Homebrewing: Old Smoke Oak Stout
- Chris Lee
- Oct 3, 2015
- 3 min read
Sometimes you make an amazing beer recipe that turns out the way you want it to. Sometimes you make a beer recipe that you experiment with and in hind sight its screwed up, but in the long run in turns out to be a happy mistake. Old smoke is one of those recipes for me, that was supposed to be a competition variation on one of my better recipes that alas, went off the rails. Well, it went WAY off the rails.
I got a little overly zealous revamping the recipe to make it next level competition ready. I beefed up the malts that were already there, added malts that weren't there before, adjusted the hopping schedule, and even completely overhaulted the mash schedule. On top of that, I changed the yeast to a different yeast that I had never used before. Insane? Mark of genius? Trying too hard? Probably all of the above.
The goal was to make a variation on a previously successful blackberry stout that I had brewed a year earlier. This time, the recipe would be on sterioids and live the glory of winning a competition medal. I got to work. The first batch I totally screwed up right out of the gate. I misread the measurements on this new kitchen scale I had just bought. I was looking at the ounces measurement thinking that it was grams. It resulted in me dropping in nearly 6x the needed hops for the bittering addition at the start of the boil. Slight panic ensued however, I caught it when it was only 10 or so minutes into the boil. I realized my mistake, and carried on with the remaining 50 minutes.
I decided not to dump the batch just in case I could find a use for it like making it a reduction sauce or something (which we'll discuss later). When I got around to taking a second stab at it, I had 3 gallons of the 2nd attempt actually good recipe (less bittering hop screw up) and another 2 gallons of so called "overly bitter screw up ale."
What I ended up doing was taking a shot at some experimental techniques that I never attempted before. What could I lose? I already messed up the entire batch. I explored the worlds of French Oak Chips and blending batches.
The oak chips sat in the secondary for 10 days and the result was far more powerful than what I was really hoping for. The oak tasted like drinking a campfire mixed with sherry. In an attempt to pivot and rectify the flavour, I blended the "screw up overly oaked version" recipe with the "good" recipe at a 70/30 blend, creating 2 Gallons of what would become "Old Smoke Oak Stout." The rest got frozen and turned into an outstand blueberry BBQ sauce (recipe later).
I've tasted small quantities over time and it appears that the sweet spot of the flavours mellowing and gelling together is somewhere around the 4 month mark. The end result is a fireside chocolate stout that goes down smooth with some very defining flavours at every intersection. Just goes to show you that there's always something good to be found in the bad! My early tasting notes and final tasting notes are below.
Old Smoke Oak Stout
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Brewerd June 16 2015
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2 Gallon batch
Boil Time 60 minutes
Mash @ 148c for 45 minutes
Mash @ 155c for 45 minutes
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4.5 lb Pale Malt
8oz Crystal 15
6oz Chocolate
4oz Carafa III
4oz Wheat Malt
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0.5oz Pacific Gem @ 60 minutes
0.5oz Pacific Gem @ 10 minutes
1oz Pacific Gem Dry Hop 7 Days
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Burton Ale Yeast White Labs WLP023
Whisky Soaked French Oak Chips added to Secondary for 10 days
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Original Gravity 1.065
Final Gravity 1.012
Abv 6.96%
ibu 40
July 3 2015 (Transfer to secondary +add dry hops & Oak chips)
Aroma - Rum Cake, rasins, vanilla, cocoa chocolate
Palette - mocha coffee/chocolate, rum cake,
July 13 2015 (bottling date)
Aroma - Dry wood, Burnt Oak, Smokey campfire pit
Palette - Campfire, Oak, mocha coffee/chocolate, port/sherry, cigar, old leather
October 3 2015
Aroma - Fresh cigar, woody, notes of rum cake, dark chocolate
Palette - rum tipped cigar, rum chocolates, sherry tartness, coffee after taste, hints of plum
Overall Grade: B
Took a long time to age this baby to perfection and it appears to be worth the wait. This beer would make a great seasonal at the start of camping season or for sipping in front of a winter fire. It would sit well as a dessert beer that accompanies a choclate lava cake or at the end of a special occation to compliment a fine cigar. It has one of those flavours that is suited well for special occations
Chris
