I have been selected for the slightly smokey day boat scallops with onion relish, and celery saute'! I couldnt be more pumped to have pulled this course:
"Seared Day-Boat Sea Scallop w Apple Wood Smoked Bacon Powder Рserved on a bed of caramelized onion relish, with red bell pepper and celery saut̩.
Description: strong smoky flavor followed by sweet scallop, and deeper flavored relish – hint of apple cider vinegar in relish"
For my pairing I have decided to go "complimentary," and will be doing a Chipotle Porter with adobo sauce. The trick, as per usual, is balance. Furthermore, as a pairing, the balance of the beer itself must not overpower the food, but compliment it, as stated above. Taming the smoke and heat, while balancing to the roast character will be the trick. Moving on...
I want the beer to be highly approachable, not overbearing, and dry as to not "fill up," my guests; my pairing comes as the second course. To start off, I am going with Pilsner Malt, because I want a more crisp canvas to paint this picture on, so I think the Pils will work well here. It is a bit out of the box for the style and for this reason I am, of course, intrigued.
Deciding that simpler is better, I skipped the Crystal and moved to my dark malts. Referring to my recent Stout, where the roasted malt landed at 3.5%, I am very happy with the roasted character that imparted. With that in mind, I am going to roll with it. Black patent malt has never found its way into my beers, so it's time for a debut. I want a little bit of that additional bitterness, and coffee character (found at low percentages), again, just lending to my dark malt complexity, so I am going with just a reserved add of .3 lbs... the only problem is the color of the beer still ends quite light...so I saw three options, black patent malt after the main mash to get the color, but not the characters of the malt (which when overdone can go to ashy and unpleasantly acidic). Add some MIdnight Wheat Malt deepening the dark grain complexity of the brew and at just 4 ounces I will get lots of color. 4 ozs black patent in the mash along with .25lbs chocolate wheat malt, and then .25 black patent malt during vorlof and sparge for color.
Other considerations...
Brewing Water - higher relative alkalinity to help the mash pH buffer the dark malts' acidity (that's science). But the overall target will be London water.
Schedule
Early September - brew
Primary finishes late September
Early October - add jalepenos
By the 15th of October - final blend of smoke and non-heated base beer if needed
Keg no later than October 21 (leaves 2 weeks to condition)
Mash - 152 - Looking for a dryer beer, but not going Saison crazy. We need some body as the alcohol content is on the "lower side," for me anyway and with the simple sugars in there I'll just target a middle of the road mash.
Boil - 90 - to allow for the creation of a bit more complexity within the brew. With that said, how fun would it be to roll a 120 minute boil on a Porter made with Pilsen malt! Just for kicks....Time permitting, I may go for it.
Yeast - 001, or safale 005. No esters required, this is not a yeast show.
Keg, condition 2 weeks, bottle.
As a result
Stats (on a 90 minute boil)
OG - 1042
FG - 1007
IBU - .5 BUGU (about 1 oz noble hops)
Color - 31 SRM
Grist
6 lbs - USA Pilsen (70%)
6 oz - Roasted Malt (4.6%)
.5lbs - Wheat Malt
.25 lbs - Black Patent Malt (full mash) (3%)
.25 lbs - Black Patent Malt (post mash)
.25 lbs - Midnight Wheat Malt
.25 - smoke malt
.5 lbs - Piloncillo Sugar (a nice medium dark and flavorful sugar)
.5 lbs - Piloncillo Sugar (a nice medium dark and flavorful sugar)
Brew Day Setup
Salts - London profile. 1.5tsp cacl and gypsum. 2tsp Baking Soda
Strike - 3G @ 165, target 152 for 60.
Sparge Volume - 6G and sparge to 7.5G.
Boil - 90, 1oz EKG at 60
World Inside the Wort
Actual Brew
Mash 152 for 60
Capped with uncrushed black patent - oops.
Boil - 120. FW dark brown sugar Ekg, 1oz at 60, nutrient, whirlfloc, chiller at 10, rinsed and split chipotle at 5.
OG - 1043.
Rehydrated 1 pack safale 005 at 95 degrees in 250 ml sterile water for over an hour with nutrient.
Pitched at 72ish
9/15 - added .3oz smoked and dehydrated chipotles in hop bag
9/16 - removed chipotles. A bit too much already. Into fridge for a week, then secondary to get beer off the peppers. Tastes awesome, just a couple notches over what I was aiming for.
11/21/15 - in the homestretch the berr came through. Kerry calls it, Spicy Guiness. It had a nice depth for a smaller brew. Dark brew with an off white head and excellent retention through the experience and beyond. The roast is light to medium and compliments the chipotles beautifully. The heat is dissipating with time and the taste of the peppers themselves continues to emerge. Mouthfeel is medium-light. Overall the berr is a win. It's imperative to always give these beers plenty of leeway to allow the character you're going for to emerge, and not expect it to hit spot on from first being kegged.
A week ago I blended
50% - porter
25% - funky lambic
12% - Yogurtweisse (acidity)
12% - raspberry funk brew
Degassed and stabilized with Camden tab. Will add CLEAN yeast and tabs to carb.
12/2/15 - added french saison slurry and sugar tabs to bottles then racked beer on top.
12/2/15 - added french saison slurry and sugar tabs to bottles then racked beer on top.
