Feedback for pu-erh ale recipe

[Ari]

Pu-erh ale
I worked on this recipe for a pu-erh ale and I think it could be something good. I’m not sure what to call it, maybe a brown ale or a porter but I was more concerned with the way it would taste with the tea than what style it would end up being. I read some other things online about brewing beer with pu-erh but I only found one and they didn’t steep the tea, but they soaked it in alchohol. Anyway, if anything looks like trouble in this recipe let me know. I don’t have the best ideas about what is too much or too little of each ingredient but I have an idea of how they all taste and a good concept of this beer in my head. I want an earthy ale that smells smoky from the tea, a little bit chocolaty, spicy hops, a good thick mouthfeel and a enough sweetness to balance out the other flavors, not really making it a sweet beer, but just not savory. …right? Here’s what I came up with for a recipe.
Choc malt 350- 6%
Caramel 20-5%
Vienna-4%
Oats-5%
Flaked rye-5%
2 row- 75%
Gravity- 1.055
Efficiency- 70(roughly)
-----------------------------------------
Grain total 6.7 lbs
.4lbs chocolate malt
.35lbs c20
.3lbs vienna
.35lbs oats
.35lbs flaked rye
~5lbs 2row
Bitter to about 25-30ibus with whatever is in the fridge.
Hallertau 1/3oz at 30-15-5 for smell and taste. (not sure if I want the 30 minute or just the later additions)
I’m up in the air about yeast too. I have cultures of kolsch yeast, London ale and s-05. I was thinking the kolsch would let everything in it stand out pretty well, but I was also thinking of getting a pack of saison yeast and making it a yeasty beer like saison dupont. I like the idea of the yeast chunks and bottle conditioning, but I think it might get too busy with all the other flavors.
I’m using a biab system that can leave me with 2-3 gallons of wort. I usually make about 2 gallons of concentrated wort, let it go for a couple days, then add more treated water once the krausen falls. Doing this helps keep the beers from blowing out of my 3 gallon carboys. This is when I would steep the pu-erh 2 times then add it to the boiling water right when I’m taking it off. I think the 3rd steep would be the best because it gets less of that harsh astringent flavor and a cleaner smoky/earth flavor and smell after a couple steeps. I’ll only add about as much as I would use to make a pot. I’m hoping that the earthy/smoky flavor of the tea blends well with the chocolate malt and the Vienna/crystal make it sweeter. The oats and rye are mostly for body. The spice of the hallertau hopefully would add a nice layer of complexity to the smell and not make it too busy. This is a very rough draft and I’d love to hear what you guys think, thanks for reading!
-Ari

 

[GuldTuborg]

Interesting idea. Shu or sheng? I'm curious to see how this turns out.

 

[Ari]

I'm using shu. Sorry for the late response, I'm possibly going to brew it tonight.

 

[Ari]

It's brewed! I followed that recipe exactly, using pale chocolate and s05 yeast. I shot for an sg of 55 for 3 gallons which comes to 66 for 2.5 gallons and I think I boiled down to 2 and quarter or so. The gravity was pretty spot on. I'll add the tea in a couple days once the initial bubbling dies down. I'll take a picture when I get home tonight as well

 

[bluerwaters]

Neat! Was that your final recipe or did you change it a bit more before actually brewing?

I'm not super familiar with Pu-erh...is there a reason why you used both oats and rye, if both were for body?

 

[Ari]

The rye and oats were for body. I want this to be kinda chewy like a stout, but obviously not that dark. I like rye flavor too. I did that recipe exactly, for hops though I put in one oz of hallertau at the beginning 60 minutes and then the 1/3 oz additions at 30, 15 and 5. It smelled great! The pu-erh I have has a pretty dominant leather flavor and a strong smoke smell. Kinda like cowboy boots next to a campfire.

 

[Ari]

Heres a few pictures. The tea was steeped into a gallon jusg and then cooled to under 100f and then topped into that murky brown jug. I was doing a few top-offs on my carboys so theyre all in there too. I realize that I dont have a picture of it with the tea in it, but I'll get that later. It smells really sweet and fruity and with the tea added it smells a little more clay/soil/earthy and a bit leathery. I have a 2 kegs and the other beers are in line in front of that one to be kegged. It will probably get about 3-4 weeks in that carboy and then a week in the keg before I get to taste it. I don't really check fg, but I'm certain it will be pretty good by then.

 

[Ari]

Update- I've tasted it a few times since it was brewed nearly 2 weeks ago. It it pretty sweet and a little toasty with a really strong alchohol taste. It was around 65-68 with s05 yeast so I don't really get that. The tea comes through pretty close to what it tasted like brewed, but with the sweetness and the alchohol it's kinda gross. I'm gonna wait another week or two and then bottle it. I have kegs, but this brew is kinda special and I want to bottle condition it and give it a chance to aga a while at room temp in the bottle. It definitely tastes like theres some potential in this brew. It's also pretty bitter. I think the oz of hops at the beggining was a bit much, but it'll age out(I hope.)

 

[Ari]

It's also a kinda unique color. Not quite dark like a porter, but darker than a brown ale. It's opaque, but in a cup I bet it's gonna be pretty