Pulled Pork Porter Hop

[JKSwoop]

This Summer I am planning a smoked porter "cooked" in a BBQ smoker with a whole hog (to catch both the flavors of the smoke and the pork). I was thinking about the bittering hops, and am unsure how to figure the bitterness when cooked below a boil. I was thinking about a partial boil and then placing the pot of wort directly in the smoker, which may be cooking at about 180-200*F.
How bitter should I shoot for? How long to parboil? How long in the smoker?
I will be using 6.6 lbs of Briess Porter LME to make 5 gal, and cascade or nugget hops. Right now my projected IBU is 22.4 with the cascade hops (1 oz at 60 and 30 minutes.). I'm thinking it will get more bitter as it smokes after it boils...

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jim

 

[giraffe]

I dont know if smoking a liquid would work. Usually you'd cold smoke the grain. Maybe you could cold smoke some grain for a mini mash?

Hops will extract some bitterness above 180. But id just do the boil after you are finished smoking, and avoid the whole problem if you really want to smoke the liquid.

 

[ten80]

Just smoke about 30% of the base malt with the pork. Put the malt on some stainless mosquito screen and spray with water every now and then to help the malt pick up the smoke flavor. Taste the malt as you go and pull it out when there is sufficient smoky pork flavor. Then proceed to mash and boil as usual. There are fewer variables to contend with if you do it this way.

 

[ong]

Sounds like he's doing extract. I wonder about smoking the LME in a shallow stainless tray? I have a friend who smokes cream that way.

Another reason to consider that -- won't smoking 5 gallons of liquid add quite a bit of steam/water vapor to your smoker? Dunno how that would affect the meat.

 

[JKSwoop]

Thanks!

Yes, I'm doing an extract porter. I'm too new for all grain yet...

I like the idea of two boils. Get the flavor in the wort, than do a second boil for the bittering hops and final sanitizing. Fewer variables.

I could do a partial extract, and smoke some steeping grains...

My cousin (who is cooking the pork) wants some liquid with the meat for a period of time anyway, so I was going to put in about 3 gal of wort and add two gal of water when I put it in the carboy.

How bitter do you all think I should shoot for with an oily smoked porter?

 

[microbusbrewery]

I'd probably shoot for somewhere in the range of 20-40 IBUs...personally around 25.

Be sure your water is free of chlorine/chloramine. Chlorine/chloramine + smokey phenols will result in bandaid character (chlorophenol). This applies to both the brewing water and the water you spray the grain with (if you go that route).

 

[TennBrewer]

That's like bacon with beer, you can't go wrong there!

 

[vincentAlpha]

For the sake of making life easier, go partial mash and smoke some malt. I can't see trying to do a 5 gallon batch while smoking a hog going over well. Though if you are determined to go that way I'd only do a gallon or so of wort, that way if you overshoot on the pig/smoke you can just hold back on that gallon and mix until happy.

 

[max384]

Thanks!

Yes, I'm doing an extract porter. I'm too new for all grain yet...

I like the idea of two boils. Get the flavor in the wort, than do a second boil for the bittering hops and final sanitizing. Fewer variables.

I could do a partial extract, and smoke some steeping grains...

My cousin (who is cooking the pork) wants some liquid with the meat for a period of time anyway, so I was going to put in about 3 gal of wort and add two gal of water when I put it in the carboy.

How bitter do you all think I should shoot for with an oily smoked porter?

I just can't see what you were initially envisioning actually working. I really don't think the liquid wort in a kettle will pick up enough smoke flavoring, and I think you'll have trouble maintaining a boil. If you go this route, I think having a separate boil that you'll add your hops to will be the way to go.

However, if I were you, I'd do a partial mash and smoke your grains with the pig, and then skip the whole boil kettle in the smoker idea. I think putting the kettle in the smoker will be far too much of a pain for little to no actual gain.

 

[max384]

And now that I'm thinking about it a bit more, instead of using a porter malt extract, maybe it would be pretty cool to use a lighter base extract, and then roast your steeping grains in the smoker. This way you could get your dark color, the roasted character, and the smoke flavor you want all from smoking/roasting your own grains.

 

[notyal]

I'm more excited to see how the hog turns out then the beer. A porter wort smoked hog sounds awesome. As for the beer, try to keep the process as simple as possible and maybe even have a backup plan. It sounds to me like you are opening your beer up to a lot of unknowns.

 

[JKSwoop]

Now you all really have me thinking about this. Originally I was just going to put the wort in the smoker because I primarily do extract only ales, but I can see the advantages of putting the steeping grains in the smoker instead. I've used steeping grains before, but I've never considered flavoring my own, I've only bought the types of malts already in recipes.
Now I'm also thinking about smoking a larger amount, and saving some for other "refining" batches, but am concerned with the pork oil getting rancid quickly. Do you think the flavored malt can be frozen or refrigerated without damaging the malt?

 

[JKSwoop]

Notyal, Maybe I can do both...The pig always comes out amazing. I didn't think about flavoring the pig. Now you have me thinking too! The party isn't until August, but I'll have an update here. I've been thinking about this now because I just finished brewing my beer donations to party...