Oak-aged Porter - Racking Off

The inside of the brew bucket looked like something off an oil tanker when I took the lid off 

Then I noticed a tiny fly in the air lock and was worried about contamination. Decided to make sure I put a quarter campden tablet in the sterilized water in the airlock in future, as I do with wine

We use a straw as a mouthpiece on the siphon tube to reduce contamination; as soon as the beer is flowing down, the straw is pulled off and the valve end of the tube pushed through the neck of the glass demijohn.

The beer taste pretty good really, bit raw of course yet, but rich roasted chocolate flavour.

 

The airlock was topped up with cool kettle water and a piece of campden tablet dropped in.

The the demijohn put in a cool place to age for a couple of weeks. I'll top it up with cooled boiled water tomorrow as the level is a bit low, after I've added the port soaked oak chips of course! Checked the SG - by the time it's topped up the ABV will be around 7.8%

Raisin and Maple Dubbel - bottling day

 Finally got around to bottling the raisin and maple dubbel. Realised I only had just enough bottles so before I do any more bottling I'll have to ask around for more; Knutsford's Little Theatre bar has been a good supplier in the past. Out of all the jobs involved in making beer, the sterilizing and rinsing of the bottles is the most time consuming, closely followed by the actual bottling; there must be easier ways of doing this, maybe with some gadgets.

 After the bottles have been cleaned and rinsed and left to drain on the bottle tree, the next job is to rack off the beer from the glass carboy into the bottling bucket with 5oz sugar dissolved in boiling water. It's difficult to see how it will taste at this stage before the final bottle conditioning, but it was pretty smooth, rich and powerful.

 Mop at the ready - The valve on the bottling bucket is difficult to operate (for 40+ bottles) so we used a funnel to reduce the mess. There must be some device available to make it easier to get the beer into the bottles without too much foam spilling over.

 Ended up with 44x500ml bottles and not too much mess. Made some labels up based on the template Sara and Emily drew.

  

 

Porter - Day Three, Oak chip preparation

The oak chips were scrubbed, smashed up as much as possible (hammer and pliers) and put into the oven on a baking tray for 40 minutes at 150 DegC. For soaking them in the port, we used a large preserving jar. I was going to buy some ordinary port for the soaking, but in the end used some we'd made last year and not yet bottled. It tasted pretty good and was made from 3lb damsons, 3lb blackberries and 1/2 lb elderberries - all picked from hedgerows - and 1lb raisins. With a high tolerance port yeast and careful additions of sugar, I got the alcohol content up to about 20%. So 175 ml of the port went into the jar with the chips with a splash of cognac. I'm going to have to do some serious straining before bottling or there will be some serious splinters.

Port-Oak Porter - day 2

Whatever I start the fermentation off in, whether a large glass carboy or a brew bucket, the following morning, it has always foamed over. At least there wasn't a puddle on the floor or marks on the wall this time.

 I think the underfloor heating is too warm so moved it somewhere cooler.

Axed up a good oak log and chipped off about 5 ounces of bits:

Port-oak matured porter - brew day

It was time to flash up the dragon pan this afternoon and brew the porter. We stuck to the recipe as planned (see 18/10/11). The pre-boil ingredients were put in 6 gallons of water from cold in a grain bag and heated to 77degC with gypsum, then drained for a minute.

 After bringing to the boil, the spray malt was added and then boiled for 10 minutes.

 1/4 gallon of the wort was removed and cooled in a one gallon demijohn for the yeast starter.

 

The first ounce of the Saaz hops were added and a timer set for 40 minutes.

 

 The second ounce of the Saaz hops were added and the timer set for 10 minutes

 The treacle and the Irish moss were added. The treacle was really difficult to get out of the tin. The timer set for 10 minutes again.

Then the  half ounce of Hallertau hops were added and the heat removed.

When the starter wort was cool to room temperature, the yeast was added and the demijohn shaken up.

The pan was covered until the wort was cool enough to handle, the transferred to a fermentation bucket through a straining bag.

 A few hours later the yeast starter was bubbling away and the main wort cool enough to add the yeast starter.

Then the old grains and hops needed disposing...

The oak chips will be soaked in port and then added when maturing. Need to make the oak chips now.

Port-oak Porter - wood chips

There are some breweries who mature their beer in wood casks that have previously held whiskey, brandy or port. The same effect can be achieved by using wood chips in the glass carboy, although don't fancy using oak essence or something like that. Using wood chips is supposed to assist in yeast growth and fermentation too. Most recipes I've read say to use somewhere between 2 and 6 ounces in a 5 gallon batch. It must be about surface area though rather than weight, so you'd probably get more flavour out of 2 oz oak chips that are in tiny pieces rather than 1 chunk weighing 6 oz, so I'll see how small I can get the pieces. I've read about brewers using various woods such as cherry or beech but I like the vanilla taste that you get from oak or the nutty/coffee taste it gives when roasted. I've used charred oak pieces in a elderberry and blackberry port before now which worked well. For the porter, I'll sterilize the oak chips in the oven for half hour but at around 150 deg C so there is no toasting. It should take a month or two to mature. Thinking about the dates, I'd better get it on if it's going to be ready for Christmas.

Port-Oak aged Porter plans

I've been thinking about making a port-oak cask matured porter for a while; obviously not to actually age it in a cask but will add port-soaked oak chips. Denise likes Old Tom brewed by Robinsons which has a port flavour.

Here's my plan anyway:
12 oz black patent malt
4oz chocolate malt
4oz roast barley
8oz crystal malt
2 teaspoons gypsum
4kg light spray malt
2oz Saaz hops
1/2 oz Hallertau hops
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
1lb black treacle
6oz oak chips
half pint port
The Hallertau hops have a real blackcurrenty aroma too which should go well. We've still got plenty of oak logs left from a tree taken down, so I'll make some shavings and sterliize them in the oven. I think porters work better made with light malt and then darkened and flavoured with the speciality grains rather than using some dark or amber malt. I've not used treacle before but saw a clone recipe for Theakston's Old Peculiar which used it so thought I'd give it a go; I think 1lb treacle should be the equivalent to 1/2lb sugar which should add about 0.66%ABV to the final brew. A quick calculation means that the beer should end up at about 8%. I've ordered the ingredients from my favourite brew shop in Northwich - Phil at Brew2Bottle.