The Return to Porter

The back story here is that I haven't brewed a porter since the first batch of beer I ever brewed... which is not a recipe or a brewing process that I wish to repeat, but it was fun and that beer started the ball rolling with the whole brewing thing even though I think we did just about everything wrong that time. We put a lid on the kettle, we had 2 boilovers onto my buddie's kitchen stove and floor, we had to let it cool slowly (around 6 hours or more) before pitching the yeast, and I think we had a small sanitation issue. So the beer was extremely vegital/DMS tasting and had a fairly strong buttery/diacetyl smell and flavor, and a minor sour kick in the background.

I think this one will be better. I got the recipe from Jamil Zainasheff. He published it somewhere online, but I can't remember where. The only change I made was with the finishing hops. I was a little short on my EK Goldings, and I had a lot of Cascades around that I had to use up. We'll see how this turns out as it is and adjust it as needed for next time. I'll be brewing it up early Saturday morning (crack of dawn early).

Grain:
11.5 lb. American 2-Row
1.5 lb. Munich Malt
1.5 lb. Crystal 40
0.75 lb. Black Patent
0.5 lb. Chocolate Malt

Single Infusion Mash:
152 degrees for 60 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.

Boil:
6-ish gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon or so
90 min. boil

Hops:
60 min:
1.65 oz. E.K. Goldings

0 min.
0.35 oz. E.K. Goldings
1.5 oz. Cascades

Yeast:
A 2 starter of White Labs "California Ale" yeast (WLP001) pitched into a carboy with 5 gallons of wort.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.063

Notes:
Ferment at around 68 degrees.

Ok, there's a lot of chocolate and coffee going on in this porter. I like it a lot. A couple guys at my homebrew club helped me out a bit with it. I think I'll cut back on the black patent, and maybe add a little dark crystal to give it some thick sweetness. All in all though it's a very good, rich porter.