[Chipotle] Smoked Mild/Brown

Hey folks, just thought I would run this recipe by ye goode folkes. I wanted to make a nice malty brown ale of relatively low gravity but with a comfy, cold weather fireplace mellow smokiness to it. Here's my proposed recipe:

6 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs Cherry smoked malt
.5 lbs 60L Crystal
.5 lbs Chocolate

1 oz. Fuggles @60

Wyeast 1968 or WLP002

Anticipated OG: 1.043

I also thought that with a smoky, malty ale like this, it might be really tasty to rack a gallon of it onto some chipotle peppers. Has anyone ever done anything like this before? Seems like it could be pretty delicious. I like the idea of doing a smoky ale that's also malty, sweet and earthy. Mmm...thoughts?

Sounds fine to me. A chipotle pepper is basically a smoked, dried jalapeno pepper. The recipe as outlined is going to be on the malty sweet side. I might suggest going with an aroma hop (maybe a nice noble hop) in the last of the boil to help balance it a little, but it's your call.

I see no problems racking a gallon over some smoked peppers.

Rogue makes a chipotle ale. May want to try it or do some searches for a clone of the beer to get an idea of how much chipotle to use.

Yeah, I have had the Rogue chipotle ale. This recipe is sort of a result of what I liked in the beer (smokiness, nice little kick) and what I thought was missing (sweetness/malt backbone).

I just brewed a smoked brown ale with chipotles last August with a similar recipe to yours (I have the recipe up over at my blog)

I used about a 1/2 pound more crystal and significantly more smoked malt. Turned out good, although it dried out more than I anticipated. It needed some significant body to stand up to the chipotles. I think a poorly calibrated thermometer led to lower mash temperatures than I'd expected.

Are you using dried peppers? I de-seeded mine.

Wow, the recipes really are super similar. What yeast did you use? I was planning on mashing around 153-4 to make sure I got some body to it and using 1968 or 002 for slightly lower attenuation to get that sweetness to balance it out.

With your quantity of smoked malt, would you say that it came out super smoky? I wanted it to be a smooth/mellow, yet pronounced smokiness...

As for the chipotles, I'll probably do dried too to cut down on unwanted oils in the beer, but i do want some heat so i may some seeds in. I've also had good luck with crushed cayenne in beer so maybe if I could find high quality crushed chipotle, I would use that. Thanks for your input! Glad to hear that I'm not the only one with a crazy yet delicious idea like this one!

I used SF-05. In retrospect it dried out the beer more than I'd anticipated (poor therometer calibration did not help). I've never used 1968 or 002 but I think you may be on the money re attenuation.

I find Briess cherrywood is a pretty mellow and rounded smokiness and so the quantity worked well in mine. It passed the girlfriend test of sessionability. But it's all to taste, you know, so no harm in using less either. The chipotle will add additional smoke flavor.

If you're looking for heat, yep, go with the seeds. I wish I'd had a little more heat in mine.

Having said all of that, the beer's been a big hit and I can't wait to hear about how yours turned out!

I used 2lbs of the Briess smoked malt in a rye ale, and found it a bit strong (though I liked it, others did not.) My friends renamed it Overhaul Ale, as it reminded them of the smell of an extinguished structure fire. Like you said, a day-after campfire is an apt description. I did not use any crystal, and next time I'm going to add some for additional body. Mine was 5lbs of Munich, 5lbs of Rye, and 2lbs of Briess cherrywood smoked malt.

Next round I'm using a recipe like yours, though I'm going to use Weyermann smoked malt, and limit it to a lb and see what happens.

Sidecar Denny
Arlington Heights IL

Okay, so I've got my final recipe for this one pretty much decided. I bumped the smoked malt up to 2 lbs, that way I get some pronounced smoky character but am still being conservative for what will be my first smoked beer. I also added a late hop addition and more crystal.

6 lbs Maris Otter
2 lbs Cherry wood smoked malt
1 lb Crystal 60
.5 lb chocolate

1 oz. EKG @60
1 oz. EKG @10

WLP 002 English Ale

Mash at 153°

I'm also going to start by racking 1 gallon onto some chipotles...we'll see how that tastes, and if it's too good to pass up, then I'll just "dry-hop" some more in the keg with the remaining 4 gallons. Who knows, maybe at the last minute I'll decide to go chipotle with the whole batch...haha we'll see.

Getting excited about this one. Should be really delicious.

Good luck!

I made a stout with chipotle pepper and it tasted great! I used about 1/2 oz in the boil and 1/2 oz in the secondary. Since the peppers are smoked to begin with, the peppers added a nice smoked wood flavor to the beer and gave it a little warmth. I would not call the beer spicy by any means but it really added some complexity with a little "afterburn". I will definitely be experimenting with chipotle again. Sounds like with the smoked malt and the chipotle you will have a very smokey beer. Good luck on your brew!