Newest Threads

**bolts** · 12-03-2010, 07:52 AM

I'm looking for thoughts on the balance in this recipe or pointers to other big recipes along these lines. This should be a beer that ages for 5+ years. I'm looking for a very complex beer with notes of smoke and sweetness backed by an alcohol presence. This will probably end up with spirit soaked oak cubes in it (Bourbon & Calvados) also. The general starting point for this beer is/was HoTD Adam.

What happens if I ditch the pale malt and use just use straight Munich?

Too much or little belgian candy sugar?

Other random thoughts?

Code:

OG     1.127
SRM    43
IBU    53

%    LB   OZ    MALT OR FERMENTABLE               PPG   °L
64%  13    0    Gambrinus Organic Pale Ale Malt   37      2
10%   2    0    Munich Malt - 20L                 35     20
10%   2    0    Munich Malt - 10L info            35     10
5%    1    0    Belgian Candy Sugar Light         36      0
5%    1    0    Belgian Candy Sugar Dark          36    275
2%    0    8    Briess Cherrywood Smoke Malt      34      5
2%    0    8    Peat Smoked Malt                  34      2
1%    0    4    Chocolate Malt (UK)               34    450
1%    0    2    Black (Patent) Malt               25    500

http://hopville.com/recipe/417542/wood-aged-beer-recipes/wip2

Justibone · 12-03-2010, 11:43 AM

I know that people say gambrinus can convert itself, but if I were you I'd be ready to do an iodine test.

Also, you didn't list your hops, but your IBU's are going to be 53?

A full pound of smoked malt is going to be... interesting. Then again, I don't like smoke flavor in anything but meat.

devilishprune · 12-03-2010, 12:33 PM

If you use smoked malt and age a beer for five years, don't expect it to be smoky. I have a beer on tap now thats about 2-3 months old that I made with ~60% smoked malt that is no longer smoky. I have no experience with peat smoked though, so someone else can chime in on that.

I don't think that pale ale malt should have any issues with conversion, it's a base malt. If you used munich instead you would just get a maltier beer. Personally, I really like using munich as a base malt in darker beers.

From what I read, light candi sugar doesn't add much in terms of flavor. I would go ahead and do 2 lbs of dark candi sugar. In fact, that's what I'm doing on a beer that I'm brewing tomorrow.

**bolts** · 12-04-2010, 12:54 AM

@Justibone The IBU's are around 1:2 (BU:GU) from Northern Brewer and Tettnang as aroma hops. I could go higher, but don't want to create a bitter beer. This is aimed at a being a complex malty/sweet sipping beer.

@devilshprune I suspect the smoke to age out and become a background note with the others flavors versus an in-your-face-rauchbier. You're right about the light sugar, I think I'll mix amber and dark for the belgian sugars to add variety.

indigi · 12-04-2010, 02:04 AM

If you're going to age it for five years you might want to up the IBUs. Beer loses between a chunk of it's apparent bitterness every year it's aged, so in 5 years it could be overly cloying.

avidhomebrewer · 12-04-2010, 02:11 AM

I would use munich for the base malt instead of pale. I agree with the others about the smoky part; after 5+ years, it won't be that smoky. The dark candi sugar won't add much, if any, color. It will add rum notes to the brew. For a beer that size, 2# is adequate. But, then I would get rid of the light candi sugar if you chose that route. I would also think about bumping up the chocolate to say 8 oz.

Justibone · 12-04-2010, 12:42 PM

I didn't know that smoke faded with time... good to know!

If you age it long enough I believe the Tettnang will all but disappear, right? Still, hard to go wrong with Tet's.

GuldTuborg · 12-04-2010, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justibone

If you age it long enough I believe the Tettnang will all but disappear, right?

Yeah, I'd save my money on the aroma hop addition. I'd wager it would be completely gone by the 5 year mark. Throw more in at the beginning of the boil to give you a little balance of sweet and bitter after so much aging. Give this one a long boil, too. The longer the better.

Sonicalligator · 10-10-2011, 05:40 PM

Two munichs, two smoked malts, two belgian sugars...bourbon and calvados...looks like you're trying to clone Matt. Did you brew this? What changes did you make and how did it turn out?

**bolts** · 10-10-2011, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonicalligator

Two munichs, two smoked malts, two belgian sugars...bourbon and calvados...looks like you're trying to clone Matt. Did you brew this? What changes did you make and how did it turn out?

I didn't brew this (yet) -- but I did brew it's little brother, my HoTD Adam clone. http://hopville.com/recipe/406726/wood-aged-beer-recipes/hotd-adam

That batch started @ 1.096 and finished at 1.018 (10.34%) with 3 wks in the primary. I'm really happy with the batch and it is not at all thin for it's final gravity. The initial taste was fantastic. I'm waffling on adding oak cubes to this batch (I'm a huge fan of Adam from the Wood).

Regarding this recipe -- yeah you can guess the origins. I chatted with Alan briefly about it (while sampling a vertical of Matt @ HoTD). He didn't say much more than what's already on the Ratebeer site -- but then again, I didn't really push too hard either

I tweaked it since I last posted, but still need to do more research on the base Munich malts to use.
http://hopville.com/recipe/417542/wood-aged-beer-recipes/wip2