Souchong Smoke Bomb

OK...I couldn't help myself, and I pulled a gravity sample (mostly just 'cause I really wanted a taste!) All I can say is: WOW...it's *awesome*!!!

Nice smoky, hoppy/citrusy aroma... The flavor? Nice citrus from the hops and corriander, and it's still a little smokier than the average rauchbeer, but not overwhelming or onerous (at least to me). It's on the thin side for mouthfeel, and perceives pretty dry (probably due to the candi sugar, and the fact that my mash temp dropped pretty low for the last 15-20 min -- I opened the tun up to stir, and it was pretty cold that day -- went down to 148*F towards that end. The FG for now is 1.012.) It's still smoky enough that if you were looking for more subtle you could probably cut back to a pound of rauchmalt...between that and the souchong there would still be an easily perceived smokiness.

I probably wouldn't change much on a second attempt...I can't wait to finish conditioning and bottle it! I was going to dry hop, but I don't think it really even needs it with the hopburst hopping schedule I used.

I'm really liking the look of this one. Going to try smoking the malt myself and see how that comes out. Going to have to do it a little different due to the hops, although I could order some in you folks don't approve of my substitutions, let me know what you think.....!

9.00 lbs. Pale Malt
2.00 lbs. Smoked Malt
1.00 lbs. Corn Sugar
0.50 lbs. Special B Malt
0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt
0.25 lbs. Cara-Pils

1 oz Chinook (60)
.5 oz Chinook (30)
.5 oz Cascade (30)
1 oz Cascade (15)
1 Oz Cascade (5)

2.00 Oz Lapsong Souschong Tea (5)
1.00 Whirlfloc (10)
0.50 Oz Corriander (5)

2 packs of s-05


Clark

I'm very glad that at least a few people are digging a recipe i came up with. I'm pretty flattered, to say the least, especially since my homebrew club was a 50/50 split on liking/hating it.

For my original version, as it's been here for a while, i'm a little tired of it. However, i'm beginning to think that my main problem was probably the liquid smoke above all as i'm seeing more and more people using peated malt and now i'm starting to see applewood smoked malt and other malts like it popping up here and there. I think a winter smoked porter might land in my little brewery soon to replace this recipe in my book.

Thank you for putting the idea out there! I just made the ingredient order for what I am missing, had to change things up again a little due to availability but ended up with changing the chinook above for columbus and went with Maris Otter Pale Malt. Also went with S-05. Brew day will be next Saturday, will update then!

Clark

fineexampl said:

I think a winter smoked porter might land in my little brewery soon to replace this recipe in my book.

Click to expand...

Don't replace it, modify it! (Not to say a smoked porter doesn't sound good too...) I think the issue was that you went a bit over the top with your first attempt..the dialed down version is very drinkable...

I've had mine in the bottle for about a month and a half...I've killed about 7/8th's of the batch, and will probably kick the final amount when I have some friends over to brew in a couple weekends. There have been a few others who've tried it, and the response has been uniformly positive....