Appearance: Pours a deep brown with a dense, creamy head that displays excellent retention.

Nose: Fruity and earthy. Slightly vinous and chocolatey.

Taste: The barest touch of sweet creaminess under a ton of rich earthiness, dark roasted coffee, dusty cocoa, and some dark stewed fruit. Dry, earthy, lingering finish.

Overall: It's nice, but on the expensive side.

Recipe background: Adaptation of my brown porter to test a partial boil all-grain procedure. It was intended to be no-sparge but my calculations were off

Ingredients:
0.75 oz Sterling (7.5%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1 oz Willamette (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min

10 lbs Golden Promise Pale
10 oz American Chocolate Malt
10 oz Crystal Malt 60L
1 lb English Brown Malt

Mash:
Mashed in with 17 quarts @ 167 °F.

Sparge:
Vorlaufed and drew off 9 quarts of first runnings. Grain absorption was a bit higher than I was counting on, so even though the first runnings were right where I wanted to be (~1.080) I didn't get the requisite volume. Added 6 quarts of sparge water. Total boil volume of 16 quarts, with a gravity of 1.061, three points lower than the target.

Boil:
60 minute partial boil; added 2 quarts of water at 30 minutes to maintain a 4 gallon volume.

Added one gallon cool water and then cooled with immersion chiller to 70 °F, siphoned into Primary #1 and pitched one packet Danstar Nottingham yeast. In a further calculation error I didn't allow for volume loss to trub, so the final volume was only 4.5 gallons.

Appearance: Opaque brown, minimal head.

Nose: Sweet, roasted malt. A hint of smoke.

Taste: Too much smoke. A background of earthiness, caramel sweetness, and cocoa. Dry, very slightly astringent finish.

Mouthfeel: On the light side of medium, good level of carbonation.

Overall: Needs easing up on the smoke, or something more to counterpoint the heavy smoke. I'm not sure what, though. The mouthfeel and what I could discern of the base beer were both good.

Recipe background: My attempt at a brown porter. I tried to keep it fairly simple.

Ingredients:
1 oz Yakima Golding (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 90.0 min
1 oz Yakima Golding (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
0.5 oz Fuggle (4.8%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

8.0 lbs Golden Promise Pale
0.5 lbs American Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Crystal Malt 60L
0.75 lbs English Brown Malt

Mash:
Mashed in with 12.25 quarts @ 167 °F. Temperature stabilized at 154 °F after five minutes. 55 minute saccharification rest; final temperature of 152.7 °F.

Sparge:
Vorlaufed and drew off 7.5 quarts of first runnings. Batch #1 was 8 quarts, collected 4 quarts. Batch #2 was 8 quarts, collected 12.25 quarts. Total boil volume of 23.75 quarts.

Boil:
60 minute split/30 minute full boil; the final 4.25 quarts were initially in a separate pot due to space and heat source concerns, but were added into the main kettle at the 30 minute addition.

Cooled in an ice bath. Transferred into Primary #1, on top of the yeast cake from Batch 20080112-0.

OG of 1.056 was slightly over the target of 1.051. Fermentation was going strong seven hours in.

2008-02-01: Racked to Secondary #2. SG reads 1.014. Roasted malt nose, mild acetaldehyde on the tongue with a nice balance of chocolate and caramel malt influence, along with a hint of biscuit. Medium brown colour, mouthfeel is perhaps a bit light. Moderate hop flavour and bitterness. Too early to say for sure, but I'm thinking this one's a success.

Smell: Sweet, nutty, roasted malts and some vanilla with a fruity hop aroma.

Taste: Medium malty sweetness tempered by a hefty hit of hops and a light sourness. Malt character is chocolate and walnut.

Mouthfeel: Full-bodied and a bit tongue-coating.

Drinkability: A nice, solid porter. Something about the finish was a bit off and decreased my enjoyment, but it's still fairly drinkable.

Smell: Sweet malt, flowery hops, and hints of chocolate.

Taste: Huge roasted malt flavours, dominated by bittersweet chocolate and creamy coffee. Moderate citrusy hop presence.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body, medium carbonation.

Drinkability: Rather nice robust porter, extremely well-balanced and easy-drinking. Nicely complex.

Smell: Rich roasted malt, yeast, and cocoa.

Taste: Sweet roasted malt in the beginning, bitter chocolate and coffee notes in the middle, and some floral hops. Long finish shows some chicory characteristics.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and creamy medium body, medium carbonation, mild drying astringency in the finish.

Drinkability: Great; excellent example of the style.

Smell: Slightly nutty malt, some toasted malt and chocolate.

Taste: Standard toasted malt flavours: mild chocolate, coffee, and some vegetal notes; medium sweetness and mild hop bitterness.

Mouthfeel: A bit thin; light-bodied with medium carbonation.

Drinkability: Nothing special. Not really objectionable either. Would make a good session beer, and is fairly inexpensive.

Smell: Roasted malt, dark chocolate, yeast and lemony hops.

Taste: Rich malt flavour with cocoa and coffee notes. Light hops are just right to balance the flavour; some caramel sweetness up front. Dry, earthy finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, medium carbonation. Initial creaminess gives way to a mildly bitter bite.

Drinkability: High. Well-structured, lots of complexity, very solid example of the style.

Smell: Estery malt nose with a hint of hops.

Taste: Roasted malt with chocolate notes, a wonderful smoky background, and medium-light hops.

Mouthfeel: Full-bodied and rich with medium carbonation.

Drinkability: Very nice. The smoke is well integrated with the base style, and the base is no slouch either. My only issue is that the smoke is a bit too light; I would have liked to see a bit more of it in the nose.