CS4 - Smoked Porter

[Soren]

White caps, marked "Soren", didn't have time to do a label this time, sorry. Bottle conditioned, and might benefit for a week or 2 conditioning.

Shamefully inspired by Stone's Smoked porter and the clone recipe's of this on the internetmachine:

Gladfield Pale : 82.8%
Baird Medium Crystal: 9.6%
Bairds Chocolate: 4.5%
Weyermann Aromatic: 3.2%
Medium Peated Distilling Malt: X %

The percentage of peated is a secret for now, I want to hear your opinion (too little/too much) first.

US-05

The wort started out at 1.070 and I was hoping for it to go down to 1.020 but it stopped at 1.030. I added a cup of 1272 slurry and 500 g of light moscovado sugar to kick it back into gear. I think in the end it got down to around 1.025 but not 100% sure as in the mean time I had broken my hydrometer.

I was gonna keg it, carb it and counterpressure fill it but I ran out of time and had to bottle it straight out of the fermenter with a coopers sugar drop in each bottle.

All in all, not my proudest brew, hope it's still drinkable...:)

Absolute honesty requested please, don't be affraid of hurting my feelings.

[Soren]

last night I had a pint of this out of the keg that I filled about a week after I bottled the case swap beers:

It was riddled with aldehyde! Apples all over the show:(

My hope is that a) it got oxidized from sitting an extra week in the fermenter and would have sucked in some air while bottling or b) since I bottle conditioned the swap beers the yeast may have cleaned up the aldehyde.

Hope yours s better than mine:)

[Mike Neilson]

I have this in my glss as I write, Pours coke a cola with a nice firm head, smoke and fruit nose more Ardenberg than Ribena, taste is of Polish Wisniowka and chocolate with a hint of smoke, mouthfeel is rich and cloying. You know the other bits about the beer fi them up and it would be spot on I reacon!! Cheers l love smoked beers and probably dont brew them enough. Im finding the peted stuff alittle more astringent than the weyermann stuff though and I reacon the level of sweetness in this beer is masking the astrigency abit so its a pretty hard gauge on the smoke depot. Cheers Soren,

[Toot]

Finally my case arrived!

1st beer for me. Pours a cokey brown (a mate asked why I was drinking woodys out of a glass ha!) with a bubbly head that dissipates fairly quick.

Smells of burnt toast and a little bit of sticky date pudding/christmas cake.A bit of alcohol on the nose too.

Initial taste is more christmas cake and a bit of a smoky hit.Feels like its fairly highly carbonated (spritzy). More toast and smokyness in the finish with a bit of lingering bitterness.

First smokey beer ive had.Delicious, Good work!

[Barry]

Pours a viscous lovely slightly darker than coke colour, creamy tan head that doesn't last. Super bright clear, looks amazing.
Nose is full of smoke, tinges of salmon and bacon with a touch of alcohol and sweet malt.
Medium bodied with a slick oily mouthfeel.
A nice gulp of peaty smokiness, perfect amount in my opinion, wrapped up with some toffee notes and a long roasty finish that rounds things off quite nicely.
It's a bit caramel/toffee sweet, but other than that I'm loving it. I've never brewed a smoked beer and I'm such a sucker for it, this is really really nice. Cheers Soren.

[Reviled]

Drinking this now after a hard day, its not as muggy tonight and ive been eying this up for a couple of weeks now lol

Pours thick and gluggy with a small tightly packed tan head, at first whiff I get a smack of peat smoke, salty bacon, but on the second smell its much more subtle with some roast coming through.. Im getting alot of chocolate on the palate first followed by a nice smoky peat flavoured finish, nice mouthfeel and balance..

Good beer mate! Cheers!! Hard to guess a percentage, im gonna say maybe 5%? To me it seems like you could have got away with alot more, and if I had known it was a guessing game I would have tried Dales first to get a clue ;o) haha

[James P]

After doing some garrdening tonight I found this and two other CS4 bottles huddled together in the back of the fridge as if to attempt to survive another day.

Pours like an oil slick, small tan head, dissipates pretty quickly. I think this is due to the temperature I poured it at. The aroma is of peat and toffee but at this temperature it is not overpowering.. very subtle. Taste is a bit acid to start, but opens up with smokey, salty flavour. Quite a heavy oily mouthfeel, keeps me wanting more!

While I'm not a big dark fan, I quite enjoyed the beer.

Cheers Soren!

[Reviled]

So how much peat? ;o)