Ranger Creek's Mesquite Smoked Porter

[Thirsty Mallard]

Ranger Creek is a new brewery in San Antonio, Texas and their Mesquite Smoked Porter is a-freaking-mazing...

A quick email to the brewery and I got a very detailed and well though out response from the brewer on a recipe (I've never met him, but already I think he's a gentleman and a scholar!).

In any case, I need some help converting this recipe from percentages to some actual numbers. I suck at this, so I though the Army may be able to help a brother out...

Ranger Creek Brewing Co. - Mesquite Smoked Porter Clone
OG = 1.065, FG= 1.016-17
IBU = 15
SRM = 55

Grains:
Maris Otter - 52%
Mesquite Smoked Maris Otter - 30% (aged for 5 days)
Crystal 60 - 9%
Chocolate Malt - 5%
Black Malt - 4%

Hops
Fuggles - 60 min
Fuggles - 20 min
Tettnang - 0 min

Yeast - WLP005 British Ale

[Travisty]

Assuming you meant 52% maris otter here's what I get for a Jamil style 6 gallon batch at 70% efficiency:

8.36 lbs (3.79 kg) Maris Otter
4.82 lbs (2.19 kg) Smoked Malt
1.45 lbs (0.66 kg) Crystal 60
0.80 lbs (0.36 kg) Chocolate Malt
0.64 lbs (0.29 kg) Black Malt

[NHBrewer]

Remember there are very large differences in the "smoked" malts out there. Weyermann makes a malt more akin to making Bamberg style Rauchbeer. Some English maltsters use peat to smoke their malts and be careful they are very strong. I would think that Mesquite would impart a flavor specific only to malts smoked with that wood and I'm not sure there is a commercially available Mesquite smoked malt. Sounds like you would need to do it yourself. Listen to the Alaskan Brewing Company Sunday Session for details on how to do so. Or even better, if you are close the brewery, which I imagine you are, I would think that you could ask the brewer to trade you a couple of pounds of the malt they use for, say, some of your clone when its finished. At least ask about their process for smoking and try to replicate if you can at home.

"Influenced by the classic Bamberg rauchbiers, our Mesquite Smoked Porter is brewed with a Texas twist, using malt smoked in-house over Texas mesquite. This dark mahogany porter has a velvety mouthfeel, and a roasty, dark chocolate flavor balanced with a subtle hop spice. The nose is warm and pleasing with aromas of cured meat, pepper, leather, dark roast coffee, and a distinct mesquite wood aroma. The Mesquite-Smoked Porter’s medium body, rich complex taste of roasted grains, coffee, dark chocolate, and meaty, smoky character make this perfect for any Texas day, be it the cold of winter, or the accompaniment to a summer barbecue."

NHB

[Thirsty Mallard]

Yep, I meant to type 52%, not 22%. I'll make the edit to my original post...

NHBrewer - They have an on-site "smokehouse" (it's a shipping container converted to a smokehouse). I talked with him about their smoking process and this is what he said:

In terms of smoking the malt, when I developed this recipe at home, we used a Weber charcoal grill. I used to wet the malt, wet the wood, etc, but I find that I don't need to. It all has to do with the wood type you are using, the heat source, and the type of smoke you wish to produce.

At the brewery we "cold smoke." Basically, we spread the grain out over trays throughout the smoker, then heat coals. We lay these coals down in the fire box floor, then put tin foil on top of it, then put the wood on top of the foil. Mesquite is very phenolic, and if we get black smoke, we'll get some compounds from the smoke we don't want in the beer. We are aiming for white/light gray smoke. Total smoke:malt contact time is 1 hr. The wood will smolder in this time. I only wet it if it starts to ignite with actual flame. Otherwise we just let it smolder for 1 hour. The amount of wood, amount of coals will determine the amount of smoke, and therefore the amount of time you will want to smoke for. Each wood is different, though. For mesquite we smoke for 1 hour with a good amount of smoke. THe malt is all the while dry, and once smoked we let it sit out for 5 days (covered) to allow the smoke compounds to permeate. At 5 days I find the smoke in the malt to be of the best quality.

They are a bit far away (3 hours) so stopping in for some malt isn't really convenient. Besides, I have a smoker at home (what true BBQ loving Texan doesn't...) so I will just smoke it up on my own. I'm expecting a trial and error run of a few batches to get the smoke dialed in to where I like it, but that's half the fun!