For years I have been planning to brew a chocolate porter. I found a recipe in Zymurgy (July/August 2007) for a chocolate -cherry porter shortly after I started brewing, and I filed it away against the time when I could actually make it happen. It sounded great, but got lost somewhere in my pile of recipes that I had also saved against the time when I could get around to brewing them. Oops!
Finally, last year I bought a can of raspberry puree, with the intention of making a chocolate raspberry porter--something in flavor that I imagined would be like the muffins of the same sort. This year, I finally got to make the beer, and it turned out to be both better, and easier than I imagined.
Step 1: Brew the base beer
I had to start with a recipe, and found one on the internet that sounded interesting. Not the Zymurgy recipe, but another porter recipe, which I adapted a bit. Here it is:| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 lbs | Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (3.0 SRM) | Grain | 1 | 57.4 % |
| 2 lbs 8.0 oz | Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) | Grain | 2 | 14.4 % |
| 12.0 oz | Caramel Malt - 60L (Cargill) (60.0 SRM) | Grain | 3 | 4.3 % |
| 9.6 oz | Melanoidin (Weyermann) (30.0 SRM) | Grain | 4 | 3.4 % |
| 8.0 oz | Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) | Grain | 5 | 2.9 % |
| 0.70 oz | Northern Brewer [9.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min | Hop | 6 | 26.5 IBUs |
| 0.50 oz | Northern Brewer [9.70 %] - Boil 30.0 min | Hop | 7 | 9.6 IBUs |
| 0.28 tsp | Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) | Fining | 8 | - |
| 1.0 pkg | SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] | Yeast | 9 | - |
| 3 lbs 1.0 oz | Red Raspberry Puree (12.0 SRM) | Extract | 10 | 17.6 % |
Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.093 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.023 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.3 %
Bitterness: 36.1 IBUs
Est Color: 25.5 SRM
Est Final Gravity: 1.023 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.3 %
Bitterness: 36.1 IBUs
Est Color: 25.5 SRM
Measured Original Gravity: 1.069 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.8 %
Calories: 231.5 kcal/12oz
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.8 %
Calories: 231.5 kcal/12oz
Mash Steps
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mash In | Add 19.94 qt of water at 166.9 F | 152.0 F | 60 min |
| Mash Out | Add 10.05 qt of water at 206.2 F | 168.0 F | 10 min |
Sparge: Fly sparge with 1.47 gal water at 168.0 F
So I brewed, and I fermented. And it finished at about the right final gravity, 1.020. The biggest trick was managing the temperature using a cooler and regular additions of ice to keep it under 70 degrees. The flavor and mouthfeel weren't quite what I imagined, being a bit thinner and less roasty than I anticipated. However it was good!
Step 2: Secondary on Raspberry!
For almost 3 weeks, the beer sat on raspberry puree. When I finally kegged it the gravity was 1.016, so another few percent of alcohol! I put it on CO2 at about 2.6 ATM for a couple of weeks, and it carbonated nicely.The results
The beer has a really lovely raspberry flavor and aroma, but is not particularly sweet. It is really delicious, but does not have the chocolate overtones I would have liked, nor does it taste particularly like a porter. I think next time I brew it, I will change the base to be lower in gravity and use a robust porter as the starting point so it will have more of a standard porter starting point. Mind you, this is not a bad beer, but I expect if I were to enter it in a competition as a Raspberry Porter, I would get dinged because it did not taste like a porter, although the raspberry aroma and flavor are wonderful!This was actually not my first, but the first I did to really go with a bold fruit. Last year I co-brewed an apricot Saison with my friend Mike, and that also came out well, but apricot is such a mild flavored fruit, it was almost hidden.
Please reply with your fruit beer experiences. I would love to hear what you have done that has worked, or not!
