Scottish 80 - Peated Malt - How Much?

I've brewed Jamil's recipe 3 times and they have all turned out great.

Now I would like to add some Peated Malt to add a bit of that flavor. I have no idea how much to add.

If you have any experience...could you suggest a %?? Otherwise, I'm going with 5% as a start.

Thanks

Jamil would say exactly ZERO.

Be careful with that stuff. I've never used it, maybe never will.

Do a search and see what other's have used. You might ruin it if you go overboard, and maybe 5% is overboard.

That's why I'm calling before I dig!

I've tasted a couple with "some" peated malt and liked the effect. But, I don't want a peated beer, just another layer of flavor.

So, 5% is too high? Have you some experience with this malt?

Thanks

if you can find peated malt, i would start with about 2 oz per 5 gal. if you use smoked malt, you can use a bit more, like 4-6 oz. like the last guy said, depending on the recipe, it can really come out strong if you use too much. the scottish 'shilling' style experts will tell you that it is not a part of their grain bill at all. the rich flavor comes from big grain bills and long boils which 'scortch' the wort. they say to boil for 20 minutes without stirring to let the bottom of the wort burn slightly giving a sweet, earthy note to the finished beer. i have found this to be accurate.

Hmmm, re-thinking here...

I read somewhere of a recommendation to take the first gallon of of clear runnings and vigorously boiling that prior to adding it back to main boil kettle.

How's that sound.

nealperkins said:

Hmmm, re-thinking here...

I read somewhere of a recommendation to take the first gallon of of clear runnings and vigorously boiling that prior to adding it back to main boil kettle.

Click to expand...

I did that last week. Boiled a gallon down to 2-3 qts, then added it back and did my usual boil.

It looked like it caramelized nicely, and it smelled really, really great. It's still in primary, though, so I can't report back on the final result.

Stone's smoked porter uses peat smoked malt at about 2% of the grist. It is very present at that level. For an 80/- I would be thinking 1% and maybe .5% if you want it to be at the hint/suggestion level.

I haven't used peated malt in the 80/ batches that I have brewed. I use White Labs WLP028 for yeast and have found it leaves a subtle smokey flavor to the beer.

I made a strong scotch ale in which I boiled 1g down to 1qt. I think I could have gone further. That's the way to get the flavor for your scottish beers. (to be honest, I did add 1# of smoked malt, but I can't pick it out of the strong malt and caramel flavors in that beer).

passedpawn said:

I made a strong scotch ale in which I boiled 1g down to 1qt. I think I could have gone further. That's the way to get the flavor for your scottish beers. (to be honest, I did add 1# of smoked malt, but I can't pick it out of the strong malt and caramel flavors in that beer).

Click to expand...

+1 on boiling down the first runnings to carmelize.

For the record I'm a fan of this style and a fan of peat smoked malt. 4 oz. (up to 6 oz.) gives a very nice flavor to a Scottish 80/- but will in fact get you dinged/take it out of style in competition. But as a flavor it adds a very distinct character which I've found can become stronger with time as flavors meld together. If you like peaty Scotch you'll probably like this approach.

However if you want to stay within style I find 1.5 oz. is a good amount. 2 might be okay & 1 would probably be slightly detectable. Good luck.

Schlante,
Phillip

Ps I second what others said about boiling the first gallon or so. I made a Wee Heavy Wednesday and did this to the first runnings plus performed a 2 hour boil. At 1.089 it was super viscous and smelled like Molasses & Honey! I'm excited about the possibilities. No peat malt in it however Just MO, homemade Crystal 140, Victory, and a touch of Carafa III special.

I used 4.5 oz in a 5.5 gal batch of the last Scottish ale that I made - so just over 1% of the grist. It left a nice peaty quality, but not much in the way of flavour.

For reference, it was a 1.060 OG and finished at 1.016 FG with Wyeast 1728.