Vital Statistics:
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Recipe: 5 lb 2-row pale malt 5 lb rauch malt 1 lb chocolate malt 8 oz peated malt 5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 60 4 AAU (25g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 20 1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General Notes: Re-crushed small amount of grist in food processor as an experiment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tasting Notes: Reviewed 6/16/2010. Poured from slightly chilled keg directly into a tulip. Appearance: extremely dark brown; slightly translucent brown around the edges. Head was about a finger, helped along by my dispensing method. Not a lot of head retention; this has mellowed to a very thin finger of tan foam. The body is spot on, but the head could be a lot better. (3.5) Smell: aroma has a little chocolate and a little basic smoke, together with a fair amount of peat smell. In my quest for smokiness, I think I went overboard on the peated malt. Not for everyone, but I happen to like peat smoke aroma, so it's not too bad for me. (3.5) Taste: smooth, roasty flavor with a little tartness; at first, a pretty standard porter. After a few seconds, however, peat and earthy hops, together with a vegetable quality and a bit of bitterness, come bang to the forefront. The peat dissipates slowly; still, it's a flavor I like, though not for everyone. (3.5) Mouthfeel: body is medium, maybe medium-thin, and carbonation is pretty low. I feel like body should be a lot better here, what with the higher mash temperature. Perhaps next time I will try a little malt caramelization or mashing even higher. I'm still trying to perfect carbonation; this keg had a bit of a leak in the beer-out post, so I couldn't pressurize it too high. I think a kegerator is going to have to be my next purchase. (3) Drinkability: it's actually not too bad if you don't mind the pretty extreme peatiness. I kind of like it. (3.5) Overall score 3.45 (B-). This is actually the same as my first smoked porter, #7 Djibouti Smoked Porter. I think between that one and this one I'm dialing in on a pretty solid version of the style. Bringing body up and reducing the harsher bits of the hops is probably key here; a kegerator will work wonders. As this sample has sat out while I write these notes, it has gone mostly flat. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hops Table
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