Hi again guys!
So an update- my beer is done! Like I said it was a munick dunkel base recipe, but I subbed in .25 lb of smoked malt for the Crystal. I ended up using cedar wood plank (The kind you buy to smoke salmon with) because no hardware store/lumber yard had a little chunk of cedar I could buy (suprising, I know). So I ended up lagering for 5 weeks at around 45-50 degrees. The first 4 weeks was just beer, and then I added in cedar for the final week. I ended up cutting a piece about the 3/4 inces wide, half an inch thick, and 5 inches long (alightly bigger than my index finger). Sorry that's the best description I can give. That sat in the secondary for the final week. Then the night before I bottled I added another piece of the same size. Finally, as I bottle, I mixed in the primer using a piece of cedar about 4 inches wide, 5 inches long, and 1/2 an inch thick just to give it a last cedar blast of flavor. I let it float on top as I bottled, occasionally stiring it in so the cedar flavor didn't sit on top the whole time.
I tasted it for the first time last night. 4 weeks to condition was plenty, it seemed fully carbonated. It did not have the woodsy, smokey flavor I was going for; it actually tasted a lot like Sam Adams Boston Lager -- interesting. It was clear, a little darker than expected (about a 24-25). The taste was very good though, even if not what I was going for. It was complex with the cedar and slight smoke flavor, but still crisp and not overwhelming. And like I said, a lot like Sam Adams.
So that's all I got. For my first experiement with wood-aged beer, not too shabby. I think to get the taste I was going for I'd need to pick a slightly more bitter base recipe and sub in more smoked malt, perhaps with more cedar and for 2-3 weeks to compliment it.
