Smoked RyePA

So I like to experiment in my brewing like most other homebrewers with some pleasing and some not so pleasing results. I made a smoked RyePA the other day. When I opened the bag of Briess smoked malt, I hesitated for a second and then dumped the whole pound in. I should have listened to my gut when it said "hey man, wait a second, that's awful smokey, are you sure you wanna put the whole pound in?" It was 9% of the grist.

Well, I just sampled a little and I'm sad to say that it is not very pleasant. The aroma is fine, with slight smoke and citrus. The smoke, however, really comes out in the taste. It's not a horrible drink, but it's not something I'd go for if there was something else available.

My question is will the smoke settle down at all? I won't dry hop this beer like I was planning because it would just be a waste of hops if I have to wait several months for the smoke to chill out.

When you say you made it the other day, I assume it's still fermenting? I would wait until it conditions a bit and then see how it tastes. People's opinion of smoke is all over the place and really varies, so it's your call if you like it. My experience with smoked beers is that the smokiness generally reduces with time and some of the other flavors come forward a bit. I think I would wait to see if you want to dry hop and the rye probably adds some interest as well. Is it similar to a recipe you've used before without the smoked malt - just for comparison?

It's pretty much done fermenting, but yeah I agree I should give it more time before I judge it. I suppose I could just rack to a secondary bucket and leave it for a while sampling periodically. I'm glad to hear that the smokiness could settle down though. Who knows, maybe it'll turn out to be tasty in a year.

Smoke is a flavor and aroma in beer that is immediately perceptible. This makes some people reject it unfairly as too strong flavored. 1 pound is not too much smoke. Let it condition a couple weeks and then judge a pint. If you finish it in ten minutes, it's good. If you havn't finished half in 20 minutes then you either don't like smoke in beer or you just make bad beer but don't blame the smoke

Yeah smoke definitely fades. Don't worry.

Mikethepoolguy said:

Smoke is a flavor and aroma in beer that is immediately perceptible. This makes some people reject it unfairly as too strong flavored. 1 pound is not too much smoke. Let it condition a couple weeks and then judge a pint. If you finish it in ten minutes, it's good. If you havn't finished half in 20 minutes then you either don't like smoke in beer or you just make bad beer but don't blame the smoke

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This.

I'd most certainly give it at least two more weeks. But don't rack to a secondary. Leave it on the yeast cake. As the yeast clean-up after themselves there is a possibility that they could clean up some of the smoke or at the very least scrub it out with off-gassing.

But if nothing else, it'll most certainly fade with time. Personally I love smoke beers and 1# isn't too much (IMHO) but they just need a bit of time.

Well now I'm looking forward to this beer. I was thinking that I oversmoked it, but now that doesn't seem to be the case. I'll leave it in the primary for a couple weeks yet then dry hop for another couple and see what happens. I'll update this thread as more info comes in. Thanks for the replies.

Smoke is great, but I wouldn't put it in a pale and wouldn't pair it with citrus hops. I like it with toasted/roasted malts and smallish additions of earthy/spicy hops.