I went to my LHBS to pick up some ingredients for my first barley wine attempt. I wanted to pick up a couple ounces of peat-smoked malt (I'm a fan of a nice peaty single malt scotch as well as smoked tea - Lapsang souchong - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - so I'm not afraid of the smoky flavor).
Anyways, I did my research and was only looking for 1-2 ounces. However, they were completely out and the guy there suggested Weyermann's Smoked Malt as a replacement. Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about this malt so I went ahead and boughta couple ounces. I know I won't get the peaty touch I was looking for, but will 2 ounces of this stuff still give me a nice smoky flavor? I'm worried that it won't be enough. I'm probably not going to brew until later this week, so I could stop by another LHBS and pick up the peat-smoked stuff (though the "regular" smoked malt is crushed up with my other grains).
The smoked malt you bought is much more tame than the peat smoked variant though it seems even the Weyermann's packs a punch (or they have terrible product consistency).
I brewed a batch that called for .33 lbs of smoked malt, as I was hand crushing it the smoke smell was overpowering so I cut back to .25 in a porter. For a 5 gallon batch even that amount put a distinctive smoke flavor to the beer that has, thankfully, subsided over time. I love smoked foods, but this was too much, my wife won't touch it. I can't see how anyone could brew/drink some of the recipes that use a pound or more of this malt. To me that would be like drinking carbonated Liquid Smoke. :barf:
Smoked malt is to peak-smoked as pounds to ounces. You can use 2-3 pounds of smoked malt without over-whelming a barleywine, but 8 ounces of peat-smoked and you'll end up aging it for a year. And being happy with it three years later.
If you can't get peat-smoked, use 8-12 ounces of smoked.
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smoked malt vs peat-smoked malt
:barf:
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