Hair of the Dog - Matt

[anteater8]

Matt is my favorite strong and I'd like to take a stab at recreating it. The complexity of sweet toffee, caramel and apple against the smoke and roasty malt is unlike anything else I've had. Sort of similar to Adam but richer and sweeter.

Below are the best starting points I could find. According to Black Alley, Matt uses 2 munich malts, 2 smoked malts and 2 belgian candi sugars. I've left out the peat malt to avoid overwhelming the beer (LBHS doesn't have it anyway), and just included one candi sugar. Looking for ideas and insights. Does this look too sweet, not smokey enough, anything else?

Mad Fermentationist Matt clone:
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2015/03/matt-and-maple-bourbon-adam.html
Black Alley Brewing Matt clone:
http://www.blackalleybrewing.com/2011/11/hair-of-dog-matt-clone.html
Actual Hair of the Dog Adam recipe (for reference):
https://chefs-table.homebrewchef.com/homebrew-recipes/hair-dog-adam-bier-recipe/
My 6 gal recipe so far:
19 lb 2 row (69%)
4.5 lb Munich (15%)
3 lb Beachwood smoked malt (9%)
1 lb Cherrywood smoked malt (3%)
2.25 lb Caramunich III - 55L (7%)
1 lb D-90 Candi syrup (3%)
0.6 lb Chocolate malt (2%)
0.3 lb Black malt (1%)

Northern brewer 2 oz 90 min
Northern brewer 1.5 oz 40 min
Tettnang 2 oz 10 min
(70 IBU)

Imperial Tartan (wy1728 Scottish Ale)

O.G. = 1.105
F.G. = 1.022
ABV = 11.5% before spirits

Age on oak cubes with bourbon & Clear Creek apple brandy

 

[anteater8]

I ended brewing this on 11/7/21. I decided to lean most heavily on Mad Fermentationist's recipe with a few tweaks, mainly increasing the smoked malt % by about double (I would rather it be a little too smoky than not get any smoke at all).

14.75 lb 2 row (51%)
5.5 lb Munich (19%)
3 lb Beechwood smoked (10%)
2 lb Cherrywood smoked (7%)
1.84 lb Fawcett Crystal 65 (6%)
0.61 lb Chocolate malt (2%)
0.31 lb Black patent (1%)
1 lb d90 candi syrup (3%)

2.5 oz Northern Brewer 90 min (44 IBU)
1.5 oz Northern Brewer 40 min (22 IBU)
2 oz Tettnanger 0 min

65 IBU

Yeast Nutrient 10 min
Whirlfloc 10 min

Imperial Tartan gen 1 (1.5L stepped up to 2.5L starter)

O.G. = 1.099 (not great efficiency since I did two mashes with first runnings only)

Currently sitting at 1.016 (ABV = 10.9%) and tastes surprisingly good for being so young. Huge smoke flavors, balanced nicely with toffee and fig, and hints of chocolate and roast.

I'm going to pressure transfer to the keg today and add 1.5 oz of medium toast American oak cubes that I charred with a butane torch and soaked in bourbon for 2 weeks, and then fresh bourbon for another day (following the Bertus Brewery method below). In the past I've always done oak aging in secondary which led to oxidation issues, so I'm exciting to see how this one turns out.

https://www.bertusbrewery.com/2015/12/barrel-aged-stouts-and-charred-oak.html