“Sexual Chocolate" Porter

Brew date: January 6, 2013
#13 - 4 gal BIAB

Ok, I admit the name is ridiculous. But there's a perfectly legitimate funny reference. I give you Eddie Murphy's "Sexual Chocolate":



And, what does this have to do with brewing? Nothing. I'm not even sure why it came to mind. I haven't seen "Coming to America" in years. But there it is. Now that's cleared up, on to the brew day...

It was a long one. A few quick observations:

1. Utilizing a multi-rest mash schedule adds significant time to the brew day. (Obviously.) Is the extra 1.5-2 hours worth it?
2. A multi-rest mash vastly improves efficiency. I was surprised once again by fermentability similar to that of wort that had been sparged. This heightened efficiency was in addition to the added grain of the scaled recipe.
3. I need a better lautering system. I divided my 10 lbs of grain between two grain bags to make them more manageable. However, I could only strain one bag at a time over my 3 gallon brew kettle to collect the wort runnings.
4. I need to do a better job calculating my grist-to-water ratio. After I removed the grain, I was down to a little over 3 gallons of wort. An hour long boil reduced it further. I was forced to add water to increase my batch to the desired size. I added an additional gallon of water when I found that my gravity was hovering near 1.080. My target was 1.070.
5. Cooking while brewing is a bad idea. I was making borscht. I didn't leave the kitchen for hours and the house was a sauna.

I've been wanting to brew up another porter for sometime. It's the perfect winter beverage. Some of my favorites are Great Lakes's Edmund Fitzgerald and Lake Louie's Tommys Porter. I did a fair amount of recipe research and synthesized several to distill my own. I drew a lot of inspiration from Rocket Rod Romanak's Positively Porter. I hope that the addition of cacao nibs soaked in a little Jack Daniels to the secondary will add a nice, warm, chocolaty finish.

Ingredients:

• 8 lb 2-row Pale Ale Malt (Briess)
• 1.25 lb Special B Malt (Dingemans)
• 0.5 lb Chocolate Malt (Briess)
• 0.25 lb Black Malt (Briess)

Hops

• 0.5 oz Nugget (60 min)
• 0.25 oz Chinook (30 min)
• 0.375 oz Willamette (5 min)

Other

• 0.5 t Irish Moss (15 min)
• 4 oz Cacao Nibs (Secondary)
• 3 oz Jack Daniels (Secondary)

Yeast

• Wyeast 1056 American Ale

*Yeast starter made on 1/4. Bring 1200 mL water to boil. Add 1 c DME and ⅛ t Wyeast nutrient. Boil 10 min. Chill and pitch yeast. Keep at 60-64 'F.

Instructions:

Add 4.25 gal water to kettle. Heat to 104 'F. Add malt. Stabilize temp at 104 'F. Rest for 30 min. Raise temp to 140 'F and rest for 20 min. Raise temp to 158 'F and rest for 40 min. Mash out at 170 'F for 10 min. No sparge. Lauter. Bring wort to boil. Add Nugget bittering hops and boil for 60 min. Add Chinook hops 30 min before end of boil. Add Irish moss 15 min before end of boil. Add Willamette hops 5 min before end of boil. Cut heat and let sit for 10 min. Chill wort to 64 'F. Pitch yeast starter. Ferment at 64-66 'F.

Observations:
OG: 1.072