America's Finest City Homebrew Competition 2014 Results

I try and enter 2 competitions a year, the National Homebrew Competition and the local America's Finest City Homebrew Competition.  I've always done OK in both, yesterday I received my judges sheets back for review.

They Call Me Porter:  Scored a 39.5/50 Overall. Category #12B Robust Porter. 3rd Place, America's Finest City Homebrew Competition 2014

Judge #1, Certified 40/50

Aroma: 9/12 Moderately high roasty aroma, some dark chocolate, tobacco, a hint of caramel.  Hops aroma is moderate.  Fruity ester is mute. 

Appearance: 3/3  Very Dark brown in color.  Large tan head with good retention.  Some garbet? highlights.

Flavor: 15/20 Moderately strong malt flavor.  Coffee, dark chocolate, grainy characters.  Hop flavor is moderately low, bitterness is moderate.  Semi-dry finish.  Fruity esters moderately low.

Mouthfeel: 5/5 Medium body, medium carbonation, slight astringency.  (Not harsh) Semi - Dry finish

Overall Impression: 8/10 A robust porter with great roasty dark chocolate character.  Could use some more hops, but complex dark malt characters.  Tasty Brew!

They call me Porter & Tasting Session

Just got word that this placed 3rd in Cat 12.  Quaff's Americas Finest Homebrew Comp.

Peering into a vast array of bottles nestled together.  Looking down each row, studying them one by one.  Attempting to find the perfect bomber to enjoy after work.  Eying in on a Drakes Denogginizer, I happily close the refrigerator door without noticing a single Porter.  Did I walk into the bottle shop predisposed to purchase an IPA vs a Porter?  It's possible, or maybe its just how I feel about the style in general.  Predictable.

When purchasing a beer I want it to be exciting and different.  I want to be arm and arm with the hot girl at the party.  Maybe even outside my league. (or brewing skill set)  Porters are, well just porters.  They are the back-up girl when someone cancels on you last minute.  There like a moped, "Always fun to ride, but you never want to get caught riding on one".  They are predicable. 

Now with that out of the way, an American Porter was probably the first or second style you homebrew.  Good or not, it was your first.  More importantly, it was yours.  While it's true, normally I do not purchase Porters, I do enjoy drinking them.  They are my fat girl.

When I started out working on a Porter recipe, I wanted it purely American.  Style 12B Robust Porter, which is a horrible style name (BTW).  Wanting the recipe to maximize the roasted and chocolate notes I love.  For strength, I went right under 7%.  Fairly strong, yet contained.  I ended up doing a split yeast pitch on this beer.  The WLP028 started off for 2 days then I pitched WLP090.  This should bring out some traditional English characters without the phenolics associated with English Ales.  This is my third re-brew of this batch, I think I like where it is, just needing to re-brew it one more time without any changes.


Aroma:  Somewhat burnt, coffee/roasted barley acridness. More coffee and chocolate as it warmed up.  I do get some husky grain notes also, this seems to come forward the longer this beer is on draft. 

Appearance:  Thin head, that somewhat appears after I finish pouring the taster.  I'd say about a 1/4 thick.  (It doesn't last long, but I like my porters low on the Co2.)  The head is clearly dark tan, small bubbles dissipate quickly.  The beer shows black, but as you take a sip the black changes to a dark burnt chocolate red. 

Smith & Wess'n Oaked Aged Vanilla Porter & Tasting Session

I was issued a challenge to brew a Barrel Aged Vanilla Porter within 2 weeks.  For some reason I agreed to this idea.  Choosing to take some of Shea Comfort's ideas and run with them.  Going back to Shea Comfort's interview on the Brewing Networks Sunday Session, Brewing with Oak.  The idea was simple, using a 5" piece of Honeycomb White American Oak in the last minutes of the boil.  Knowing that wood will swell when you add hot water, releasing tannins, expelling positive (and negative) flavors and then capturing these flavors into the beer and hopefully cut the aging time normally necessary for this style of beer.

I started off with the base recipe from Black Butte Porter, raising the Original Gravity up, hoping for a beer finishing around 7.4%.  Expecting to bottle and age this beer, I also wanted to push the bittering hops way up to 45 IUB's with a clean Magnum addition.  Other than that, the base recipe stayed about the same.  To push up the "Barrel Aged" feel, I ordered Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans, which I split and scraped out into a small glass jar.  To speed up the extraction process, I added Markers Mark (1.5oz) and let them steep together while the beer was fermenting.

Wine Yeast Fermented Porter, Tasting Session

Aroma:   Chocolate hints dominate the nose, backed up by a roast aroma I can't pinpoint.  No aroma hops detected.  No off flavors, very clean.


Appearance:  Crystal clear (up to a light) midnight black.  Tan, fluffy head, with large bubbles creating chunky lacing down the glass.  Very stunning, drinkable appearance. 

Black Butte Coffee, Robust Porter

Deschutes Black Butte is a classic example of an American Porter.  It is also (in my opinion) a great platform for adding Coffee to the recipe.  Over the last couple of weeks I've been debating on how to do this effectively.  Most craft beer brewed with coffee misses the mark.  It either has a fake aroma, or its "to in your face" for it to be enjoyable.  One of the exceptions is Coronado Brewing Company, Blue Bridge Coffee Stout. This beer is new to their line-up (I know it is a Stout, not a porter.) and brewed with 10 pounds of coffee added to each 10 barrels of beer.  I wanted to recreate the same full flavored coffee in a classic porter recipe.