Smoked APA Small Batch Experiment

I have written before about my Mesquite Smoked Pale Ale, and how good it smelled when it was boiling, and how it was kind of bacony when I kegged it, and how it tasted of plastic, then later of Band-Aid.

I submitted it to the Alamo City Cerveza Fest and The Cactus Challenge. While neither batch of judges sent me a $50 bill and a note begging me to stop brewing, the first contest scored the beer in the mid 20s, and the second scored it in the low 30s. The folks in San Antonio tasted the Band-Aid, the folks in Lubbock called it astringent.

I have a theory that the plastic/Band-Aid flavor is part of the mesquite flavor. So I am going to brew the beer in a one gallon batch, and test my theory. Here's the recipe:

Smoked Pale Ale 1 gallon batch
1.5 lb 2-Row malt
.2 lb Crystal 60
.2 lb smoked 2-row malt
.1 lb Cara-Pils
.25 oz Cascade 6%/60 min
.5 vial of WLP001 Cal Ale yeast

Thanks to James Spencer of Basic Brewing Radio, who reminded me what issue of Brew Your Own his article about small scale brewing was in.

Now I don't know what to think

At our family reunion, I passed some of the smoked APA around to various family members--beer geeks and regular old BMC drinkers. The general consensus was that the smoked APA was pretty good and not "band-aidy" at all.

So I tried a bottle.

I still taste plastic, but not so much as from the keg. So I will submit this to the Cactus Challenge coming up in Lubbock. Stay tuned!

Crap!

On Saturday, I sampled the Water Valley Smoked APA. It was slightly smoky but okay. It had some character. I was pleased.

After dinner (pork chop, eggplant casserole and noodle salad) i got another beer and all I could taste was band aid.

If you recall, I said earlier that I tasted plastic. I wondered if it was the mesquite smoke. Now, I am not so sure.

When I bottled this, it tasted okay. Now I am afraid to find out what will happen at the Alamo City Cerveza Fest.

One last chance. I am brewing another Wolters West Texas Wheat tomorrow. If that has funky flavors, then I may have to rethink this whole brewing thing.

Smoked APA - Tasting Notes

On July 4, I sampled a bit of the Smoked Pale Ale, or Water Valley APA. If you recall, I used 1 pound of mesquite smoked malt in and APA recipe. It smelled really smoky when we pitched the yeast. When I kegged it, it tasted kind of bacony.

It is a dark yellow color, with good carbonation. It smells like homebrew--kind of yeasty and . . . odd. Maybe fermented too hot? It doesn't taste like bacon anymore. The smoke has faded into the background. It starts off with some malt sweetness, accented by a bit of hops, and leaves a smoke taste in the finish. I thought it tasted good.

But, there is an odd flavor in the finish, probably from the smoke. It tastes kind of like plastic. Not like band-aids, but plastic. It is, and please forgive the descriptors, bright and shiny and clean tasting. It's like the smell of a new ice chest or primary fermenter or tubing.

I think I'm losing my mind.

Smoked APA Kegging Day

Last weekend, I kegged the Smoked APA, which I am calling Water Valley APA.

The smoke is a bit strong, and will need to age. Kinda bacony, but maybe I'm equating the flavor to smoked bacon. The smoke overpowers the malt. More hops might have cut through the smoke, too.

It would probably be better in (Holy Crap! Brainstorm!) the barleywine we want to brew. Well, that I want to do. More on that later. . .

The final gravity was 1.010, which gave me 4.4% alcohol.

Mesquite Smoked APA

Since my experiments always turn out so well, I am going to brew a smoked beer. Since I live in Texas, and we use mesquite to smoke our meat, I thought mesquite smoke would work in a beer. I smoked two pounds of grain, and I am only going to use one pound of it in the recipe. I don't want this to be overpowering.

Mesquite Smoked APA

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (GAL): 5.00 Wort Size (GAL): 5.00
Total Grain (LBS): 10.50
Anticipated OG: 1.056
Anticipated SRM: 8.1
Anticipated IBU: 35.4
System Efficiency: 75
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Gravity SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.5 1.00 lbs. Smoked Pale Malt (2-row) America 1.036 3
76.2 8.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
9.5 1.00 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40
4.8 0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt 1.033 2
Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Challenger Pellet 6.5 32.0 60 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 4.10 3.4 5 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step
Qts Water Per LBS Grain: 1.20 Total Qts: 12.60
Saccharification Rest Temp : 154 Time: 60
Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 40

The actual OG was 1.044, which means my system efficiency, according to ProMash, is 73%.