With our Bourbon Barrel Wee Heavy getting close to its boozy/oaky destination the barrel crew set about deciding what would be next into the barrel. Plenty of ideas were thrown around, but something close to an Adambier was decided on, but we wanted to do something closer to the German origin of the style than Hair of the Dog's Adam (which I was happy about since I had just brewed a clone of it).We decided to make the beer based on a sort of amped up Alt called a doppelsticke (literally double secret). The group decided on a base of German Munich malt, with some of the same smoked malt that is used in Bamburg Rauchbier, along with some Caramunich and Carafa for sweetness and color. A solid bittering hop addition with no late boil additions (any hop aroma would fade long before it climbed out of the wood we conjectured). Fermentation was by German Ale yeast, which is clean, but accents the malt more than clean American Ale yeast.
Sadly after most of us had already brewed the new batch, the wee heavy started tasting a bit fruity.... then a bit funky... then a pellicle appeared. I think the big oud bruin (as we are now calling it) has a good chance to turn into a tasty beer in a year or so, but that left us without a home for the Smoked Doppelsticke. After a few fruitless calls to local distilleries we decided to each take our portions and bottle them with or without oak as we say fit. Mine is still cold conditioning at the time being without any oak at this point (I'll decide what I want to do with it after it has a bit more time to mellow, right now it is pretty clear, pleasantly smoky, and very malty).
Double Secret ProbationRecipe Specifics (All-Grain)
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Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.75
Anticipated OG: 1.088
Anticipated SRM: 22.1
Anticipated IBU: 48.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 120 Minutes
Grain
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12.00 lbs. German Munich Malt
3.00 lbs. Rauchmalt (German Beechwood Smoked Malt)
0.50 lbs. CaraMunich Malt
0.25 lbs. Carafa Special II
Hops
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2.00 oz. Galena @ 60 min.
Extras
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1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 Min.(boil)
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 Min.(boil)
Yeast
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White Labs WLP011 European Ale
Water Profile
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Washington DC
Mash Schedule
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560 min @ 155
Notes
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Brewed 6/05/09 by myself
Started an all-night mash ~9:30 PM.
Picked up the sparge with 180 degree water 12 hours later. Really slow runoff. Pre-boil gravity 1.068, much higher than I expected.
Chilled to 75, gave 60 seconds of O2, then racked onto the yeast cake from the Oat Pale Ale. I would have liked to get it cooler, but my ground water was at 72. Placed into the freezer set to 60, put a blowoff tube on.
6/26/09 Racked to secondary, temperature left at 60, gravity down to 1.018 (79% AA, 9.2% ABV). Better attenuation than I expected, I assume the overnight mash gets the credit for that.
7/15/09 Dropped temp to 50 to help it clear.
8/9/09 Bottled with 3.375 oz of table sugar. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2. 3 bottles got bourbon soaked oak cubes that had sat in grade B maple syrup for a few days (something like Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout)
11/12/09 First tasting, doing well, nice smoke character, good balance.
1/05/11 Still doing well, the smoke has fallen off a bit, but it is still vibrant.
do you maintain the temps during your overnight mash? or just let it sit in your cooler (or whatever you use).
ReplyDeleteA full cooler maintains temperatures surprisingly well. To further boost heat retention you can place a sleeping bag over the mash tun for insulation. Most of the conversion is completed in the first hour or so, so even if it falls off 10-15 degrees after that it isn't a big deal.
ReplyDeleteWhats the gain from an overnight mash? Is there more flavor extraction from the malt or are you just splitting up the brew day?
ReplyDeleteI forget exactly what it was, but I remember having something to do that afternoon, so I wanted to shave down the brew day as much as possible. Although it certainly seemed to help my efficiency as well.
ReplyDeleteI tasted mine, and quite frankly, I don't like it....yet. LEt's see how it tastes in a few months. Did you enjoy yours?
ReplyDeleteZach
I think mine is pretty tasty, good balance of smoke and Munich, but it could certainly use some more time. Scott is bringing some of his (carbed) to BURP today, so I'll let you know how that is. His stalled around 1.030, so he added some US-05 and that dropped it another 15 points, he thinks it is a bit too thin.
ReplyDeleteI plan on bottling mine this Wednesday. I'm not thrilled with the flavor, and I think 011 is to blame. The smoke seems stronger in Mike's. I'm interested in doing a side by side with everyone's once they're all bottled/kegged/conditioned.
ReplyDeleteMike, you tasted mine on Saturday. It tasted better on Sunday after it fully carbonated. Smokiness is really mellow, almost no hints in the aroma. A nice malt forward beer. The full carbonation added to the body of the beer which I thought was a bit thin at first.
ReplyDeleteI've done one overnight mash. Lost only 8-10 degrees over 12+ hrs and had an efficiency increase around 10 pts.
ReplyDeleteI have heard you can get some undesired tannin extraction from long mashes. Have you noticed any off flavors from the extended mash?
ReplyDeleteNo issue for long mashes re: tannins in my experience. It may just be that I tend to do bigger beers though. Sorry I took a year to respond to that one...
ReplyDelete