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recipe

Big Al Brewing Company’s Smoked Porter clone

Big Al Brewing Company’s Smoked Porter clone, Extract with Grains

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.056  FG = 1.012
IBU = 44  SRM = 45  ABV = 5.8%

Ingredients

3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) Coopers, light liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) 2-row pale malt
21 oz. (0.60 kg) crystal malt (80 °L)
21 oz. (0.60 kg) chocolate malt (350 °L)
10 oz. (0.28 kg) roast malt (450 °L)
5 oz. (0.14 kg) peat-smoked malt
11.7 AAU Nugget hop pellets (60 min.) (0.9 oz./26 g at 13% alpha acids)
1.25 AAU Fuggles hop pellets (15 min.) (0.25 oz./7 g at 5% alpha acids)
0.25 oz. (7 g) Fuggles hops (0 min.)
½ tsp. Irish moss (30 min.)
½ tsp. yeast nutrient (15 min.) White Labs WLP004 (Irish Ale) or Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale)
¾ cup (150 g) of corn sugar (if priming)

Step by Step

Steep the crushed grain in 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) of water at 156 ºF (69 ºC) for 30 minutes. Remove grains from the wort and rinse with 2 quarts (1.8 L) of hot water. Add the liquid and dried malt extracts and boil 60 minutes. While boiling, add the hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient as per the schedule. When the boil is complete, add the wort to 2 gallons (7.6 L) of cold water in the sanitized fermenter and top off with cold water up to 5 gallons (19 L).

Cool the wort to 75 ºF (24 ºC). Pitch your yeast and aerate the wort heavily. Allow the beer to cool to 68 ºF (20 ºC) and then hold at that temperature until fermentation is complete. Transfer to a carboy, avoiding any splashing to prevent aerating the beer. Allow the beer to condition for 1 week and then bottle or keg. Allow the beer to carbonate and age for 2 weeks.

All-grain option: This is a single-step infusion mash using an additional 8 lbs. (3.6 kg) of 2-row pale malt to replace the liquid and dry malt extracts. Mix all of the crushed grains with 4 gallons (15 L) of 173 °F (78 °C) water to stabilize at 156 ºF (69 ºC) for 60 minutes. Slowly sparge with 175 ºF (79 ºC) water. Collect approximately 6 gallons (23 L) of wort runoff to boil for 60 minutes. Reduce the 60-minute Nugget hop addition to 9.8 AAU (0.7 oz./19.8 g) to allow for the higher utilization factor of a full wort boil. The remainder of this recipe and procedures are the same as the extract with grains recipe.

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