Carolinian Smoked Porter

In Chris's humble opinion, one of the tastiest brews in this country is Alaskan Smoked Porter. We sampled it right from the source in 2001 on vacation in Juneau after a brewery tour. A taxi from the cruise ship to the brewery, then afterward a public bus back to the port. Fun stuff! Anyway, Chris immediately fell in love with it; both the story of its brewing and the beer itself. Tasteeeeee....

So Saturday, Chris broke out the brewing gear and set up shop in the garage to brew a "clone" of Alaskan Smoked Porter. Brewday pictures can be found here on our Flickr account.

Yum!

The recipe:

Steeping specialty grains (from two different recipe batches)
- Black Patent Malt, 1 cup + 1 oz
- 60L Crystal Malt, 3 cups + 12 oz
- Chocolate Malt, 1 cup
- Smoked Malt, 3 cups

Light Dried Malt Extract (DME), 6 lbs

Chinook hop pellets, 12.0% Alpha Acid, 1 1/2 oz (bittering)
Hallertau hop pellets, 4.5% AA, 1 oz (bittering)
Fuggle hop plug, 5.4% AA, 1 oz (aromatic)

WLP023 Burton Ale yeast

1 Whirlfloc tablet (clarifying)

And you can't brew (well, I guess you "can") without good Irish drinking songs to accompany you:



Basically, add 5 gallons of water to the brewpot. Add the specialty grain bag and add heat to 158 F. Steep for 20 minutes at 158 then remove bag. Add DME and stir constantly to dissolve. Heat to boiling. Add Chinook pellets at "minute zero" of boil. At "minute 45" add Hallertau pellets. At "minute 80" add Whirlfloc tablet. At "minute 90" add Fuggle plug and turn off the burner.

Cool quickly as possible to 70-75 F (Chris raves about his Therminator). Transfer to primary fermenter. Add enough cold water to reach the 5 gallon mark. Take Original Gravity reading (actual 1.051, goal 1.055). Aerate. Add yeast. After 8-24 hours, fermentation begins vigorously a la the photo on the left. Just leave it alone for one week.

Chris follows the 1-2-3 rule: After 1 week in primary, we'll transfer it to a secondary fermenter for 2 weeks to settle it out some more and get it even clearer. Then we'll bottle it and let it carbonate for 3 weeks. Finally, chill and enjoy.

Yum!!!