For Halloween weekend, I'm looking to brew a beer that conjures up the idea of sitting around a campfire swapping ghost stories. I'm looking for something black or nearly so, reminiscent of s'mores in having a toasty base character with strong chocolate notes. I'm also looking to get a muted but woodsy hop aroma, a warming quality, and a little bit of roasted or even smoky flavor, to call up images of a campfire, along with a hard-to-pin-down unusual feature to put drinkers a little bit off their guard - this is a horror beer, after all. I also like the idea of keeping the gravity sessionably low; a good campfire with good ghost stories can last late into the night, and the beer should do the same.
I'm open to suggestions of a different way to do this, but my current thought is a Southern English brown with a little bit of chili pepper for heat. Here's my draft of a recipe:
7# Maris Otter
1# chocolate malt (UK)
1/4# caramel malt 60L
1/4# roasted barley
(estimated OG 1040, color 33L)
1/2oz Northern Brewer 60'
1/4oz Northern Brewer 10'
(18 IBU per Tinseth)
Wyeast London ESB yeast
I'm undecided about how much chili pepper to use, but I was thinking of adding it along with the second hop addition so as to keep the aroma present but understated.
Any input?
I'm open to suggestions of a different way to do this, but my current thought is a Southern English brown with a little bit of chili pepper for heat. Here's my draft of a recipe:
7# Maris Otter
1# chocolate malt (UK)
1/4# caramel malt 60L
1/4# roasted barley
(estimated OG 1040, color 33L)
1/2oz Northern Brewer 60'
1/4oz Northern Brewer 10'
(18 IBU per Tinseth)
Wyeast London ESB yeast
I'm undecided about how much chili pepper to use, but I was thinking of adding it along with the second hop addition so as to keep the aroma present but understated.
Any input?