Smoked Porter Recipe? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

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BierMuncher

...My Junk is Ugly...
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I'm prepping mentally for the deep dark days of Late January and February.

I'm thinking a nice, rich, smooth (Brown) Porter with some smoke undertones would be nice when the snow is flying and the garage door is frozen shut.

I’ve had a hard time centering on a definitive, proven recipe so here’s my stab. I don’t want a liquid smoke beer. I want a good Porter with a hint of smoke for some complexity.

I’m open to your thoughts and opinions:

Loon Lake Smoked Porter

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 24.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 76.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Beechwood Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)

0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min)
0.66 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min)

1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) Yeast-Ale

Mash at 155 for 60 minutes.
 
More smoked malt! My ASS (American Smoked Stout) was very well received, and that's got five pounds of rauchmalt. Now, the smoke there is competing with some slightly more aggressive roasted malts (0.75# of roasted barley, IIRC). But, I think two pounds in a dark beer like this isn't quite enough. The ASS isn't too overwhelming even with the five pounds.

Hell, I use more than 2# in a hefeweizen!

I'd personally make it a little bigger (1.055 - 1.060) for a real warming, smokey winter ale.

What about a little brown malt in there? That's another classic ingredient for a porter.
 
You know, I'm glad that you've put this one out there, BM- as I've been thinking about a similar beer for the deep dark winter. I don't have anything to offer with respect to your recipe, but I sampled a smoked porter from a local micro here (Spring House Brewery in Conestoga, PA) and learned that their strain of choice is 1056. The smokiness was present but not overpowering, and it really played second fiddle to the well-constructed porter. Seems you and I have similar tastes along these lines.
 
i used 3 lbs of rauch malt in my 999 barleywine, which equates to about 18% of the grain bill, and it is very very faint. if you didn't know it was in there you may not even notice it. if you'd like to call it a smoked porter, i recommend using more than 2 lbs.
 
More smoked malt! My ASS (American Smoked Stout) was very well received, and that's got five pounds of rauchmalt. Now, the smoke there is competing with some slightly more aggressive roasted malts (0.75# of roasted barley, IIRC). But, I think two pounds in a dark beer like this isn't quite enough. The ASS isn't too overwhelming even with the five pounds.

Hell, I use more than 2# in a hefeweizen!

I'd personally make it a little bigger (1.055 - 1.060) for a real warming, smokey winter ale.

What about a little brown malt in there? That's another classic ingredient for a porter.

Good points.

So I'll up the beechwood to 3#...about 27%. (Again, wanting a good porter that tastes like it was brewed in a wood cabin)
I'll take the chocolate up to a full pound as well. I like what the pale chocolate did for me in my mild...nice and mocha like.

I'm still wanting to hold closer to 1.050...
 
I think that it really makes a difference what kind of style you are looking for though. Rogue smoked porter is almost bitter and acidic when I tasted it. The Alaskan Smoked porter has far more malt and SMOKE flavor. To me, if I were making it, I would smoke all of my base malt out on the barbeque for a bit to really get that rich smoke quality infused into it. Also might boost the gravity to 1.065 so that it could last a while and let that smoke really mellow into the beer for next winter. Might bump the Caramel 40 up to a pound too. Then have a nice malty porter to go with it and help me make it through the long dark winter.

Look at me changing your recipe...It's all what you want though! I need something to drink in January, so maybe I will take my own advice here and just make this.

EDIT:You beat me to the punch with the gravity at 1.050
 
I would strongly suggest using 1056 (American ale). It has been the best with my smoked porter. I agree on upping the smoked portion 25-27% should give you a mellow smokiness and not be overbearing.
 
Here's one I did that disappeared much too quickly(like a week)
And even with 52% smoked it was not even close to overpowering
15B. Porter, Brown Porter All-grain
Specifics
Boil Volume 7.5 gallons
Batch Size 5.5 gallons
Yeast 75% AA

Style Comparison
Low High
OG 1.040 1.051 1.050
FG 1.008 1.013 1.014
IBU 20 27 30
SRM 20 22 35
ABV 3.8 4.9 5.2



Fermentables
% Weight Weight (lbs) Grain Gravity Points Color
52.0 % 5.00 German Smoked 26.9 8.2
28.6 % 2.75 British Two-row Pale 15.2 1.3
5.2 % 0.50 German Dark CaraMunich 2.7 5.9
5.2 % 0.50 British Pale Chocolate 2.5 18.2
5.2 % 0.50 CaraPils 2.4 0.2
2.6 % 0.25 American Crystal 120L 1.2 5.5
1.2 % 0.12 Roasted Barley 0.5 9.8
9.62 51.4

Hops
% Wt Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time Utilization IBU
66.7 % 1.00 Willamette Pellet 5.5 5.5 60 0.284 21.3
33.3 % 0.50 East Kent Goldings Pellet 5.0 2.5 20 0.172 5.9
1.50 27.1


I fermented with wyeast 2450
 
Okay, so the general consensus is that the smoked malt isn’t as dominant as I thought. I talked to a brewer at one of the local micro breweries and he said they use 63% smoked malt in their grist. Their smoked porter has won a lot of awards including a gold medal at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival.

So I’m upping the smoke to just under 50%, killing the black patent and using munich as the remainder of the base.


Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 22.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------

5.00 lb Beechwood Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min)
0.75 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min)
 
I think I might add this to my list. I am drinking some Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout ( from Bluegrass Brewing ) and really enjoying it. They use some barrels from the Woodford Reserve distillery for aging... Nice..

Let us know how this turns out. Your SWMBO slayer is getting brewed tonight as my first AG.
 
Looks good, but why all the carapils if you're mashing high anyway? That's just giving you dextrines, which you get from the high mash temp anyway. My understanding is that Carapils is mostly used by big brewers who cannot change their mash temps very easily.
 
Looks good, but why all the carapils if you're mashing high anyway? That's just giving you dextrines, which you get from the high mash temp anyway. My understanding is that Carapils is mostly used by big brewers who cannot change their mash temps very easily.

I like my porters on the maltier/sweeter side. I want the richness and creaminess that cara will offer. The higher mash temp and cara should give me a bigger gravity beer that finishes a bit higher and provides a lower alcohol (4.8%) porter with a nice chewy mouthfeel.
 
I am glad to see you bumped up the rauchmalt there. Keep in mind, though, that the smokiness of the malt can vary quite a bit, depending on its age. Fresher malt is more powerful, so you may have to use your nose a bit and adjust accordingly.


TL
 
Yeah Dave does use quite a bit of smoked malt in their smoked porter.

I used 24% in my Smoked Imperial Porter and I would easily double that. Speaking of which you have tasted that beer, granted all that might have come thru was the Habaneros, but the smoke was way too subdued.

So I think you are spot on with 3lbs.

Okay, so the general consensus is that the smoked malt isn’t as dominant as I thought. I talked to a brewer at one of the local micro breweries and he said they use 63% smoked malt in their grist. Their smoked porter has won a lot of awards including a gold medal at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival.

So I’m upping the smoke to just under 50%, killing the black patent and using munich as the remainder of the base.


Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 22.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------

5.00 lb Beechwood Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min)
0.75 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min)
 
Please let me know if I'm way out on this one, but have you thought about adding some oats for that mouth feel you're looking for? By far the favorite brew around my house is my oatmeal stout in large part due to it's mouth feel. I'm thinking about expanding the oats into other brews.
 
...have you thought about adding some oats for that mouth feel you're looking for?...

I thought about some flaked barley, but one of the criteria that seems to stand out for the BJCP guidelines is "...dark brown in color, often with ruby highlights when held up to the light. Good clarity, although may approach being opaque..."

If I have to err, I'll err on the side of "good clarity".

Yeah Dave does use quite a bit of smoked malt in their smoked porter.

I used 24% in my Smoked Imperial Porter and I would easily double that. Speaking of which you have tasted that beer, granted all that might have come thru was the Habaneros, but the smoke was way too subdued.

So I think you are spot on with 3lbs.

I remember tasting your SIP last winter...and yeah...the habaneros were very tasty. ;) Since the beechwood is supposed to be a more mellow flavor than say the peat smoked malt, I'm okay upping the ration. Especially since I'm really focusing on a sweeter, more chocolate base.
 
I'm curious about the two different hops @ 60. Is that a typo, and the Williamette should be @ 30 for a flavor contribution?
 
My ASS was very well received, and that's got five pounds of rauchmalt.

Hehe, quoteworthy, couldn't resist. ;)

Muncher, are you self-smoking this malt? Or when you say beechwood smoked malt, is that synonymous with standard rauchmalt that you'd find at AHB/NB/etc?

I, too, have been thinking smoked porter for the wintry months. I've not decided this yet, but I've toyed the idea of using cocoa powder in it too, for a smoky chocolate taste. Definitely using some Brown Malt in it too.
 
Funny I was thinking about tweeking my Old Bog road brown ale to include some smokiness....I was thinking of only about a half pound...now I don't know.

you couldn't taste half a pound if your tongue was attached to an electron multiplier!
 
I'm curious about the two different hops @ 60. Is that a typo, and the Williamette should be @ 30 for a flavor contribution?
Nope. Both at 60. Mostly because of hops I have to choose from. Guidelines suggest hop flavor should be moderate to none. I just want a balanced, but somewhat complex bitterness.

Hehe, quoteworthy, couldn't resist. ;)

Muncher, are you self-smoking this malt? Or when you say beechwood smoked malt, is that synonymous with standard rauchmalt that you'd find at AHB/NB/etc?

Yeah, this is a rauchmalt I'm getting from my bulk supplier. I don't mind toasting my own malts, but the price of this beechwood is good enough I'll let someone else smoke up their coveralls.
 
Nope. Both at 60. Mostly because of hops I have to choose from. Guidelines suggest hop flavor should be moderate to none. I just want a balanced, but somewhat complex bitterness.

Cool! Don't have any NB on hand, so I've got to figure out an appropriate substitute.
 
I'll be brewing this one on Saturday! Don't have any Northern Brewer, so I'm using Challenger.

Got the grain milled and my starter is made up. :D
 
I'll be brewing this one on Saturday! Don't have any Northern Brewer, so I'm using Challenger.

Got the grain milled and my starter is made up. :D

I just did this one verbatim this past weekend. Came in at 1050.

Don't be surprised if you don't smell any smoke aroma during the brew. There is still too much malt aroma. Each day now as it drys out in the fermenter...the smoke is beginning to come through a little bit more.

Smells awesome.

Once I get to FG I'll give it a taste and report back. So far though...everything is on track for a nice mellow smoked porter by thanksgiving.
 
Just took a hydro reading- I'm at 1.017 but I think it'll drop a couple more points- it'll be one week tomorrow from pitching. Malt forward, then a nice smoke finish. This one has a lot of potential once it matures. I may just go straight to the bottle on this batch, but we'll see.
 
Mine's at 12 days in the primary.

Other than a quick sniff and a sip, I've not had time to do anything else.

Probably rack it to a 2nd for a couple of days and then into the keg.

Smells and tastes great so far.
 
Must be that collective Borg mentality. This thread inspired me to a Smoked Porter also. Brewed on October 26th, secondary on November 8th, cold crash some time next week, then to a keg. Even if it’s not really ready, hope to sample at Thanksgiving. Here's my version:

7.0 lb Maris Otter / Thomas Fawcett (UK)
5.0 lb Rauchmalt (Beechwood-SmokedMalt) / Weyermann (GER)
1.0 lb Carapils / Briess (US)
12 oz Carafa III (de-husked) / Weyermann (GER)
4 oz Acidulated Malt / Weyermann (GER)
Wyeast 1028 London Ale / 2nd Generation

90 minute boil
1.0 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets – Alpha 4.6% - FWH
1.0 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets – Alpha 4.6% - 45 minutes
1.0 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets – Alpha 4.6% - 30 minutes
1.0 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets – Alpha 4.6% - 15 minutes
1.0 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets – Alpha 4.6% - Flame-out
:mug:

 
Resistance is futile.
Yeah, it was. I broke the patience rule :D

After only three weeks I force carbed some of this in a soda bottle and gave it a try. In this thread the early advise for BierMuncher was to up the amount of smoked grain. Well, this first sample was really smokey. Like drinking beef jerky. I liked it, but most didn't. How much will the smoked flavor mellow with proper conditioning?
 
Yeah, it was. I broke the patience rule :D

After only three weeks I force carbed some of this in a soda bottle and gave it a try. In this thread the early advise for BierMuncher was to up the amount of smoked grain. Well, this first sample was really smokey. Like drinking beef jerky. I liked it, but most didn't. How much will the smoked flavor mellow with proper conditioning?
Strange that only 35% of smoke grain would be that strong.

Mine was 50% and the smoke is perceptible, but very tame. I'ts been tapped for three days now and is coming along very nicely. Plainly drinkable...but I'll restrain myself for a couple of weeks to let her "grow".
 
Like drinking beef jerky. I liked it, but most didn't. How much will the smoked flavor mellow with proper conditioning?

Have you had other smoked beers and liked them? Your statement about most people not liking them is true. I love them, but most don't. I too am very surprised that 35% is beef jerky smokey. I hope this thread has not lead you down a path you did not intend...
:drunk:

EDIT: The smoke with mellow with time, but the flavor will remain. Albeit more muddled with the other flavors.
 
Have you had other smoked beers and liked them? Your statement about most people not liking them is true.
I only had a smoked beer once before, but enjoyed it. I took this early sample to a dinner party last weekend to get some opinions. No one said they hated it, but I didn't get the same feel from the body language. (Good thing there was plenty of MO/Centennial SMaSH to keep me from getting a bad reputation.)

Is anyone who brewed this around the same time interested in a swap? I'd like to get a taste of other versions of this recipe and a critique on mine.
 
Is anyone who brewed this around the same time interested in a swap? I'd like to get a taste of other versions of this recipe and a critique on mine.

I'd love to do a swap with you, Herm! I'd like to have a couple bottles ready to sample on Thanksgiving, so I'll force carb and BMBF to bottles.

Like others, I'm actually surprised that 35% smoke malt is so assertive. I brewed BM's recipe using Challenger as my bittering and that smoke is present but subdued.
 
Like others, I'm actually surprised that 35% smoke malt is so assertive. I brewed BM's recipe using Challenger as my bittering and that smoke is present but subdued.
I should come clean here. I put about ¾ of a gallon of wort in a separate one gallon jug and fermented it by itself. This is what I bottled and force carbed early. I had been reading about Bourbon Porters, but didn’t have any bourbon, so I dumped about 1 ½ oz of Jameson Irish Whiskey into the 2 liter bottle that I carbed in. Could this have overstated the smoked flavor? (I don’t intend to do this addition to the main batch. Just a little experimenting.)

I haven’t always had success bottling from the keg. I’ll be naturally carbing a couple of sixers before I keg. Probably do that this weekend, so they’ll be ready for swap around the first part of December.
 
Just an update, if anyone is interested.

All the advise on the amount of smoked grain given here was right. In just one week the smoke flavor has dropped dramatically. Now I’m thinking that the 35% that I used will not give as much as I was looking for.
:(
 
My experiences in brewing this recipe echos BM's: the smoke aroma and character builds as conditioning goes on after the ferment has completed. Malt dominates the aroma for the first couple of days, then the smokiness begins to emerge. With the exception of my hop substitution, I brewed this verbatim to BM's final recipe, using 5 lbs smoked malt. I enjoy smoked beers, so may consider upping the percentage of rauchmalt in future iterations of this recipe.
 
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