Black Panther Porter 40L Brewing Journal

Started 3rd May 2021

Another attempt at the Black Panther Porter. This time I have used some roasted malted oats and also increased the volume of Oats. Yeast is WLP002 as this seems to give the best results with this type of beer. In order to keep the strong roasted flavour at bay a little, I have also reduced the chocolate malt slightly.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Recipe	Measure
Brew Length	40L
Pale Malt (EBC 6)	8100g
Crystal Malt (EBC 150)	1000g
Chocolate Malt (EBC 950)	350g
Roasted Malted Oats	475g
Fuggles (Start of Boil)	100g
East Kent Goldings Pellets (Last 10 Min)	30g
Yeast (Using Starter)	WLP002
Mash Liquor	25 Litres
Strike Heat	72C
Mash Temperature	66C
Mash Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Sparge Temperature	77C
Mash Efficiency (estimated)	75%
Boil Time	1 Hour 30 Minutes
Fermentation Temperature	18C
Expected OG	1054
Actual OG	1053
Expected FG	1014
Actual FG	1013

Water Treatment:

Recipe	Measure
CaCo3 Adjustments
Calcium Carbonate CAC03	159.5 ppm
Calcium Carbonate Required	120 ppm
Adjustment Necessary	40 ppm
CRS per Litre Required	2 ml per 10L
Total CRS to add to Mash (25L)	5 ml
Total CRS to add to Sparge water (10+25L)	2 and 5 ml
*Chlorine Treatment*
Campden Tablets (half in mash, half in sparge)	1 tablet
Calcium Adjustment (using brupaks calculation)
Calcium in Water	63 ppm
Calcium Required	110 ppm
Adjustment	47 ppm
DLS (using GW Calc it suggests adding none)	1 Tsp

Water Schedule:

In the last few batches there seems to be more wastage due to hops and pumps etc., to adjust for this the water schedule has been increased a little.

This brew will be batch sparged, so the water will be scheduled as follows:

Mash = 25L using 5 ml of CRS +1/2 Campden Tab
Top Up = 10L using 2 ml of CRS
Final Batch Sparge = 25L using 5 ml of CRS and 1/2 campden tab
Total water volume 25+10+25 = 60L, Bersmith suggested 25+9+24= 58L. The extra 2 L seems to have brought the final volume to a good level.

Mashing:

Using SS Brewtech infussion mash tun.

Mash Tun cleaned an Tun pre warmed
HLT topped back up and set for 78C
Water treated with 5ml CRS and 1/2 Campden tab.
25L of water added to the mash tun, which settled to 72C
Doughed in + 1 tsp of gypsum
Temperature dropped to 66C. which is perfect.
Mash settled at 66.5C
Mash will now be left alone for 1.5 hours.
10 minutes left on the clock and mash tun thermometer is showing as 65.9C

Sparging

25L of sparge water was heated to 85C and treated.
Added 10L Top up, stirred and left stand for 15 min.
Recirc started and run for 5 minutes.
Topeed up HLT to 25L and set for 85C.
Pumped wort into boiler and stopped once below sight glass.
Added 25L of sparge water to mash tun, stirred and started recirc. Left running for 15 minutes.
Pumped to boiler and stopped just as the turbid last runnings appeared in the pipe.

Boiling

The Boiler was switched on as soon as first few litres of wort had drained from Mash Tun.
100g of Fuggles hops added at start of boil.
Last 15 minutes. Immersion coil inserted to ensure sterilised.
Last 10 minutes 30g EKG and protofloc added.
Post boil gravity = 13 brix, 1053.
Recirc was intermittently swsitched on during chilling to ensure no hot/cold spots formed.

Fermentation:

A 1.8L yeast starter of WLP002 was started 2 days before and refrigerated the evening prior to brew day. Most of liquid was poured off of the yeast and some of the wort added to acclimatise the yeast.
03/05/21 16:00 Yeast pitched at 23C
04/05/21 08:00 A thick Krausen has already formed so fermentation has started.
04/05/21 17:00 Fermenting well.
05/05/21 The Krausen has dropped back into the wort, although there are many bubbles rising. A SG reading was taken which showed 10 Brix, SG=1030.
06/05/21 Temperature raised from 18C to 20C
09/05/21 Final Gravity reading is 7 Brix, which equates to around SG of 1013. The beer has been sitting on the yeast for a couple of days to clean up so the Maxi cooler has been hooked up and set to 0C to cold crash.

Tasting Notes:

The first few pints of this beer have now been poured, it is crystal clear and not quite as dark as the previous version. The colour is still porter/stout levels but is now a very dark brown/almost balck rather than jet black. The hop flavour is good, leaving a nice after taste with no astringency. Using WLP002 has left a good level of residual sweetness to balance the malt/hop flavours and the roasted malted oats have added great mouth feel. There is also a nice a biscuity tatse, which the roasted oats have added and it will be interesting to see how some further time maturing will impact this. Reducing the level of chocolate malt has reduced the strong coffee flavout and made this a much softer more drinkable beer.

This is one to do again.