Souchong Smoke Bomb
 

All-Grain - Souchong Smoke Bomb

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Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: US 05
Yeast Starter: n/a
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: US 05
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.077
Final Gravity: 1.017
IBU: 68.1
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 13.8
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14
Tasting Notes: Lots of smoke, lots of hops!




Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 65.31 %
1.00 lb Peat Smoked Malt (2.8 SRM) Grain 8.16 %
1.00 lb Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 8.16 %
0.50 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4.08 %
0.50 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.08 %
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.04 %
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 46.8 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
1.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (5 min) Hops 8.1 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (dry hop)
1.00 tsp Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 tbsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
2.00 oz Lapsang Souchong Tea (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
4 dashes Liquid Smoke (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Candi Sugar, Yellow (1 SRM) Sugar 8.16 %
2 Pkgs American Ale (US 05) Yeast-Ale

Mash temp 145F and mash out 155F.

I wanted to blend my addiction to black tea with my love of craft beer. I took one of my favorite teas and blended it into a rauchbier concept. The rauchmalt i bought wasn't smoky enough so i did 1:1 of rauchmalt and peated malt and a touch of liquid smoke to kick it even higher. The citrusy aroma of coriander is to mimic the citrus feel of an Earl Grey tea and the aroma blends nicely with smoke. The Lapsang Souchong has a very similar aroma to peated malt and has a similar color to the Special B malt.

For the hops i was in a quandary. I had a few small amounts of a few different hops of varying ages that i wanted to clean out. So why not use them on something with a strong flavor profile? The Centennial were some old pellet hops i had kicking around from a bad ebay purchase, so since their aroma was weakest, i opted them for the bittering. The Cascade was at the suggestion of my brother in law thinking that the pepperiness might blend well with the smoke and i threw them in the mix. I'm in love with Nugget hops, so i wanted them as a late addition in hopes some of the peachiness might come through. The Simcoe is just piney and green smelling, so what goes better with a pine forest than a nice smoky forest fire?

If you take the time to look this over, please give me some feedback. I'm still new to building recipes and could use some critique. Let me know what you think!

Edit: I should mention i was able to squeeze an extra gallon out of this so when this is done i should have a full 5gal going into secondary. Yay beer!

This is going to be a great beer IMO. Look at this color!
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._8179098_n.jpg

That's a lot of hops!
http://hphotos-sjc1.fbcdn.net/hs438....4_755828_n.jpg

Getting set to pitch.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1545370_n.jpg

ALMOST FORGOT!

This is my first all-grain brew!

Hooray! I made extract and didn't have to buy any!

Looks interesting. I like lapsang. It looks like you have a decent balance here with residual sugars. One small thing: you can save money by using table sugar rather than candi sugar.

Table sugar isn't yellow! :rockin:

I guess i should mention about the sugar. I'm fortunate to live in an area with a VERY high concentration of Indian, Asian, Hispanic, as well as Jewish, Arabic, Turkish, etc. At the Asian market most everything is in Chinese or Japanese. Finding stuff there is very hard. I looked a LONG time before finding this stuff. It's candy sugar, but it's yellow instead of the usual candi sugars sold at the LHBS. It was only $1, so i call it a doable expense and i save my sugar for purple Kool Aid. :ban:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1765894_n.jpg



And check out this oddity i can find in the same store.

Jars of maltose! :D
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5838628_n.jpg

Awww, not 100% maltose?? Booooo!
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._8345324_n.jpg

Here is the maltose. It looks like honey, but MAD thick.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2429352_n.jpg

EDIT: I just tasted some of this maltose first time just now. Not so sure i'll be using it in a brew. It's got a sour kind of sweetness to it. I think i'll save it for a mead. Malt doesn't always equal barley malt.

FYI..........Smoked malt is just that but I have learned you have to respect it or it will take over. I brewed a smoked IPA.Now I make my IPA's heavy and this one I made it with only 1lb of smoked malt in a 10 gallon batches. Honestly, the first taste and it taste like I just had my head slammed in a campfire...LOL :)

IT has been aging for 3 months now and has lightened a little with the smoke but it is still there and LOUD.

absolutely. i'd been drinking some retail smoked beers and they either had no smoke flavor or were smoky as an afterthought. either way, they just weren't smoky enough for me. i figured i had to kick the crap out of the style and make it mine.

So i pitched later last night and it's bubbling like a sunuvabitch right now. :rockin:

LOL...... Right on man, let us know how she turns out :mug:

I think once this finishes fermentation i'll make up some double/triple strength Lapsang Souchong and give it some more smoke and caffiene.

First post-pitching hydrometer reading is 1.010. Looking good! Gonna move to secondary this weekend hopefully.

The smoke factor on this is UNBELIEVABLE!! Smoke bomb indeed! Now i think i need to dry-hop. :)