06.06.06 Brew day, post your results, tips, gripes...

[RichBrewer]

Well, I just put v.2 into tertiary with some oak chips, and while still a little hot, this baby is exactly what I had in mind when we designed the recipe. I tweaked it some--added another pound of smoked malt (subtracted a lb. of base malt to keep OG the same), and used cali ale yeast to get it to attenuate more.

The smokiness comes through much better now, and it is much drier. I still think it would be better with a different yeast, but I had a nice cali ale cake and just racked onto it.

Still a great beer. Oaking it for a week, then a quick dry hop, and bottling for some aging.

Another winner.

Man that sounds good! I think you have hit on a great recipe. Maybe there is a yeast that will take the middle ground for this. Chico makes great beer but I think it strips the malt profile too much.

By the way, I brought some of mine to the tasting at the LHBS and people went nuts over it. A certified judge there suggested I eliminate the dry hops. He liked the beer but he said it would have been a perfect scotch ale without the strong hop nose. My hop schedule was lighter than the original recipe and I'm sure that factored in as well.
Here is what I used for hops:

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer Whole 7.00 24.3 60 min.
1.50 oz. Northern Brewer Whole 7.00 18.6 30 min.
2.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 5.00 5.8 5 min.
2.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 5.00 0.0 Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 5.00 0.0 Dry Hop

 

[Dude]

By the way, I brought some of mine to the tasting at the LHBS and people went nuts over it. A certified judge there suggested I eliminate the dry hops. He liked the beer but he said it would have been a perfect scotch ale without the strong hop nose.

That's really cool, Rich.....

 

[Some Hasbeen]

Just wanted to chime in on my results. I brewed mine back in mid-April and transferred it to a corny after letting it sit in the primary and secondary for a total of approx 1 month. The corny sat in my cool basement for most of the summer while I ran a combo of a nice crisp pale ale and a very light honey ale out of my dual tap for most of the hot months. In early August I drank the last of the honey ale and decided it was time to hook up the 666 to the tapper. After a long weekend vacation I took my first taste and was blown away. It has a great nose, very smooth taste and surprisingly drinkable given how thick I thought it would be. My wife, who loves a good beer, has proclaimed it to be one of my best. I had a couple glasses last night while moving the sprinklers around the yard and am still blown away.

A couple things on my brew. I did not do the dry hopping or the wood chips for a couple reasons. I'm not a huge fan of the dry hopping for a couple reasons. The main one being I have 2 kids under the age of 3 and any added steps are often hard to fit in to the schedule. Also, unless my beer is absolutely devoid of hop flavors/aroma, I think dry hopping is often a little overkill (just my opinion). I also read about all the problems of the wood chips and figured I could just skip that process as well. The results are one outstanding beer. Probably my favorite so far. Thanks for the recipe, Dude.

My 2 cents.