Taddy Porter Clone

Well, today is both Father's Day and my birthday.  My wife surprised me this morning with the sweetest pictures and cards from my daughters.  She also suggested that I have a brew-day this weekend, so I decided to make a Taddy Porter clone which I've been thinking about doing for some time.  I've been reading some old brewing texts lately, and reading up on the history of Porter.  Very interesting beer (and one of my favorites!).  It seems that historically porter was made primarily with brown malt.  Most modern porters, however, use pale malt as the base, and varying amounts of roasted malts (black, chocolate, patent, etc.) to get the color and flavor.  Some recipes I saw also used treacle or blackstrap molasses.  These sound intriguing, but I settled on the following recipe without molasses:

Recipe: Taddy Porter Clone
Style: Brown Porter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications --------------------------
Boil Size: 7.74 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.24 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 23.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients: ------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8 lbs 8.9 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 3 77.9 %
14.8 oz Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 4 8.4 %
14.8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5
8.4 % 9.2 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.3 %
1.63 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 23.6 IBUs
0.65 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 3.4 IBUs
0.9 pkg London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028) [12 Yeast 9 -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 15.7 oz
 ----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
 Mash In Add 15.73 qt of water at 166.1 F 152.0 F 60 min
Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.51gal, 4.12gal) of 168.0 F water

Wicked Widow Pumpkin Porter

Before moving to Houston 3 years ago, my wife and I lived in Tempe, Arizona, while we were in grad school at ASU. For a few years, we had the privilege of living within walking distance of 4Peaks Brewery, and I must say, we spent quite a bit of time there. I've never been much for "flavored" beers, but 4 Peaks made a seasonal pumpkin beer that was A-mazing. I heard through the inter-webs that the recipie on the Brewer's Connection site was pretty close, so I decided to start with that. I wanted to do it all-grain, so first I converted the extract to 2-row pale malt. Then, since I'm doing it all-grain, I decided to mash the pumpkin instead of adding it to the boil. Actually, I first baked the pumpkin in a 9x9 baking dish at 350 deg for 1 hour to caramelize it a little, then mixed it in with the grain bill. Finally, I added some rice hulls to the mash to avoid a stuck sparge with all that sticky pumpkin. The final recipe I came up with is below. The name "Wicked Widow" was a friend's suggestion; When I racked the beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket, I found a small dead spider at the bottom of the fermenter (I brew outside, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised...)!

Recipe: Wicked Widow Pumpkin Porter
TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 30.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 61.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Ingredients:
Amt Name Type %/IBU
8.8 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.4 %
10.4 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.2 %
8.8 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 4.4 %
6.7 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 90L (90.0 SRM) Grain 3.4 %
4.5 oz Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 2.2 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 19.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3.4 IBUs
0.17 oz Burton Water Salts (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent -
0.25 tsp Ground Clove (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice -
0.25 tsp Ground Ginger (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice -
0.75 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining -
22.00 oz Libby's Pumpkin (Boil 5.0 mins) Flavor -
1.0 pkg London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) [125.00 m Yeast -
8 lbs 1.3 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 64.5 %
1 lbs Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.0 %
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 8.0 %


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 8.5 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 17.71 qt of water at 164.6 F 154.0 F 60 min