Smokey the Poo 2

Brewed 4/7/13

Batch 2 of 3 for the wedding shower I mentioned in the blondie post. Smokey the Poo 2 is an evolution of last year’s SPB. Some pretty substantial changes, but built upon the same concept. A big, rich, roasty, Robust Smoked Porter.

Last year’s ended up being one of the best beers I’ve brewed, but a large part of it’s success was that it “contracted” a bad case of Brett C and ended up being a very interesting funky porter. I didn’t want to try to replicate the Brett secondary this time due to the happenstance nature of the infection and the quick turn-around I am looking for to get this ready in time for the party, so no funk this time around. Instead, I took the bold roast, the smoke and honey, the tangy Special Malt, and the neutral yeast from SPB and went bigger with everything. This is a pretty high-gravity beer by my standards, with a much more complex grain bill than I usually go for, but I felt like going for heavy-handed breadth over subtle depth with this one. Seemed like a fun beer for a BBQ party wedding celebration.

The recipe started with the same proportions as SPB with the biggest foundational change being the higher gravity. I substituted Crystal 60 for the Golden naked oats from last year because I wanted it to be a bit sweeter and stickier to stand up to the higher OG, the more intense smoke, and extra roasted malts I used this year. I also added a dash of Honey Malt to compliment the actual honey and again counter the smoke and roast. This year I thought it would be tasty to use some cherry smoked malt instead of the mesquite-- again to play the less subtle card and also to hopefully bring out more of the balancing sourdough twang from the Special Roast (that I think was one of the keys to SPBs success). I added some dried cherries in primary to again help add some depth and zing and went with Fuggle hops for their pipe-tobacco notes. I mashed high for huge body and used Nottingham yeast for its flocculation and easy/clean fermentation… plus it was cheap and easy to pitch the needed cell count to take care of the big OG.

This should be a pretty obtuse beer. A sturdy match for spicy summer BBQ pork and such.  

The Recipe (for 4.5 gallons into fermenter)

10 lbs Great Western 2-Row Malt~66%

2 lbs Cherrywood Smoked Malt~14%

1 lb Special Roast~7%

.75 lbs Crystal 60~5%

.75 lbs American Chocolate Malt~5%

.25 lbs Honey Malt~1.5%

.25 lbs Caraffa2~1.5%

.75 lbs Honey **to boost OG to target after boil**

1.9 oz Palisades @ 60min

2oz Fuggles @ 10min

6oz dried Cherries soaked in Whisky for Secondary

Reverse Osmosis Oakland water with .5g/gal Gypsum, .75g/gal Calcium Chloride, and .75g/gal baking soda in mash for “Malty Black” finished water profile= SO4: 75/ Ca:86

Mashed in with 6.2 gal at 167F to hit 153F for 15min, add 2 gal at 164F to hit 156F for 45min. NO SPARGE. Collected 6 gal for 60min boil, 1 tab Whirlfloc and 1/4tbsp WYeast nutrient at k/o.

Pitched 2 packets Nottingham Dry Yeast at 60F and left to ferment at ambient 60ish F.

Collect 4.5 into bucket  after trub and hops

OG: 1.083= 70%eff

FG: = % ABV

Calc SRM: 35ish

Calc IBU:  50 AVG

 

4/7- Collect 4.5 gal and pitch 2 pkts of yeast

 

4/14- Added 12oz honey to get calc OG up to 1.083.

 

4/21- Added 1 PKT gelatin. Gravity is at 1.025. Hella big.