Making a Rye IPA recipe in honor of my cat...

So my cat Rickey is the absolute man. I could not have asked for a better cat, this dude seriously rocks :rockin:. But unfortunately he is getting older and his health seems to be declining so I want to design a recipe in his honor. He is an orange and white cat and has always had somewhat of a smokey smell to him (his previous owner actually named him smokey before we got him). So I have decided to make a rye IPA and want to add an element of smoke to this beer but keep it VERY subtle. I feel that chinook hops have somewhat of a smokey character to them so I decided to use them in the recipe. I am going to add a small amount of smoked malt but am sort of clueless on how much to use. Here is what I have put together so far. Any recipe critique would be greatly appreciated.

Rickey's Rye IPA:
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Est Original Gravity: 1.069 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.4 %
Bitterness: 61.9 IBUs
Est Color: 7.9 SRM

10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.4 %
2 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 13.7 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.8 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.4 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.4 %
2.0 oz Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6 0.9 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 39.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 8 22.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
8.0 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 10 3.4 %
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs

Looks good to me - I'm with you on being very careful about adding smoked malt, err on the side of caution.

If you want the Rye character to come through, you might consider upping the percentage of Rye Malt and decreasing the Pale Malt.

So after doing a little reading and seeing how much smoked malt people actually use in recipes, I decided to up the smoked malt to 4oz. Can anyone who has smoked an IPA or similar style before with good results chime in on the right amount to use. I want a definite smoke background but I want to keep it just there, hidden in the background. Also upped the rye. Let me know what you guys think.

8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 3.3 %
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 59.0 %
3 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 3 19.7 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.6 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.3 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.3 %
4.0 oz Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 7 1.6 %

Three words:

Alderwood Smoked Munich

Plus, you sorta kill two birds with one stone.

Chinook hops are not smokey... maybe if you put them in a smoker they would be.

I will look into the alderwood but for now I am going to use simple smoked malt because thats what my LHBS carries. I will ask him to put in an order for that though, sounds like a tasty malt. However, if I were to use simple smoke malt, how much do you think I should use for this sort of grain bill.

I have only done one smoked type years ago, before I recently got back into homebrewing anything besides mead. I think it was a peat smoked malt, somewhere between 4 and 8oz in a 5 gallon. For me it was a bit much, though I think it was the peat and not so much the smoke.
You could try smoking your own, a handful or 2 on some tinfoil over charcoal for a few minutes, or however it is done. I am guessing there.
Then the kitty can get a small piece of grilled hotdog, or whatever, that you can always make with your grains when you make that beer. He can share the beer making with you.

Eric

I have never used peat smoked malt but I used the breiss cherry smoked malt and using a pound in a 5 gallon batch it was pretty subtle.

thanks for your input jtejedor. that is exactly what I wanted to hear so I will up the smoke malt to 1 lb as a starting point. Unless anyone thinks I could improve upon what I have here, this is what I will wind up brewing:

Rickeys Rye IPA
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Est Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.5 %
Bitterness: 61.3 IBUs
Est Color: 8.7 SRM



8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 3.1 %
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 56.3 %
3 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 3 18.8 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
1 lbs Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.3 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.1 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 7 3.1 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 39.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 22.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
8.0 oz Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 11 3.1 %
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

Did you end up brewing this? Just came up with pretty much the same recipe in my head and was not sure about how much smoked malt to use? A pound seems like to much? looking for some smoke but nothing that hits you in the face.

I brewed this about 3 weeks ago and am about to dryhop it on monday. Will report back in about 3 weeks when its ready. Hoping that a pound wasnt too much of the smoke. Also, the LHBS was out of chinook so last minute i switched to using a centennial type/columbus mix.

@Johnnyhitch. After final analysis, i feel that 3 lbs of rye was a little too much for what i wanted so i am going to step down to 2 next time. I also feel that a pound of the smoked malt was a little too much as well and i think i may only use 1/2 pound next time. Was a pretty funky beer for a while but has mellowed and is ok now. Also had to sub for chinook and used columbus/centennial as stated before. Not doing that again either. Definitely tweaking this recipe.