Mushroom/Pepper Smoked Porter

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sidepart

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Working on what I can best describe as Baltic Porter (with too many IBUs). Going to try making a flavor extract, so I thought I'd share it with everyone. Let me know if anyone has any thoughts, tips or opinions. This will also be my FIRST all grain batch.

8lbs Briess American 2-row
3lbs Smoked Malt (20% of the grains so that's "noticeably" smokey I've read)
16oz Caramel 60L
8oz Caramel 120L
8oz Black Patent Malt
8oz Special B
8oz Carapils (head retention)
16oz Flaked Barley (creaminess, head retention)

15AAUs Warrior Pellets (60 minutes)
9AAUs Simcoe Pellets (half at 30 minutes half at 10 minutes left)

WLP060 Yeast (will probably use a starter and let it sit over night)

Flavor extract
1.5 cups Vodka
1Tbsp Pink Peppercorns
1/2cup morel mushrooms

Soak peppercorns and morels in vodka for 7-10 days, shaking the jar every few days. Add 1 cup of extract to 5 gallons (I might test the effect of adding this 1/4cup at a time to get the right amount).

Estimating these
OG: 1.075
FG: 1.020
ABV: 7-8%
IBU: 55-60

Going to do a single infusion and try out the batch sparging technique. 1.25qt/gallon of water. Mash at 152F. I'll make up the difference by splitting up the needed sparge water. Sparge with half of the water, sparge with the other half.

7 days in primary, 7 days in secondary. Add extract at bottling time. Age in bottles for 4 weeks. Just in time for September.

Story behind this beer. I'm a member of a Dungeons and Dragons podcast. One of our party, a Drow, enjoys drinking a psychedelic mushroom beer. So, I'm making this mushroom beer for him. I think it'd taste best in a smoked porter. I'm also using an unusual amount of bitterness. I figure in the game world, this beer has to travel. So I'm using them for "preservation".
 
This sounds very good to me. I really want to know what kind of flavor the Mushroom's impart on this.
 
I kind of doubt the flavor of the mushrooms will survive, but it is an interesting idea. If you extract much I am guessing it is going to get lost with all the other flavors. Hopefully I am wrong.
 
I would recommend "dry-shrooming" with dehydrated mushrooms rather than a vodka extract. They are much stronger flavored than a fresh one. Asian markets carry them. If you can't find them, use the fresh ones, but leave them in the fridge until they appear wet and a bit beyond tasty looking. That also enhances the flavor. I'd leave out the pepper, or add later after tasting the pre-carbed beer.

And cook up those soggy, spent shrooms once racked off them, of course!

If the IBUs were kept low to non-existant, it would be good for cooking. A dark ale like yours wouldn't need the hops for preservation.
 
I would recommend "dry-shrooming" with dehydrated mushrooms rather than a vodka extract. They are much stronger flavored than a fresh one. Asian markets carry them. If you can't find them, use the fresh ones, but leave them in the fridge until they appear wet and a bit beyond tasty looking. That also enhances the flavor. I'd leave out the pepper, or add later after tasting the pre-carbed beer.

And cook up those soggy, spent shrooms once racked off them, of course!

If the IBUs were kept low to non-existant, it would be good for cooking. A dark ale like yours wouldn't need the hops for preservation.

not using th vodka to sanatise them would concern me with what bugs maybe lurking in them. Could end up with an interesting sour I guess.
 
chef response here.
there is such a thing as mushroom essence.
fresh mushrooms basically made in to a stock and reduced to a small ammount of really aromatic (and potent) liquid. the heat would destroy any bacteria or other organisms, spores etc..
i would add it to the secondary conditioning phase personaly.
drink two of these and the gelationous cube you ran across in that dungeon will seem awfully real:)
 
I would recommend "dry-shrooming" with dehydrated mushrooms rather than a vodka extract.

I'll be using dried morels to make the extract. You think it'd give me a better flavor if I just threw the dried mushrooms into the secondary instead of using a high proof alcohol to extract? Might be an interesting idea. As someone else mentioned, I'm concerned about infection in that case but this will be a higher ABV beer so maybe it's not a problem.

I think I'll stick with what I know and try making the extract. Some variations I'll try when I redo the recipe will be to try adding them during the secondary, and to maybe try adding them during the boil instead.

Might also take some of the other advice on lowering the IBUs (since a Porter would be dark/alcoholic enough to not need extra hops as a preservative). I'll consult the people I'm brewing with. Perhaps I'll bring it down into the range a Baltic Porter oughta be.

Brew day set for July 7, I'll provide some updates along the way like I did with my smoked wheat beer.
 
Brew day went off without a hitch. I'll post some more info in the morning. Right now the porter is fermenting happily at 73F. I ended up recalculating the OG and FG's by hand because I didn't really trust the BeerSmith software I was using as a guide. Instead I planned on an OG of 1.066 based on a mash efficiency of 73%. We managed to hit 1.063, which was honestly delightful (all things considered). We hit an efficiency of 70%. Room for improvement to be sure, but considering it's my third brew and my first all-grain batch...I'll call it a victory for now.

Extract is currently being made. I threw some morels in with pepper and 1.25cu of grain alcohol. Smells great already, kind of meaty and a little fruity (pink peppercorns). Depending upon how it turns out, I might only add the extract to half of the porter during bottling. We'll see.

That wort is mighty tasty, I think it's going to be a fantastic porter even without the mushroom/pepper extract.
 
I'm working on a modified version of this recipie with a few changes. I'm looking to tone down the hops and roastiness a bit so that more mallt and mushroom will come through. This is what I have so far:

6# Belgian 2-Row
3# Smoked Malt
3# Munich
1# Flaked Barley
0.75# Crystal 60
0.5# Special B
0.5# Carapils
7oz Carafa II
Mash with 1.5# morrel mushrooms

0.5 oz 15% Warrior @60
0.5 oz 6.1% Mt. Hood @30
0.5 oz 6.1% Mt. Hood @15
2 tsp Pink Peppercorns, Cracked @15

I'll reduce a mushroom broth to a cup and boil it with some lemon juice, peppercorns, and sage, and rack over that into secondary.
 
Let me know how it turns out. I hadn't really thought of boiling the hops and pepper, would be interested in seeing how that works.
 
FYI - The pink peppercorn is a berry and not a true peppercorn. They originated in Peru, where they had a heavy influence on the local cuisine and culture. Pink peppercorn "chicha" beer was a trademark of the Amazon forest-based Wari tribe.
 
FYI - The pink peppercorn is a berry and not a true peppercorn. They originated in Peru, where they had a heavy influence on the local cuisine and culture. Pink peppercorn "chicha" beer was a trademark of the Amazon forest-based Wari tribe.

I was waiting for someone to point this out :cross:. It's like how they label that crap in the stores as cinnamon...but it's not cinnamon usually...it's cassia or something.
 
I made a chanterelle wee heavy that was very well received at NHC. I used 2 lb. of chanterelles in 5 gal. I just added them straight to the secondary. In. previous batch I had tried the vodka tincture, but I didn't care for the heat the alcohol added.
 
FYI - The pink peppercorn is a berry and not a true peppercorn. They originated in Peru, where they had a heavy influence on the local cuisine and culture. Pink peppercorn "chicha" beer was a trademark of the Amazon forest-based Wari tribe.

themoreyouknow.jpg
 
I'm starting to worry about how the flavor of the mushrooms will meld with the special b. Well, at least with the pepper spiceiness and the hint of lemon I'm hoping to get from my version. Looking through out copy of The Flavor Bible it sounds like porcini mushrooms might be a better fit for my recipie. They match this malty beer in sweetness, and pair well with coffee, pepper, lemon, and sage.

I might have to do a tiny mash in my french press and see what I come up with.
 
The flavor extract I'm making smells like it's pair alright. I'm getting a spicy berryish meatiness from the pink pepper and morels. It's going to be a slightly sweet, spicy and a little bit of an earthy edition. I really think it's going to turn out OK with the smoke.
 
Everything I'm reading is telling me that once I rehydrate mushrooms they will approximately quadruple in weight. That is more than fine with me since porcinis are so expensive. What's got me worried is that every site I read says that rehydrated mushrooms (especially Morrels, OP) pack a stronger flavor punch than fresh ones, and it's got me doubting the volume I'm putting in this recipie.

The plan was to halve all my ingredients and make a 2.5 gallon batch to dial in the flavors. So I'd rehydrate 3oz of shrooms to get 12oz for the mash. The I'd put the broth from reconstituting in my pressure cooker and can it for use in secondary. I can always taste a sample before I add any of the broth to see if the flavor is already strong enough, but if the dried mushrooms are considerably more powerful than fresh the beer could be easily over powered.

Anyone have much experience with dried mushrooms and care to chime in?

Porcini Porter half batch recipie:
OG: 1.082
FG: 1.019
IBU: 35
SRM: 29
Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite @61°

3# Belgian Pale
2# Munich
1.5# Smoked Malt
0.5# Vienna
0.375# Carawheat
0.25# Carafa II
0.75# Porcini Mushrooms

0.3oz 15% Warrior @60
0.3oz 6.1% Mt. Hood @30
1tsp Pink Peppercorns, cracked @15
0.25oz Sage Leaves, scored @10

When moving to secondary boil mushroom broth, adding 0.25oz sage, 2tsp lemon juice, and 1tsp peppercorns @5 min. Cool the mixture and rack over it into the carboy.
 
Everything's working out great with this brew so far. It attenuated fantastically down to 1.013, and I put it into a carboy to age on 7/22. The sample I took for my hydrometer reading tasted great. The smoke was there, and it was just right. The hop additions also added an excellent flavor and aroma, it's not overly bitter at all. I think I might use Warrior and Simcoe some more, they were great.

The mushroom/pepper extract on the other hand is turning out ok. I think I may have overdone the amount of pink peppercorns. It's an interesting flavor, but not sure it's going to pair as well as I'm hoping. The pink peppercorns have given a great flavor but it starts with an almost cinnamon like flavor, finishing with a fruity peppery meaty flavor. The cinnamon isn't what I'm hoping for. I do have extra morels, so I may just make up some additional extract with just the mushrooms. Then I can balance out the extract maybe.

Either way, the extract means I don't have to add the flavor to the entire brew.
 
I ended up waiting an extra week to bottle (bottled on 8/15). My live in lady friend said I wasn't allowed to bottle the week prior. Something about us getting married last weekend.

The beer was still at 1.013, and tasted pretty good for the time it had sat in the carboy. Bottling went off with out a hitch. I wanted to see what this smoked porter tasted like without pairing it with the mushroom pepper extract I'd made, so I bottled 4 22ozers separate. Otherwise I took a 1 cup sample of the beer and added a tsp of the extract to it to gauge how much I should add to the remaining beer. I came up with about 1/2 cup for the 4.5 gallons that remained. It tasted ok, but I'm interested to see how it pans out after some aging.

I'll give another update around September 1st when I plan to open my first tester, then again around the 15th.
 
How did the mushroom flavor come through? Did the pepper blend in with everything or mask some of the other flavors? I suspect that the pepper would be a bit strong initially but should mellow out over a couple months.
 
How did the mushroom flavor come through? Did the pepper blend in with everything or mask some of the other flavors? I suspect that the pepper would be a bit strong initially but should mellow out over a couple months.

Hard for me to tell right now. In my sample, it was there but yes I got more of the pink pepper. It was close to a cinnamon/fruity flavor and smell. I think the cinnamon flavor might be a byproduct of using Everclear for the extract. I might use vodka next time to lessen the antiseptic sting. There was some buttery beefy taste to it as well. When I was bottling I could definitely smell the extract. It's an odd pairing, but I think after 4 weeks or so it's really going to mellow out and compliment the smoke. I'll keep this thread updated with the progress. If it's any good I could probably arrange to swap a brew if you're interested.
 
I'm overdue for an update here. The porter is turning out well. I'm still not getting a lot of mushroom flavor out of it. The pepper is really apparent in the smell and aftertaste but all in all it pairs nicely with the smoke and isn't unpleasant. More time is needed to see how it ages. So far though, it goes great with a steak. Extremely refreshing when served ice cold with red meat. Honest to god. I had no expectations for this, so I'm pretty surprised.

In the future I'm going to cut down the amount of pink pepper I used by a half...maybe even a quarter. I'll also probably use black trumpets next time...they're easier for me to get for free.
 
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