I brewed up the All-American Porter exactly as outlined in a previous last post. I steeped the grains for around 45 minutes, and gently rinsed them with warm water. In an effort to keep the gravity up, I only filled the primary fermenter to just under 4.5 gallons. Initial gravity was 1.051–the highest of any I’ve brewed to date. I let it ferment in the primary for a week, and then transferred it to the secondary fermenter, where it’s been aging and settling for the last three weeks. The final gravity was 1.014, giving an alcohol content of approximately 5 percent. Definitely the strongest I’ve ever brewed!

This afternoon I bottled it up, with a yield of 42 12-oz. bottles. I was a little worried about the flavor initially, because the wort was pretty bitter. But, the flavor has mellowed out really, really nicely in the intervening weeks. I daresay this may be the best I’ve brewed so far–we’ll have to see how it all carbonates up!

Tomorrow, I’m thinking about brewing up a porter–on a whim, I’ve named it the “All-American Porter” (in honor of the new president, the upcoming President’s Day holiday, and the fact that I’m going to ignore the British hops in favor of the American ones in my freezer).

Here’s what I’m looking at for a preliminary ingredients list. . .it will likely be updated a bit as I shop around at the local home brew shop:

1/2 pound caramel malt (for steeping; I’ve got some on hand, and need to use it up)
1/2 pound cara-pils malt (for steeping; again, I’ve got some on hand already)
1/2 pound chocolate malt (I’ll have to pick some of this up at the store)
6.6 pounds Briess liquid malt (I’m thinking about 3.3 pounds Golden Light plus 3.3 pounds Sparkling Amber; I’ll see what the local brew store has on hand)
2 oz. Cascade hops (bittering)
1 oz. Saaz (aroma)
The usual Nottingham ale yeast