i know about ale
i know about beer
i know about Lager

never had PORTER b4
tried a six pack last night
of
Wachusett BLACK SHACK Porter

not too shabby - it went down good....
how do they make it.....or what makes it porter?

Usually black malt, caramel, and chocolate. I made a Whiskey Barrel Porter @ IncrediBREW | Your personal beer and wine brewery located in Nashua, NH - IncrediBREW | Your personal beer and wine brewery located in Nashua, NH (http://www.incredibrew.com/)

A bold porter recipe but the real kicker is the addition of toasted American oak which has soaked in Tennessee Bourdon for 2 weeks. The result is a rich, smooth porter with a pronounced oak character and a hint of whiskey flavor that will have you bellying up to bar for another.

Porter is simple a style of ale brewed with darker malts. The line between porter and stout can be blurred, but generally speaking if a maker has both the porter is just a lesser version, perhaps a bit dryer and not usually heavily hopped.

Stronger porters are usually called Baltic Porter, and can be over 7%.

Usually you won't see as much creativity with porter as you would with stout though. Things like lactose, fruit etc... are usually reserved for stouts, although I have seen coffee and chocolate in porters.

-spence

The difference between Porter and Stout is the use of Roasted Barley. Not black Patent , Roasted Barley. The stout has Roasted Barley in it , the Porter doesn't. Yes you can add other things to either beer but its the roasted Barley that makes a stout , a stout.

I like what I call a Robust Porter in that I use a lot of Finishing hops. I love hop flavor and aroma so I add my flavor hops to the boil with just 5 minutyes to go and I add another dose at knockout. No time at all for the aroma to be boiled off. I also dry hop the beer in a glass jar bewteen 2 weeks and a month.

I make a heavy Porter. I use all grain for my beers which icludes a mash but its unlikely someone who uses the all grain process needs to ask for a Porter Recipe so I'll give you the rcipe in terms of using syrup.

Recipe for Michaelbrau-The Cats Meow----Gizmo Porter.


In 6 gallons of cold water (I boil in a cut open quarter keg that holds 7.5 Gallons) add 1 teaspoon Table salt , 1/2 teaspoon Gypsum and 1/4 teaspoon epson salt. (Be careful with th epson , less is better). In a grain bag or two , add one pound each of Rolls Crushed Crystal light, Crystal dark , Carapils , Chocolate and Black Patent malt. Add 1/2 pound of Belgian Special B. Steep while temp rises to about 150 degrees. Pull the grain bags out. Never squeeze the grain bags , just let water go in and out by raising them out of the water and back in like you do with a tea bag. Then add 2 cans of dark and one can of amber Muntons Malt extract. Steer whi;le adding or the syrup will burn on the bottom and that's the end of your Porter.

Bring to a boilfor 30 minutes then add 1/2 OZ Hallertau Mittlefrueh Hops and a big tablespoon of Irish Moss. Boil 20 minutes more and add 1/2 OZ more hops , boil 5 minutes and add 1 OZ more hops after 5 more minutes , turn off the heat and add 1 OZ more hops and stir in.

Cool the wort as quickly as possible , I use a cooling coil. You will have lost 2 quarts of water during the boil. Syphon the beer from the boiling pot to the plastic bucket , leaving behind about 1 quart so all the hops and protein stay in the kettle , not in to the fermenter.

The beer should be cool before you syphon to the fermenter. Add 2 packets of Nottigham ale Yeast. ferment about a week until the bubbling stops and the yeast etc sink to the bottom of the fermenter. Add 1 OZ of the same hops to the glass jar. Some put the hops in a grain bag but I just add them loose. Syphon the beer into the 5 Gallon Glass Jar. You shopuld have about 5 gallons plus 1 quart now.

Dry hop in the secondary under an air lock for 2 weeks.

In the plastic bucket , add2/3 cups of corn sugar that has been desolved in about a quart of hot water. Syphon the beer from the big glass jar into the bottling bucket with the sugar. Stir and bottle. Let it sit 2 weeks,

Should be a great beer! Alchohol maybe 6.5 ot 7%

Ah yes, and the addition of roasted barley. I've seen porter recipies with roasted barley before, but I do think that's more traditional.

I believe they're hopped differently as well, the stout having more early kettle hops, but it's been so long since I brewed either...

-spence

Both stouts and porters are supposed to be low bittering hops and low flavor and aroma hops but I like my hops so i add more flavor and aroma hops them to most styles. I am much more careful with bittering hops than I used to be. No faster way to ruin a good beer than to over bitter it by too much early addition of a high alpha acid hop. that's one of the reasons I like the Hallertauer mittlefrueh hops. The alpha acid is like 2 to 3 so you would really need to screw up to overbitter using that low an alpha acid hop variety. Also , of course , they HM hops have the best aroma and flavor profile , especially aroma. I love the smell of hops!

I'm a certifiable Hop Head.....love my IPA's

I Like IPA's too. Got to be careful with those Chinook hops though. Just 5 minutes too long while its boiling and it gets bitter as hell