Baltic Porter Brew Day

Brew day for the Baltic Porter went well for the most part. Two problems, first was the pump had ice in the housing (this time I took it apart to drain it out), the second problem was it was so cold outside that I missed my strike water temp so I had to boil some water to raise the temp. I also left too much in the kettle (1 gallon) but I can fix that with a tweak of the dip tube.

OG was 1.090, predicted was 1.085 but I didn't figure my efficiency would stay the same with this big of a beer (efficiency is at 80% with my system). Used a starter of Zurich lager that was stepped up 3 times roughly 600 billion cells.

Beer is fermenting as of 9am 1-14-2012.

Recipe:

Malt Bill

11lb Munich Malt (weyermann)

6lb Pilsner ( weyermann )

8oz Pale Chocolate Malt

8oz Special B Malt

4oz Crystal Malt -120

4oz Chocolate Malt

Hops

11gm Northern Brewer 7.5% at 60 min

37 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker 3% at 60 min

16gm Nt.Hood 5.5% at 60 min

28gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker 3% at 15 min

Note about the hops, there are so many at the beginning of the boil because I am tiring to clean out my old hops. They are all low alpha acid so they should play well with the rest of the beer.