, providing most of the sugars for alcoholic fermentation and other flavor, color, and texture compounds. Here's the ingredient list for an 8.5 quart batch of porter:

• 3.5 lb 2-row pale malt
• 5 oz black patent malt
• 3 oz flaked barley
• 1 oz cascades hops
• 1/2 oz fuggles hops
• Wyeast labs #1098 British Ale yeast

I'll go through my process for making the beer. This is by no means the officially sanctioned homebrew process, but it's what I did. Begin by combining the grains in a large pot. Add two gallons of hot water to the grain at about 130 F. Turn on the heat and allow to sit at about 125 F for 25 minutes. This stage is the protein rest in which starches start breaking down and are liberated as enzymes and loose amino acids, among other compounds. Below is the mash during protein rest. It already has a nice creamy head.



Following protein rest, turn the temperature up to about 150 F for starch conversion. At this stage, the enzymes released during protein rest convert the starches into fermentable sugars. After 30 minutes, add the Cascades hops. Hops added early in the boiling will provide bitterness and preservation but very little flavor. Below are the pellet hops. They are ground and pressed for easy storage and use.



The Fuggles hops were added with five minutes remaining in the boil. These will provide more flavor and aroma. After adding the Fuggles (great word, eh?), crank up the heat to 170 F for the mashout. This stage stops enzymatic processes and loosens up the liquid for easy extraction. It looks pretty cool right now.



After five minutes at an almost boil, prepare for lautering and sparging. My supplies aren't ideal but they work well enough. The pasta pot I used for brewing came with a steamer basket. I gently loaded it with the grain to create a mash bed which will filter proteins out of the wort. Here's what it looks like straining and filtering the wort.



After the wort is separated, pour boiling hot water over the grains to extract the remaining sugar and other compounds. I used about two quarts. Combine this liquid with the rest of the wort and allow to cool to room temperature. I added about 2/3 cup (maybe less) of molasses for a bit of extra character and alcohol. After cooled, apply a hydrometer to determine the density of the wort. This will help with calculating alcohol content later on.



Isn't that pretty? The original gravity when all was said and done, was 1.075. If all of the sugar ferments, the beer would be 10% ABV. Carefully pour the wort into the fermentation vessel. Add the yeast starter (remember, more on that later), stir up vigorously, and close up the fermenter. I needed to add 1.5 quarts of water to bring it up to the desired 8.5 quarts. The dilution brought the OG down to 1.062, meaning the maximum potential final alcohol content will be 8.3%. But it's more likely it'll end up at about 7%. Not too shabby. This will ferment for about two weeks, then undergo secondary fermentation in the bottles for about two more weeks.

Prost!


*Update* 5/27/10
The blonde ale came out pretty well. It's a bit richer and fruitier than the golden lager, though mostly similar. It's also not quite as effervescent.

Today, after 10 days of primary fermentation, I bottled the Porter. The density measured at 1.016 which translates to a 6.1% ABV. It'll probably be a little sweeter than I'd like but that's alright. I'll give it 10 days to two weeks for secondary fermentation before consuming. A 12 oz portion will contain 200 calories. Go easy.

Tomorrow I'll make an ESB. The following batch will (hopefully) be a red rye IPA.