Farmers' Almanac Maple Porter

A couple months ago, Duke confessed to me his retirement from homebrewing. I was sad. I understand his time constraints and the lack of inspiration, but still, he won a freakin' medal and got a photo in the homebrew journal Zymurgy! Anyway, last month I was bequeathed some of his equipment (House of Gordon kegging coming soon!) and ingredients.

On another note, The Farmers' Almanac has an interesting little tidbit called "The Best Day(s) to Brew Beer in the Next 60 Days". Sweet. The website is here. It happened that the most recent good days were January 1 and January 2. Now January 1 I had to work 8-4 then there was Ohio State in the Rose Bowl at 4:30, so that was out. But Saturday January 2? Score!

Put the two together, and I'll brew Duke's ingredient gift on a great Farmers' Almanac day!

One glitch, it was COLD. 30 degrees cold. I hooked up my garden hose for my Therminator plate chiller and....something in the hose was clogged or it was downright frozen inside. No water flow through the hose. Water came out of the spigot just fine, just nothing through the hose.

Shit.

I thought about canceling the brewday, but there was not another good Farmers' Almanac brewday in the next 60 days. And I just HAD to test the Farmers' resolve. So, it was cold enough that a chill plate or an immersion chiller would not be needed. Observe the simple setup to the right! I'll go old school: stir occasionally and allow the natural heat exchange to go from hot liquid to stainless steel to outside ambient temperature. Took forever, and frankly I was a little fearful of wild yeast or bacterial infection, but screw it....the Farmers' Almanac is on my side!

The hodgepodge makeshift recipe:

4 oz. Briess Special Roast

4 oz. Caramalt

4 oz. Belgian Debittered Black Malt

4 oz. Chocolate Malt

4 oz. Caramel 60L

2 oz. Caramel 40L

6 lb. Gold LME (Liquid Malt Extract)

1 oz. Cluster hops, 7.2% alpha acid @ 60 minutes

2 lb. Grade B Maple Syrup @ 0 minutes

Munton Dry Yeast (the Activator Smack Pack of London Ale did not activate nor swell)

In one week upon transfer to secondary fermentation, another pound or so of maple syrup will be added for more mapley aroma in the finished product.

OG (original gravity) 1.055. In the "robust porter" range in the grand scheme of things. Good to brew again. It's been a while. Even with the time consuming cooling scenario. Good brewing karma...the Almanac said so.