Allys Black Francis

[Ally Mcg]

My bottles have a label over the lid (which might have come off) that says Robot Dog Brewing Co, Black Francis and also a white sticky label affixed at an odd angle that says Ally McG 16/2

Recipe as follows

3.5kg Muntons Light Malt Extract
.5kg Munich 10L
.2kg Caramel
.13kg Pale Choc
.1kg Choc
.07kg Black Patent
50g NZ Cascade 7.2% @ 90
30g NZ Styrian Goldings 5.5% @30
25g NZ Cascade @10
15g NZ Cascade @0
20g NZ Styrian Goldings @0
OG -1.056, FG 1.018 IBU 52.8

Keen for any feedback on this, debut porter and according to my records the 6th ever beer I've brewed.

[James P]

Disclaimer: I'm a Pilsner / Lager person, I drink darks very infrequently....

Cracked open Black Francis tonight after dinner, initially getting a good aroma from the open bottle. Decanted into a 1.6 litre jug then into a half.

Pours damn near black, with a nice white foamy hand (I'm a lager pourer though!). Head hangs around for a little while, at which time I get to see Francis's knickers, or at least the lace of the frilly bottoms.... unless Francis is your dad / male relation then I but simply nice lace work... any who back to the porter.

I get a mouthful of bitterness which may be a wee bit much for me combined with the coffee and burnt toffee flavour. Burps are seemingly chocolate.... seems I do like chocolate on my cappuccino. Smells of grapefruit and some sort of berry. It does taste a little "resiny" after about five minutes after your last mouthful (maybe a little astringent?).

At room temperature the overall bitterness is reduced and the malt flavours come to the party a little more.

Nice one Ally!

[denimglen]

Pours finger high light foamy brown head that turns rocky and clingy. Very dark, almost black, in body with some red highlights.

Aroma is perfumy, citrus - lemonade soft drink, refreshing, some roasty-ness comes through as well and fresh green grass.

Mmm, flavour is strong chocolate, reminds me of a chocolate that says like 65 - 70% cocoa on the label. A little coffee too. Crystal malt fills out the flavour but neither dominates nor recedes. Nice firm bitterness. Again some lemon-like citrus in the flavour too that sits well with the chocolate. Some berry, blueberry maybe, in the after taste.

Medium body, medium carb, slight astringent bitterness on tongue but definitely not unpleasant.

Which yeast if you don't mind? Trying to figure out if this berry thing is a hop or ester thing, is really interesting and tasty. I think it's a mixture of a few things blending together.

Honestly? Sixth beer? Amazing bro, keep up the good work.

[Ged]

Mate. I'll keep this short as I still struggle to get some of the flavours others do. Really good beer that I would happily drink and drink again. The smell and subsequent tastes brought me memories of my first renaissance stonecutter a few months back.

Decanted into a just and first pour was with a nice compact head. Black with some reddish hue when stuck upto the light. Really good chocolate flavour and ongoing toffee smells wafting through each sip.

Not overly bitter but overall smooth on the palate. An easy session beer for you and the cchurch boys- hint..hint...Wish my porter was as smooth.

Drank it from the fridge and it didn't get much time to warm up I liked it that much.

Great effort and another partial grainer skulking in the shadows..I had visions of kempicus creeping up on us all..

Thx and well done fellow scotsman

[Ally Mcg]

Cheers boys for the positive feedback and kind comments - I'm glad all you liked it.

Yeast is good old US05

[Stu McKinlay]

Ah... another lovely drop. This case swap thing is really setting my nights of quite nicely.

Dark brown, reddish highlights, and a lacy light tan head. Great hop aroma of orange, pine, marmalade, grass - probably the best of the swap so far. Toast, chocolate and caramel in behind. Ged's reference to Stonecutter is not a bad one at all, I've had fresh hoppy Stonecutter tasting remarkably like this. It falls a shade flat in the middle, not bad but just lacking something to lift it... sweet without being anything notable. The bitterness is firm and there is a nice lingering stonefruit hop flavour. Fruity espresso comes to mind as I finish off.

I had some cold and then some warm. It was better cold, for mine. When it warmed there was a little bit of a drying astringency in there - though, to be fair, I left it a while (walking dog and fighting gangs of rogue carrots) so it had flattened off a little too much. I can't quite place it as a tannin character or a mix of the roast malts with staunch NZ hop grassiness... I'm leaning to the former.

Your 6th beer eh!? Holy shit... you'll be bloody good if you want to be. Aboon them a' ye'll tak yer place!

Cheers
Stu

[Stu McKinlay]

Sorry, scratch "Stonecutter", I meant "Elemental" - their porter (when it is fresh and hoppy.

[Reviled]

Shit Ally, reference to Stonecutter, thats bloody good work! I think I know what my next case swap beer will be, ive had about 4 days off of drinking cos of a bloody cold (apart from Martins Oatmeal stout at 11am the other day lol)

[Ally Mcg]

Aye, i was stoked with the reference to a commercial beer and a good un at that

Cheers for the feedback Stu, and glad you liked it - the recipe (as you probably spotted) was influenced/inspired by PKB.

Might need to think about brewing some more of this, only got 3 bottles left

[Stu McKinlay]

'twas very nice. and great to have two (very good) PKB inspired homebrews in the case swap!
And, while we are on the subject, you will be pleased to know that PKB will be back on the taps from about mid-June. Little changes to hopping and the yeast... it'll be even better this year.

[Alasdair]

I really enjoyed this - I was planning on brewing a robust porter in the next month or so; I'm tempted to try your malt bill/hop schedule. What lovibond crystal did you use?

Quite low aroma - a touch of chocolate and dark fruit - and low head rentention, but on the palate it was great. Sweet coffee, toffee and fruit. Reminded me of Renaissance porter too. Maybe a touch sweet - I'd recommend slightly more attenuation - but a tasty beer all the same.

Sixth beer? - Dude!

[Ally Mcg]

I have it in beersmith as 12 SRM - The malt was Bairds Light Crystal from DMH which came marked on the bag as 30 EBC so i converted using a formula i found somewhere

Thanks for the feedback on the beer and glad you enjoyed it.

[Stu McKinlay]

Pale "crystal" is likely to be 90EBC.
Anything paler than that here will probably be called a "caramalt". Did it look almost pale enough to be a base malt at first glance? If so it'd be the 30EBC Caramalt. Pale crystal, at 90EBC, still looks pretty toasted.

There are rare exceptions but not many... it'll all be coming through CryerMalt. sometimes you get Thomas Fawcett, so the numbers/names are slightly different again.