Adjustment to this porter recipe

[JayShaw91]

I am quite happy with how this bad boy turned out. It's got the hops and color of a robust porter, but the ABV and mildly roasty flavor of a brown porter.

Anyway, so what I'd like to do is bump up the chocolate flavor by a touch and get more attenation out of this recipe (only 70%). I don't want drastic changes to this guy - just some input in to making the above happen.

My thoughts: bump the pale chocolate to .66lbs and bump the Maris to 10.5lbs.

Recipe before tweaks:

Malt:
9lbs Maris Otter
1lb Crystal 60
1lb Victory
.5lb Brown (what an interesting malt!)
.5 Carafa (not sure if it was I II or III I got)
.5 Pale chocolate

Hops:
Brambling Cross for 60
Glacier for 30

Yeast: Wyeast 1275 - used a starter.

Again, I'm looking for a bit more attenuation (hence the MO bump) and a touch more chocolate flavor to go with the brown malt flavor (which I really dig).

[corkybstewart]

Try using Nottingham yeast if you want it to attenuate more. That stuff will eat anything.

[JayShaw91]

And that's part of my question on whether or not it is the yeast that was the problem with the original recipe or not having enough fermentables.

From what I've been seeing, Victory converts fine as long as you have enough diastic power, and I'm assuming 9lbs of MO has enough.

Any thoughts on uppin' the chocolate character besides a bit more pale chocolate malt? Maybe bump the Carafa instead?

[hooky]

Lowering your mash temp is a possibility too.

[JayShaw91]

Good point. I did mash this one a bit on the higher side.

[markaberrant]

If you are going for a robust porter, the carafa and pale chocolate aren't going to give it enough roastiness. I'd replace some of it with .5 lb of black patent.

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style12.php#1b

[corkybstewart]

And that's part of my question on whether or not it is the yeast that was the problem with the original recipe or not having enough fermentables.

Any thoughts on uppin' the chocolate character besides a bit more pale chocolate malt? Maybe bump the Carafa instead?
You should have plenty of fermentables with 9 pounds of MO. Keep in mind that if you use Nottingham and mash low you could end up with a pretty thin beer, at least too thin for my tastes.
I don't think the carafa is going to give you much flavor contribution but I'm not really familiar with using it outside of dunkles, and they're not very "dark" tasting.
I didn't notice you had pale chocolate in there-I based my recommendations on regular chocolate.

[JayShaw91]

I was told to do the pale chocolate and carafa as replacements for normal chocolate and roasted barley. The reasoning was a smoother beer, which is exactly what I got. There is some roastyness, some chocolate, and some brown malt characteristics that come through, but I want a touch more chocolate flavor.

What if I bumped the pale up to normal chocolate malt? How much more roasty/chocolate flavor would I get?

[BrewDog]

That should do it part way. Normal Chocolate is around 350 SRM. Pale Chocolate is around 225 (give or take). Dark Chocolate is 450.

I agree with Mark and Corky, replace one quarter to one half of your Carafa with the same amount of Black Patent. It's the Black Patent that adds the coffee notes to a porter.

Briess' Victory malt doesn't need to be mashed -- It can be steeped, so diastatic power doesn't come into play at all on that. Even if it did, 9 lbs of MO is more than enough to convert those specialty grains.

Another alternative yeast to try would be White Labs 007 Dry English Ale yeast. It is a wet yeast with a malt flavor profile similar to 1968/WLP002, but it attenuates like 1056/001. Honestly, 007 is my favorite yeast and I use it in a lot of different beers.

HTH-

[JayShaw91]

Ok, so my next run I'll sub regular chocolate for pale and 1/4lb carafa, 1/4lb black patent.

As far as the yeast goes, I think I'll give that a shot after I run this one more time with the above tweaks, just cuzz I want to dial this recipe in a little at a time. I'm quite sick of 1056 - it seems like everything I've brewed uses this! - and I have been brewing different beers on purpose to avoid it. It looks like this one will make the list.