Smoked Ale in the primary...

Hey,

Just brewed a smoked ale today. I cobbled together a recipe by starting from a traditional rauchbier recipe and adapting it 1) from lager to ale, and 2) to some extra grain I had laying around.

5# American Pale Ale
5# Smoked Malt
6oz Crystal 40L
4oz Peated Malt
4oz Belgian Chocolate Malt
2oz Spalt (boil)
2oz Saaz (finish)
Safale s-04

Mashed at 145, batch sparged hot.

OG 1.060

Thoughts?

Question: Since the ratio of pale to smoked was the same as the rauch recipe I used as my starting point, I expected this to be plenty smokey, but when I sampled the wort, there was much less smoke than I expected. Will the smoke come through more once the sugars convert? Or should I go 100% smoked malt next time?

Thanks,

Yes you can use 100% smoke malt, but,,,



Why did you mash at 145?

You're close to 50% smoked malt, that should be plenty noticable in the finished beer. I've read on here that the smoke character becomes stronger as the beer ages up to a point.

niquejim said:

Yes you can use 100% smoke malt, but,,,



Why did you mash at 145?

Click to expand...

I wanted the finished product to be very light in body.

I'm still in the reckless and experimental phase of my brewing career. My last batch mashed at 150, and I really liked the light, crisp mouthfeel. So, I went a bit farther this time around.

The problem with being reckless is that you regret it eventually. We'll see if this is one of those times.