Hi Debi
You asked about the taste of the ash - now, I am not very good at describing tastes etc, and there are no doubt others much better than I. But when you bite into the Brie that has an ash coating, the only clue that lets you know there is ash there is the visual effect of it. As you can see from my photos above, P.Candidum grows through the ash so that it is a fine layer beneath the mould. And really, if you closed your eyes, you woulnd't even know it was there. For me, it gives the cheese a creaminess that isn't there with the normal Brie, but that might be my imagination running wild, for I just love this cheese. You have to be quick to get it at the absolute right moment to eat it as the rind will slip with the creaminess immediately underneath it as the cream can almost reach liquid proportions.
But have a go at it - I'm sure you'll love it.
In an post earlier this year, someone provided a method of producing ash using sawdust, and your ash from smoking might end up similar to this one. As I said above, I wanted to try the commercially-available ash before I tried the home-made version to get a handle on what it SHOULD end up like. As Tea has mentioned is is REALLY, REALLY fine and gets into everything, and I very much doubt if it could be made that fine from the remnants of smoking or a fire (at least I don't think I could do it!).
B