Smoked Malt/Belma SMaSH?

I just bought some Belma hops, and somehow while reading the description I thought "Smoke?" So now I think I'd like to do a smoked malt/Belma SMaSH, but I'm wondering if 100% smoked malt would be too much. It seems like a lot of the other smoked IPAs on the site use <50%, but I'm a big fan of the SMaSH, and generally like smoked beers.

I would be brewing BIAB/No-Chill, so my hop additions are adjusted accordingly, but here's what I get with BrewTarget:

5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency

13 lb Smoked Malt
1.5 oz Belma (12.1% AA, leaf), FWH (calculated as 30 min)
1.5 oz Belma, Cube Hop (calculated as 20 min)
3 oz Belma, Dry-hop
US-05

OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016 (probably a little lower)
ABV: 6.4%
IBU: 60.5
SRM: 12.2
BU:GU: 0.93
Calories: 217

Feedback would be most welcome!

Okay, changed up the grain:

5 lb Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt
2 lb Weyermann Beechwood Smoked Malt
6 lb Briess US 2-row

I wasn't sure if all-smoke would be too much, and it was a lot more expensive, so I cut it almost in half, favoring the smoked malt. Also, I couldn't decide between the BBQ smell of Briess and the bacon smell of Weyermann, so I did some of each.

Let me know how this comes out. I am very interested.

I've yet to play with those smokey malts and have 1.5 lbs of Belma left.

Sorry I missed your thread. A smoked malt SMaSH would work great with Weyermann. Try a Shlenkerla Urbock as an example. I just made a 100% Weyermann and the smoke is actually very subtle if you use a lot of hops. So to keep it smoky, you have to dial down the hops.

100% Briess would probably NOT be good, because Briess is much smokier than Weyermann. Just smell them and you'll understand quickly.

This 5-2-6 recipe in post #2 will be fairly smoky due to the large amount of Briess. IMHO, 20% Briess is relatively subtle, but 40% would probably be pretty strong.

Well, I brewed this up a couple weeks ago, just dry hopped it, hoping to bottle next week. From the airlock the only thing I can smell is hops, but the hydro sample I took on brew day tasted amazing. It was smokey, citrusy, and a little tropical. If it tastes the way I picture it in my mind, I'm gonna call it Hawaiian Pig Roast.

Very interesting idea. I'd like to hear how it turns out.

Did you end up doing a SMaSH with the Weyermann malt or did you use a base malt too?

neovox said:

Did you end up doing a SMaSH with the Weyermann malt or did you use a base malt too?

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Nope, I went with the revised bill above. So:
5 lb Briess Smoked
2 lb Weyermann Smoked
6 lb Briess Pale Malt

1.5 oz Belma FWH
1.5 oz Belma Cube hop (I no-chill)
3 oz Dry hop

US-05

73% efficiency
OG: 1.064
IBU: 61
SRM: ~6-10
Hoping for an FG of around 1.012-1.014

I liked the smell of both smoked malts, the Briess smelling like BBQ, the Weyermann like bacon. I thought it might give a more complex smoke flavor.

I admire your recipe, but 61 IBUs on a 1.064 OG beer is gonna disappoint. The hops will totally overwhelm any nice subtleties from the smoke. Hops and smoke simply don't work together. It may well be a very good beer, but dialing down the hops would make it much much better. And 3 oz dry hops... Ugh.

Just as an example, the penultimate rauchbier, Schlenkerla Urbock, which is basically 100% rauchmalt, is 40 IBU and 1.072. So you are waaaaaaaaaaay hoppier than that. Why even bother with smoked malts when you're just making a hop bomb?

Based on the hydro sample I took, the smoke is more than present. This is supposed to be a smoked IPA, with the smoke and the fruitiness from the hops blending (hopefully) in perfect harmony. Like a Hawaiian pig roast.

Keep all of us updated. I'm kicking around an all-belma doppelgratzer as an idea after reading this.

MrOH said:

Keep all of us updated. I'm kicking around an all-belma doppelgratzer as an idea after reading this.

Click to expand...

And I would be most interested to see how that turns out.

Fresh pour from the remains of the bottling bucket. Sample has a nice bitterness, smoke is definitely dominant. Would like a bit more hop flavor, but I'll wait for it to carb up before I worry too much.

So, two weeks in the bottle, I think I'd make a couple adjustments:

1.) cut back on bitterness a bit, say 55-60 IBU
2.) cut back on smoke a bit, maybe replace the Weyermann with 2-row
3.) hop-burst the hell out of this thing
4.) add more assertive tropical-flavored hops (Citra, Galaxy) in addition to the Belma

Gonna give this a little more time to mature, but must start preparing for a second attempt.

I would think a flavor hop addition at 20 or 15 mins and the lower IBUs would dial it in.

What did you think about the level of residual sweetness? I've been experimenting with smoked beers and I'm slowly concluding that a small amounted crystal malt seems to add a nice touch of sweetness.

I thought the sweetness was enhanced by the fruity hop flavors and maybe a little from the cherrywood smoke. I think crystal may have added a little too much, but I don't typically use crystal malts in my IPAs anyway.