Hops for smoked pale ale

How would you hop a smoked pale ale?

Probably very simply.

Use this as a reference: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/smoked-ipa-13801/index2.html#post133532

I've been looking at Northdown for bittering and aroma. I've never used it but it seems neutral and to have "earthy" tones which sounds perfect to me.

I use the following hop schedule for my house APA OG=1.053:

1.5 oz centennial at 60
1.25oz amarillo at 15
0.5oz amarillo at 2

For 34.8 IBU total
0.655 bitterness ratio

Well balance, not overly hopped, most likely would work well with smoked beer

I'd go 25-30 ibus for the bittering charge and late-hop lightly with something earthy/noble/spicy. Whatever you add, smoke will dominate the aroma.

I like northdown for an all purpose hop, sterling as well.
I wonder though, if you could dry homegrown hops in a smoker to further extend the smoked beer thing.
Say smoke the hops over beech and use German smoked malt- just a thought.

geniz said:

I use the following hop schedule for my house APA OG=1.053:

1.5 oz centennial at 60
1.25oz amarillo at 15
0.5oz amarillo at 2

For 34.8 IBU total
0.655 bitterness ratio

Well balance, not overly hopped, most likely would work well with smoked beer

Click to expand...

Centennial dose sounds like a good fit.

My Recipe would look like this:

All-grain
Batch size 5 gallons
OG 1.043
FG 1.009
ABV 4.0%
IBUs 27.3

6 lb 2 row
1.5 Hickory smoked 2 row
.5 lb 90L crystal malt
.25 biscuit malt
.25 lb melanoiden malt
.5 lb malto-dextrine (at 60 min)

.5 oz Centennial @ 60
.5 oz Centennial @ 15

BlainD said:

Centennial dose sounds like a good fit.

My Recipe would look like this:

All-grain
Batch size 5 gallons
OG 1.043
FG 1.009
ABV 4.0%
IBUs 27.3

6 lb 2 row
1.5 Hickory smoked 2 row
.5 lb 90L crystal malt
.25 biscuit malt
.25 lb melanoiden malt
.5 lb malto-dextrine (at 60 min)

.5 oz Centennial @ 60
.5 oz Centennial @ 15

Click to expand...

Sounds great. If you are smoking the hickory yourself, try not to let it go too hot. I use a cold smoke technique when I'm smoking my own

geniz said:

Sounds great. If you are smoking the hickory yourself, try not to let it go too hot. I use a cold smoke technique when I'm smoking my own

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no I'm not going to get that involved. Buying from Austin Home Brew.

kingwood-kid said:

I'd go 25-30 ibus for the bittering charge and late-hop lightly with something earthy/noble/spicy. Whatever you add, smoke will dominate the aroma.

Click to expand...

I want to try to keep the aroma generally low. I also don't want the smoked flavor to be too strong. I made a brew with 3# of rauch and it tasted like a glass of bacon(it wasn't as awesome as it sounds). So I'm thinking low IBUs and hop aromas so I can still get a good smoked flavor that is some what subtle. I hope.

BlainD said:

no I'm not going to get that involved. Buying from Austin Home Brew.

I want to try to keep the aroma generally low. I also don't want the smoked flavor to be too strong. I made a brew with 3# of rauch and it tasted like a glass of bacon(it wasn't as awesome as it sounds). So I'm thinking low IBUs and hop aromas so I can still get a good smoked flavor that is some what subtle. I hope.

Click to expand...

We are currently mashing in a smoked beer as I type this. The last time we uses smoke we used it as 10% of the grain bill. No real smoke flavor till you swallowed. It was a pretty damn good beer, aroma faded really quick in the keg as well. We are upping the smoked grain to 20% to see how it turns out.

Cool. I didn't know you could get commercial Hickory smoked malt. I only knew of Beechwood and Cherry.

When you get it done, please let us know how it turned out and your final recipe

geniz said:

Cool. I didn't know you could get commercial Hickory smoked malt. I only knew of Beechwood and Cherry.

When you get it done, please let us know how it turned out and your final recipe

Click to expand...

After reading this I started thinking if I had actually seen Hickory smoked 2 row so I double checked.... I was mistaken austin home brew dose not sell hickory smoked 2 row. I'll probably go with Oak instead.

There's a brewery on the east coast smoking 2-row over hickory and pork belly. I hear they make a beer that intentionally tastes like bacon-and they say it's damn good too.