First All Grain Build- Is it worthy?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SloppyGriffin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2013
Messages
68
Reaction score
1
Location
Windsor
So have only done experiments with all extract kits (coopers, morgans,etc) by adding hops or specialty grains or what have you. It has given me good insight into the practice and I think I am ready to attempt an all grain session. I recently did a trial run for an autumn oak ale and am waiting on the results. However, I am inpatient and seeing how i KNOW how I want it to taste I decided to make a pre-brew shopping list for the grain I may want to use. below is the grain build. Any thoughts positive or negative will be appreciated.

Please note that I did not add any hops or adjuncts to the list as I already have that information in my recipe.


Autumn Oak Grain Bill

Crystal 120- 9oz
Peated Malt-4lb
Pale Cholotae Malt-1lb
Smoked Malt-3lbs
Brown Malt-1lb
ESB Pale Malt-3lb
 
Your peated/smoked malt seems too high, I think I recall peated malt is to be used in small amounts to avoid your beer turning in to liquid smoke.
 
Agree with statement above. I keep smoked malts to about 1% of the grain bill. Lends a nice smoked supporting actor without stealing the spotlight.
 
Crystal 120- 9oz
Peated Malt-1lb
Pale Chocolate Malt-1lb
Smoked Malt-1lbs
Brown Malt-3.5lb
ESB Pale Malt-5.5lb
??
 
Hmmm...

You're still at 16% total for smoked malts (peated is smoked). I think you'd be very disappointed with what you got using that much.

I'm guessing you're going for a wee heavy or big brown ale.

Others will surely have different opinions, but, sticking as close to your original as possible, I'd go with:
8 lb pale (I boosted this a lot because your total diastatic in your recipe was about 44 deg Lintner, which is REALLY close to the lower limit of what you'd want for good conversion)
3.5 lb brown
1 lb pale chocolate
.5 lb c120
.25 lb smoked
 
Hmm. Well is that enough smoked malt? Im going for something like a wee heavy but with a more oaky smoked flavour. If i were to bring the smoked up to 0.3lb or even 0.5lb and split that amount equally into peated and smoked do you think i would be headed for disaster?
 
A half lb total would be about 4-5%. It would indeed give you a big smoky flavor, more a primary player than a complexity...it's all about how much of that you want. I once made a smoked oatmeal stout that tasted like breakfast had been made over a campfire...WAY too much, but then, some people like a big smoke flavor.

You could also put it on oak chips/spirals in secondary to help with the depth.
 
I planned on adding whiskey soaked oak chips in secondary. so perhaps I should just stick with the 0.25lb
 
When it comes to smoked malts, my rule is that less is more.

I like smoke, and especially peat, flavors as a background element in both beer and scotch. People can be turned off by a massive amount of smokiness. I definitely recommend keeping the smoked malt percentage below 5% unless you are okay with some people pouring out your beer.
 
Ok so probably keep it around 2oz peated and 3oz smoked. i have never used them before and wasn't aware of how potent the flavouring of them was
 
So have only done experiments with all extract kits (coopers, morgans,etc) by adding hops or specialty grains or what have you. It has given me good insight into the practice and I think I am ready to attempt an all grain session. I recently did a trial run for an autumn oak ale and am waiting on the results. However, I am inpatient and seeing how i KNOW how I want it to taste I decided to make a pre-brew shopping list for the grain I may want to use. below is the grain build. Any thoughts positive or negative will be appreciated.

Please note that I did not add any hops or adjuncts to the list as I already have that information in my recipe.

Autumn Oak Grain Bill

Crystal 120- 9oz
Peated Malt-4lb
Pale Cholotae Malt-1lb
Smoked Malt-3lbs
Brown Malt-1lb
ESB Pale Malt-3lb

So here is my edited version:

8lb ESB palemalt
2oz peated malt
1.3oz smoked
Pale chocolate 0.5lb
12oz crystal 120
3.5 lb brown

Earthy hops used respectively, scotch infused oak chips
 
Back
Top