Batch 20030810 - Steve's Porter

Name: Steve's Porter
Style: Robust Porter
Status: Bottled (49 bottles)
Ingredients:
6.6 lbs. Munton's Amber Malt Extract Syrup
12 oz. Munton's Amber Dried Malt Extract
8 oz. Crystal Malt (80)
4 oz. Crystal Malt (60)
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
2 oz. Black Patent Malt
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hop plugs
(bittering, 8% AA, 12 HBU)
1/2 oz. Cascade hop plugs
(4.4% AA, flavor/aroma)
1 pkg. Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast
O.G.: 1.048 (a full 0.008 less than anticipated)
F.G.: 1.018 (not sure if I believe this...)
Notes:
  1. Treated water with 1/2 tsp. of NaCl to boost chloride ions, which should help smooth out the flavors.
  2. This recipe is for 5.5 gallons, in an attempt to actually get 48 bottles out of this batch.  I lose a lot from transferring between vessels, so the increased batch size should compensate for the loss.
  3. This batch won't be as black as I anticipated it would be-- it's much more of a deep reddish-brown.  Next time, more black patent.
  4. This brewing session went extremely smoothly.  It was even , dare I say it... almost EASY.
  5. 8/23 - Racking to the secondary sucked... so many things went wrong... damn physics to hell!  But it all made it into the secondary eventually.
  6. 9/10 - Bottling went very smoothly.  I used Prime Tabs (www.primetab.com) for the first time, and I think I might like using them.  Not sure if I believe the F.G., since I used a new instrument, and the beer sat around for quite a while, so I feel that fermentation was complete.