Thor’s Hammer – Norse Porter
Todays brew is a blast from the past – a recipe which I developed way back in 1998, and which was my most brewed beer (or, at least, base-recipe) for the better part of 10 years. This beer goes back even farther – in the early 90’s there wasn’t much of a craft beer scene in Western Canada, but this one beer store used to bring in the odd European beer. There was this porter, from Norway, they’d bring in a couple of times a year – the name was unpronounceable (and long since forgotten), but it was good. In fact, it was the beer that started my love-affair with the porter style. Through a lot of trial-and-error (this was before there were many good online brewing resources) a friend and I managed to make a fairly respectable clone of the beer…but could never get it just right. We knew it was a baltic-style porter, and we did everything we could to learn about the style to find our error. One day a chance encounter with a Norwegian brewer online solved our problem – unlike most baltics, this brewery used an ale yeast instead of a lager yeast. Vola – the next batch was spot-on.
From there this brew evolved a lot – substituting English for noble hops, removing the darker malts, brewing an all-Munich/Vienna base malt version and the addition of cherries were all tested at one point or another – and each produced a fantastic beer.
Todays brew goes back to the first “eureka – we got it” recipe; the closest to cloning that one great beer that brought light to an otherwise fairly dark beer-decade.
EDIT: forgot to add, this brew makes use of the Nøgne Ø yeast, kindly provided by Sam of Eureka brewing (also, yeast #113, my commercial yeast bank). Historically I used the old wyeast Scandinavian ale yeast – which apparently was just goold ol’ ringwood…
Recipe below the fold.
Norse Porter |
Baltic Porter |
Type: All Grain | Date: 18 Oct 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batch Size (fermenter): 22.00 l | Boil Time: 90 min | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Boil Size: 31.48 l | End of Boil Volume 25.48 l | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 % | Est Mash Efficiency 80.2 % | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ingredients | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Beer Profile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Est Original Gravity: 1.073 SG | Measured Original Gravity: 1.074 SG | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Est Final Gravity: 1.022 SG | Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.8 % | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bitterness: 39.1 IBUs | Est Color: 24.9 SRM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mash Profile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge | Total Grain Weight: 7.40 kg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sparge Water: 19.59 l | Grain Temperature: 19.0 C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C | Tun Temperature: 18.0 C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE | Mash PH: 5.20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.72l, 15.87l) of 75.6 C water | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Carbonation and Storage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Carbonation Type: Keg | Volumes of CO2: 2.3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage | Storage Temperature: 18.3 C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-fermented with Norge O yeast from Norway -Wet conditioned (2% v/w) using a smaller gap (0.3mm) -Hit mash temp dead-on 69C; did water temps and grain/mash tun temps exact! -CoOnversion not quite complete @ 45 min; added an extra 5 min after a vigorous stir -Sparge water @82C to warm grain-bed to 75C -Hit all numbers dead-on; exceeded OG by 1 point! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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