Working at Briess, there are always unique, fun ways we celebrate our employees, especially when it comes to a special event, like weddings. And when you work at a malting company, what better way to celebrate your wedding then creating a custom brew designed by leading brew experts. Earlier this June, our technical team made a special brew for Briess employee, Pat Nett, to celebrate his wedding with his now wife, Christine.
Pat has been with Briess since 2012, working as an Evaporator Operator in our Extracts Plant. He met his wife through mutual friends and a common interest in golfing, three years ago. Over the years, Christine has developed an interest in craft brews, and Pat instantly knew requesting a custom brew for his fiancé would be a unique way to celebrate their special day. In early April, Briess Technical Service Rep and Pilot Brewer, Dan Bies, lead a team to develop a special wedding brew for Pat. They met with Pat to discuss what to brew and decided on a porter.
Our team of experts first took a commercial style porter as the target brew for Pat and Christine. Dan, Pat, and the Technical Service team began by taste testing commercial porters, discussing the flavors, aromas, colors and characteristics of each sample.
Working backwards, the team research the historical make up of porters. Traditionally porters’ aromas have a mild roastiness and sometimes even have a chocolaty quality. Porters also generally have more elaborate malt characters that release hints of caramel or nutting notes, and the occasional hint of a smoked malt. Malt flavors can includes a mild to moderate roastiness (frequently with a chocolate character) and often a significant caramel, nutty, and/or toffee character. The alcohol content for most porters range from 4-5.5% ABV, but some more robust, darker versions can have an alcohol content of 6.5% ABV.
For this particular target brew style, the yeast character was a large component. The crew then reverse-engineered the target brew by analytically assessing the red hues from caramel malts and black hues from a rich roasted malts. It was now time to recreate the color and flavor. With one shot, the Briess Technical Service Team was spot on. On June 6th, 2015 the couple said their “I do’s” and toasted to the custom Briess brew they named “Dancing Queen”.
Congratulations Pat and Christine and a toast too many years to come.
Try your own toast at your special event with Pat and Christine’s Dancing Queen Brown Porter, or just brew it to brew it.
Cheers!
Dancing Queen Brown Porter
- Type: Porter
- Style: Brown Porter
- Batch Size: 5 gallons
- Recipe Type: All grain
- Recipe Contributed By: Briess Technical Services Team
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | Comment |
| 7.5 lbs. | Pale Ale Malt | |
| 1.5 lbs | Caramel Malt 80L | |
| 2 oz. | Midnight Wheat | |
| 3 oz. | Chocolate Malt | |
| 0.5 lbs | Sugar | Added to Boil |
| 1 oz. | Golding (5.0AA) | 60 minute boil |
| 0.5 oz | Golding (5.0AA) | 20 minute boil |
| Yeast: Wyeast 1098, White Labs WLP005, or Fermentis s-04 |
Procedures
- Mash grains at 150-154º F for 45 minutes
- Heat to 170º F
- Lauter
- Boil with bittering hops for 60 minutes
- After add second hop addition with 20 minutes of boil remaining
- Cool to 68º F, oxygenate wort
- Pitch 1 package of British Ale Yeast: Wyeast 1098, White Labs WLP005, or Fermentis s-04
Stats:
Primary Fermentation: 68º F until final gravity is reached, about 1-2 weeks
Secondary Fermentation: 32-40º F for 2 weeks
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol by Volume: 5.1%
SRM: 40
IBU: 20