First of all, this was a very technical recipe for someone doing a partial mash, including some very specific measurements of the speciality grains. That is an odd decision on their part, but I applaud the desire to make something that is unique to them.
The other major observation was the ease of the day. It may be that the more batches I brew, or the continued exposure to the material, but regardless of the source, I found this was an extremely streamlined day. I never had the brain fart moment or had to may any corrections to the process, which indicates that the entire day is so nicely meshed within my mind now that I'm not second-guessing it anymore. I am not the only one that noticed this being an easier day for me; Coren also noted that this seemed like a day of brewing that went by with little to no hesitation or waisted effort.
To say that I'm excited about the noted improvements in my process and ability barely touches it. I'm all the more excited to see what the next recipe will bring, and the next, and the next.
Oh, and to hint at my next potential creation, it will be another dark beer and one I have blogged about already: Plowed Porter. That will be followed up by a new creation, that any and all hop heads will be happy to support...more to come later on this one, as I'm still tweaking the recipe.
If you still want to see the recipe of the White House Honey Porter, it is located here. I am going to add my own flavor to it, simply enhancing the malty taste and honey sweetness, but I'm not going to show my hand until it comes to fruition (never can be too careful these days with recipe plagiarism).
Stay tuned for updates!
As always, drink well and be merry. Slainte!
Update 1: The fermentation has been very strong on this one thus far, and only slowing down noticeably late last night, which leads me to believe I was able to do better than the 70% efficiency projected. I suspect that this beer will be stronger than the estimated 5.5% ABV, possibly closer to 7.0%.
Update 2: Not only was this porter showing some good signs as far as its fermentation, but the damned thing keeps going. It is now brew day + 5, and I'm still seeing a strong krausen and just enough CO2 activity in the blow off bucket that it makes me wonder just how long it can go. I'm thinking that when I had suspected a bit more mash efficiency I may have been pretty close, and I'm sad now I don't have a way to calculate it accurately. Cest la vie. I'm just looking forward to seeing this bad boy go into secondary, which I'd estimate is roughly 2 - 3 days away (I've nothing against letting it have its protein rest in primary, as I doubt the yeast cake will contribute any funky flavors/odors in such a short timeframe). I'll post when I go to secondary.
Update 3: I'm super impressed with this batch, simply due to how long the krausen has lasted. I'm at the point where I am going to move it to secondary in a few days, but this was a serious fermentation (lasted over a week, even if it was down to a crawl for the last 2 or 3 days). I'm looking forward to taking a sample from it and testing its ABV and flavor, but this was a seriously fun brew to make. My personal addition will be coming when I go to secondary, so stay tuned to see how that turns out.
Update 4: We made it to secondary! The aroma on this is really nice, sweet, and has some good malt on it. I did test it, and had some others sample it, and the result was just a solid beer. I added my secret ingredient to this as well, but I still need to keep some secrets.
Update 5: I took the secret ingredient out and I like the impact it had on this batch, but I'm a little apprehensive if it may have impacted the flavor too much. I may be overreacting, because everything I read said to relax and let the flavors mellow out during conditioning.
Update 6: Racked and bottled as of today, and the aroma is still great, but that flavor is a bit stronger than I'd like, but like I said last time, I'll let it ride. To keep this a true beer in the sense of the White House's recipe, I used honey from Harvard, IL in the original boil and I decided to keep it local with some Southern Wisconsin wildflower honey for the priming sugar (dark and really flavorful stuff). In 2 weeks will be the first sample, so here is hoping!
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