I am a big fan of the Schernkerla Rauchbiers so decided to try and make one myself. My recipe for this was thus:
6.00 kg Rauch Malt
2.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel
0.25 kg Carafa III
30.00 g Hallertauer Hersbrucker (60 mins)
30.00 g Hallertauer Hersbrucker (30 mins)
16.00 g Hallertauer Hersbrucker (15 mins)
1.0 pkg San Francisco Lager (White Labs #WLP810)
I've gone for a bigger batch of 28 litres for this so I can fill a corny keg and still have 15-20 or so bottles for comparison. Also so far, I have not been that good at judging my sparging so I knew how much 28 litres was as I did this amount before so thought I would do it again, but this time on purpose.
First off I boiled about 10 litres of water to flush out my boiler as I had previously used some lemon juice to clean off some burnt on wort without flushing it afterwards. I then used this boiled water to warm to mashtun and also used the boiled water to flush the pipes on the two vessels.
So, I then added 25 litres to my boiler and put 1/2 a campden tablet in for treatment and started the boiler up and set the temp to 80 degrees.
I then measured out my grain bill into a spare FV.
Grain Bill
Once the water had boiled I checked the temp and was happy with 79 degrees so transferred approx 22 litres into my preheated mashtun and then steadily added the grain and gave it a good stir to mix it all in. Once this was complete I checked the temp and it read 69 degrees. Perfect, so I closed the lid, wrapped a blanket around it, set a 90 minute timer on my phone and took the dog for a walk over the park.
Mash On
30 minutes before the 90 was up I put another 25 litres of water into the boiler and switched it on so I would have enough sparge water. After 90 minutes I checked the temp again and it read 68 degrees, pleased with that, I placed some tin foil over the grain bed after stabbing about 50-60 holes in it and started to sparge. After less than 1 litre I had clear runnings. (I have been very pleased with my grain filter thus far) Initial OG reading was 1080, after 10 litres it was 1072, after 15 litres it was 1060, after 20 litres it was 1030, after 25 litres it was 1022, at 30 litres it was 1012 at 35 litres I stopped at 1008.
Sparging
More Sparging
The pre-boil OG read as 1053 a little low for what I was expecting from Beersmith, it suggested it should be 1057, but my last brew out (last Saturday) I broke my trusty hydrometer, which I had used for 15 brews, so am currently using a backup and I am not as sure about it's accuracy.
Boil on
Anyway, 1053 was only a little off so I ploughed onto the boil. I had about 35 litres for the boil which was what beersmith said I needed. Once the boil was underway I set myself alarms for 30 mins in to add the first batch of hops, so 30g went in with 60 mins to go, another 30g went in with 30 mins to go and the final 16g went in with 15 mins to go, along with the protofloc and wort chiller.
Last hops and protofloc
Boil finished I turned off the boiler and unplugged it and then turned on the tap to start the chiller. This took a long time, well over an hour and far longer than I expected. I still think I need to hone this down and perhaps need to have a faster water flow to start with but am conscious of the water waste factor. I might look into getting a massive water butt with a submersible pump so we can use it for the garden too. I made some change to the pipe connections from the last time I used it and was pleased with the results.
Is it chilly in here?
Once I got this below 30 degrees I stopped chilling and began transferring the wort to the fermenter. The running were clear almost immediately (and again I was very pleased with the hop filter) and easily decanted what looks to be 28 litres into my FV. I took another OG reading and got 1063, which was much closer to the 1065 beersmith suggested. The smell had a nice smoky hint and a teeny sample showed signs that with the appropriate fermentation and maturation this could turn out to be a real winner. After cleaning up and another check the temp was still about 24 degrees and the day was ticking past so I decide to leave the Fv in the garage to cool a bit more overnight because of the yeast I wanted too use (White labs 810) and because this beer requires a lagering fermentation and I don't have a modified fridge to do this properly. I did check the temps in the garage during the day and evening and it seems that 12-16 degrees is the average temp about now, so I am happy that these will work for this brew.
Clear runnings
Close up
This morning at about 10am I checked the temp on the FV and it read 14 degrees which confirmed and reinforced my thoughts, so after another check early this afternoon at 1330 I pitched the yeast into the FV, sealed the lid with some vaseline and used a water trap/air lock and then left it alone.
White Labs Yeast
Pitched
Temp Check
I have checked the temp a couple of times and it is holding at around 14 degrees, even if it drops to 12 I will be content as beersmith says 12 is the ideal fermenting temp for the next two weeks. I will bring it into the house after those 2 weeks are up for a couple of days to facilitate a diacetyl rest and then bottle/keg and age this for as long as I can before drinking it all in a smoke-fest frenzy!!! Seriously though, I hope to enjoy a few bottles before and during xmas and then wait for the rest in the new year to give it long enough to mature properly...
Ready to ferment
I will post back idc with more pictures of the final product.
Lots of detail and I can see you have taken plenty of notes through the process (something I am guilty of not doing 
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