Sex & Candy - My Christmas Imperial Brown Ale, Aged on Mezcal

This is just a fun one for me. It's about that time of the year to get the winter brews going and I've decided on doing an Imperial Brown Ale. However, I want to make it as interesting as possible. Here's my recipe:

Spec:
Est OG: 1.089
Est FG: 1.018
Est ABV: 9.5% + 1.6% (from Mezcal) = 11.1%
Est IBU: 48.4
Est SRM: 29.1

Steep 30 Mins:
4oz Crystal 80L
4oz Pale Chocolate
8oz Victory Malt

Hops:
60 Mins - 1oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA)
15 Mins - .75oz Hallertauer (4.5% AA)
5 Mins - N1/69 Experimental (13.2% AA)

Fermentables:
60 Mins - 3lbs Pilsen Light LME
15 Mins - 7lbs Pilsen Light LME
15 Mins - 1lbs Corn Sugar
15 Mins - 1lbs Homemade Smoked Candi Sugar

Yeast:
WLP007 Dry English Ale

Fermentation:
3-4 Week Primary
Bottle age to December

Additions:
7 Days - .75oz Medium French Oak w/ 750ml (whole handle) El Silencio Mezcal

There are a lot of interesting choices in here for me. The grains I chose are simple, normal brown ale specialty grains. Where it starts to get different is with the N1/69 South African Experimental hop. I had purchased a South African hop sampler box from Northernbrewer.com primarily for an IPA I wanted to do, but the tropical aromatic character of this hop I feel will contrast with the smokiness of the candi sugar and mezcal very well, further adding to my whole Sex & Candy theme.

In regards to the late additions, I have had great success with these at this point and I plan on continuing this process as long as I'm doing anything with extract. Yes, I did in fact make my own Candi sugar that I consider an epic fail for a Belgian. However it has this wonderful smokey fruit flavor to it that I think will really work in this brew.

I'm using WLP007 because I only want a small amount of the classic English fruit esters, but not enough that it becomes overwhelming with the smokey flavor. Also, since this is a higher gravity beer, the higher attenuation is useful.

My favorite part of this brew however has to be the Mezcal. I had a Mezcal/Tequila barrel aged Imperial Brown Ale from Figueroa Mountain about a year ago and it was so good that I have been wanting to make something similar for some time now. The crisp smokiness is so unique. And yes I am using A LOT of it. But screw it, it's Christmas. We can use the warm up. By my calculations, there will be .46 shots in each 12oz beer. Yummy. Also, some oak.

I will be making the starter for this beer Wednesday night this week and brewing it on Friday. Unfortunately, this one is going to sit for a long time, but it will be worth it.