Tonight I transferred the Citation Porter over to the secondary fermenter, in which I will leave it for about 9-10 days before bottling (it was in the primary for 9 days). At 66°, it had an s.g. of 1.014; this translates to 1.014 s.g. at 60°, so no real difference there. Down from an o.g. of 1.054, I am now at 5.3% abv.

The beer is really nice; a clean taste (no overly bitter aftertaste or any off flavors), and you can really taste the roasted notes from the roasted barley coming through.

It’s time for the 2013-2014 brewing season! My last few batches of the 2012-2013 tended on the lighter side (English-style bitters, wheat beers, etc.), so I have a hankering to do some porters and stouts. I rather like the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from Great Lakes Brewing, so I found a clone recipe and modified that. The first batch is called….Citation Porter! So named because I brewed it on the night when I saw the first two citations on Google Scholar for a paper I published earlier this year. Now will this new batch increase the impact factor of my brewery?

Citation Porter

• 12 oz. 60°L crystal malt
• 8 oz. chocolate malt
• 8 oz. roasted barley
• 3 lbs. amber dry malt extract
• 3 lbs. light dry malt extract
• 1 oz. Northern Brewer pellet hops (9.9% alpha acid, __ beta acid)
• 0.5 oz. Cascade whole hops (estimated 5.5% alpha acid)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• 0.5 oz. Cascade whole hops (estimated 5.5% alpha acid)
• 1 vial White Labs London Ale Yeast #WLP013 (35 mL)

Directions

• Steep crystal malt, chocolate malt, and roasted barley in 5 quarts of water at 154° for 45 minutes. Sparge with 2 quarts water. This is a smaller steeping volume than I normally do, but I saw a recommendation indicating that this would reduce tannin leaching (i.e., use a maximum of 3 quarts water per pound of grains). Based on the taste of the final wort, I am inclined to agree. 
• Top up brew pot to 4 gallons, bring to a boil and add dry malt extract.
• Once wort is boiling, add Northern Brewer hops.
• At the 30 minute mark (post-boil), add 0.5 oz. Cascade whole hops.
• At the 50 minute mark, add 1 tsp. Irish moss
• At the 60 minute mark, turn off the heat and add the final 0.5 oz. of Cascade whole hops
• Coil, transfer into primary fermenter (leaving behind most of the trub), (3 gallons into primary) and top up to 5 gallons.
• Starting gravity was 1.053 at 74°, corrected to 1.054 at 60°. This is spot-on with what Beer Smith 2 calculated for the recipe.
• Starting temperature, when I pitched the yeast, was 74°.

The wort is quite delicious, suggesting a nice final product is around the corner.