Classic Style Smoked Beer Loon Lake Smoked Porter (Award Winner)

Williams 728
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.
JeepDiver said:
I brewed this yesterday, and the wort had no detectable smoke taste/smell. The malt had a very faint smell, but not much. Is that normal, or did I maybe get the worng malt from BMW. I ordered the Weyermann Smoked Malt. Hopefully the smoke shows up more after fermintation.
Click to expand...

With mine the smoke was VERY noticeable during the mash. If you didn't notice it at all during the mash I'd imagine that something wasn't right. Ride it out though, because regardless you'll have a solid porter I'm sure.

I was afraid that ~50% rauchmalt would be too much from gravity samples and the mash but after about a month in the keg this beer has really grown on me. Lots of smoke flavor but with a solid, rich backbone. It's a great nightcap beer for sure.
 
tried it after 2 weeks in the bottle, and it's nasty. Very acidic taste and no smoke flavor. Tasted a lot like something that was smoked with burning green wood instead of smoldering dry wood. Giving it another week or two to see, but not holding out much hope that this won't be my first dumped batch.
 
JeepDiver said:
tried it after 2 weeks in the bottle, and it's nasty. Very acidic taste and no smoke flavor. Tasted a lot like something that was smoked with burning green wood instead of smoldering dry wood. Giving it another week or two to see, but not holding out much hope that this won't be my first dumped batch.
Click to expand...

Well after a few more weeks, it's a drinkable porter, but no smoke taste what-so-ever. Defaintly got to find a new place to get the grain from and try it again.
 
I'm looking to make a rauchbier for a breakfast beer competition my homebrewing cousin and i are having. seems to me like this would go well with a nice helping of eggs, bacon, and oniony potatoes.

I don't have the means to do AG yet so I would scale this down to partial simply by trading out the 3lb munich to 2.25 Munich LME. I have access to the other stuff via a LHBS.

The "competition" (really this is more of just an excuse to make beer) is going to be in the 3rd week of July. This is meant to be imbibed at an early age. If I want it to be just right, when would you guys suggest I make this? Maybe the end of May or beginning of June?
 
pwndabear said:
I'm looking to make a rauchbier for a breakfast beer competition my homebrewing cousin and i are having. seems to me like this would go well with a nice helping of eggs, bacon, and oniony potatoes.

I don't have the means to do AG yet so I would scale this down to partial simply by trading out the 3lb munich to 2.25 Munich LME. I have access to the other stuff via a LHBS.

The "competition" (really this is more of just an excuse to make beer) is going to be in the 3rd week of July. This is meant to be imbibed at an early age. If I want it to be just right, when would you guys suggest I make this? Maybe the end of May or beginning of June?
Click to expand...

I'd allow 7-8 weeks if you're bottling. 4-5 weeks if you are kegging. :rockin:
 
Bottling. Looks like I'll be making this within the next couple weeks then. Thanks! I'll post when I make it! Any suggestions, hints, tips, or tricks that might be helpful to know when making this beer?
 
per the spirit of the "competition" we cannot use an exact recipe. in looking around at other smoked porter recipes, i have moved some stuff around and here is what i have:

5.00 lb Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM)
2.25 lb Munich LME - 10L (10.0 SRM) (60 min)
1.00 lb Cara-Pils (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (40.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (250.0 SRM)

0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (20 min)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

any suggestions?
 
We've got an event coming up here in October called the Swine & Stein... It's local beers and local restaurants coming together to showcase their beers and pork dishes. I figured this recipe would be great to mimic that smokey flavor from good quality bacon. I manage a homebrew supply store and they're going to allow us to sell our wares and on the opposite side of our space, serve samples in the beer tent. Should be a great time! They're expecting 2000+ people this year.
 
being boiled now. smells awesome, cant wait! i didnt have the yeast you used on hand, so will be using a windsor ale yeast. anyone used this yeast before? i plan on setting my fermentation chamber to about 62, hopefully that wont be too low for it.
 
read up on windsor and decided not to use it. my only other alternative was s-05, so thats what she is being fermented with
 
I brewed a 5 gal partial mash of this with the recipe below.

5 lbs Rauch malt
1 lbs caramunich
1 lbs Crystal 40
1 lbs American Chocolate
4 lbs Liquid Light Extract
0.5 oz Northern Brewer pellets (60 min)
0.75 oz Willamette pellets (60 min)
WLP007 Dry English Ale

OG 1.052
FG 1.018

I fermented for 3 weeks; primed it with a pre-measured packet of priming sugar from a Williams Brewing kit; conditioned for 3 weeks.

The first taste was awesome. Now the beer is over carbonated and foams like crazy when opened and poured (no explosions yet). It still tastes good but has a very weak mouthfeel.

I'm not sure if it wasn't finished fermenting when I bottled it or if a slight heat spell is the cause of the over carbonation. I've moved this summer and haven't got a good read on temperature ranges of the new apartment.

I will definitely brew this again come late fall early winter. I'm thinking of upping the smoked malt as I would like a smokier taste but I'm not sure if the super-fizz is burning off some of the smoke or not. I may also use a different yeast as I chose to dry ale to build up a cake for an imperial porter.
 
​
jlauritz said:
IThe first taste was awesome. Now the beer is over carbonated and foams like crazy when opened and poured (no explosions yet). It still tastes good but has a very weak mouthfeel.
Click to expand...

Does it foam at chilled temps? 3 weeks fermenting...I doubt you had much in the way of residual sugars. Storing in excessively warm surroundings could lead to some uber-fermentation.
 
BierMuncher said:
​

Does it foam at chilled temps? 3 weeks fermenting...I doubt you had much in the way of residual sugars. Storing in excessively warm surroundings could lead to some uber-fermentation.
Click to expand...

It foams at cold temps. I'm letting a few bottles sit in the fridge for a week to see if time will help.

I also had the brilliant idea of opening a bottle, letting it foam out, then recapping it. I used a room temp bottle and the idea blew up in face, literally. I didn't know beer could shoot so high.

I used this yeast cake for my next batch of beer and added some dry yeast after a couple of weeks because I wasn't confident about the gravity reading. It dropped 8 points. So, i don't know if the yeast is having trouble finishing the job.
 
so my OG was 1.056. My apparent FG is 1.021. without looking back at the recipe, i was thinking that was the correct FG. its been cold crashing for the last 3 days and i decided to look back at this thread and i see the target FG is 1.014. should i just keg it or do you think i should warm it up and swirl the yeast? i tasted it tonight and it definitely is a bit sweet. thought?
 
btw, i let someone try this beer who happened to be a certified BJCP judge and i was unaware of it. he gave it a score of about 35. sweet!
 
So I'm in the camp of "no smoke smell" at all during the mash...hoping the grain wasn't bunk. The dry grain had a slight odor of smoke pre-grind, but definitely not very strong. During the fermentation I stuck my nose over the airlock and took a good whiff....again, not even a hint of smoke. We'll see how it comes along in the bottle. Regardless, it still looks tasty...
 
i found its not the smokiest of smells unless its carbed. youre not going to get a huge nose on any beer if it isnt carbed really. give it time. mine came out great.
 
good to know regarding carbonation and odor. i might have bigger problems though...transferred to secondary yesterday and pulled a sample....does not taste good. no smoke flavor, no porter flavor...it has that sharp, acidic "twang" that tastes like ass. hoping it's not contaminated.
kind of thinking aging aint gonna fix this one...looks good and clear in the carboy though...
 
BierMuncher said:
The local micro brew here in town has an award winning smoked porter. It took a gold in the 2004 GABF. It’s mellow smoke flavor goes well with the malty flavor of this grain grist. I emailed the brewer there and he said they use up to 65% of beechwood smoked malt. While I love the rich smokiness of their beer, I wanted to tame it down just a bit to appeal to the more traditional beer drinker. I ended up using just under 50% beechwood smoked (Rauch) malt. I strongly suggest you don’t use peat smoked malt or (God forbid) try to use a smoke flavor additive. If you can’t get your hands on beechwood, try smoking your own. There are plenty of threads here that talk about the process.

There was a lengthy back and forth discussion on this recipe here, and the common theme is that you can’t fear the smoke. Anything less than 35% smoked malt and the flavor/aroma will be so slight as to be missed…depending on the grain bill.

I brewed this beer 23 days ago and have been enjoying this immensely for the last week. With a low IBU and a mellow base recipe, this is a beer that can be turned from grain to glass quickly. The smoke aroma is prominent, but not at all overpowering. The sweetness of the malt really balances this beer well. I mashed this at around 157 and held it for just 45 minutes. (I like my porters rich). This beer tastes, smells and feels like a rich porter that was brewed over an open fire in a log cabin. I’ve already placed an order for more Rauch malt because this one is a do-over.

I’ve actually bottled of a few of this batch to enter into a local competition coming up.

If you’re looking for a good winter warmer that is distinctive, this is a winner.

Loon Lake Smoked Porter

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: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
5.00 lb 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)

Safale-04 Slurry from a prior batch.
Click to expand...

If I wanted just a Rauchbier should I just drop the Chocolate? Also, what smoke malt are you using? Apparently big differences between Weyerman and Bestmaltz.
 
yeah, acid twang = infection that's kind of what i figured. had a batch last year (cold smoke clone) that ended up with that same flavor. not even sure if i should bottle it or just dump the whole ****aroo down drain. grrrrrr....
 
took your advice...it's happily carbonating in bottles as i type. flavor was a little "better"...hoping i just had some bad/stale grain or something. i saw a post a few pages back where a guy brewed it up and had the exact same experience as me (tasted awful out of the primary, but a few weeks in the bottle produced a drinkable porter)....so i'm hoping i'll at least get an OK product out of it. will definitely try again with better/more smoked malt...
 
update....just cracked open one of those bottles and...good news and bad news.
good news....the flavor is great, came around nicely. even have a solid hint of smoke.
bad news....it's flat. it's been priming for two weeks in the garage, temp around 60-65. maybe that's not warm enough? i seem to be having issues with either over carbonation or under carbonation lately. frustrating.
 
hopdropper said:
update....just cracked open one of those bottles and...good news and bad news.
good news....the flavor is great, came around nicely. even have a solid hint of smoke.
bad news....it's flat. it's been priming for two weeks in the garage, temp around 60-65. maybe that's not warm enough? i seem to be having issues with either over carbonation or under carbonation lately. frustrating.
Click to expand...

I'd try somewhere warmer. I usually use Coopers carb tabs. Haven't had an issues with them, better to wait three weeks in my experience. I did batch carb with priming sugar on my Coconut Porter and it's overcarbed. Not awful just too much. I used 5oz table sugar, probably should've used 4.
 
so i just checked my notes and i guess it's only been carbing for 10 days...so maybe not long enough? hope that's the case cause that flat beer was pretty tasty.
 
jlauritz said:
I brewed a 5 gal partial mash of this with the recipe below.

5 lbs Rauch malt
1 lbs caramunich
1 lbs Crystal 40
1 lbs American Chocolate
4 lbs Liquid Light Extract
0.5 oz Northern Brewer pellets (60 min)
0.75 oz Willamette pellets (60 min)
WLP007 Dry English Ale

OG 1.052
FG 1.018

I fermented for 3 weeks; primed it with a pre-measured packet of priming sugar from a Williams Brewing kit; conditioned for 3 weeks.

The first taste was awesome. Now the beer is over carbonated and foams like crazy when opened and poured (no explosions yet). It still tastes good but has a very weak mouthfeel.

I'm not sure if it wasn't finished fermenting when I bottled it or if a slight heat spell is the cause of the over carbonation. I've moved this summer and haven't got a good read on temperature ranges of the new apartment.

I will definitely brew this again come late fall early winter. I'm thinking of upping the smoked malt as I would like a smokier taste but I'm not sure if the super-fizz is burning off some of the smoke or not. I may also use a different yeast as I chose to dry ale to build up a cake for an imperial porter.
Click to expand...

I am very interested in making this smoked porter. Is this a good partial grain recipe? Can anyone comment on it?
 
I made this recipe with 50% smoked malt Green Bullet and Goldings as my hops. OG 1.051 FG 1.017 mashing at 158.

There was no noticeable smoke taste or smell during the mash. After reading some of the other experiences within this thread, I was interested in how the flavour would develop throughout fermentation hence I tasted this regularly throughout fermentation. It took about two days before the smoke taste really started to come through and after a week it was tasting incredible straight out of the carboy with an obvious but not overpowering smoke flavour - just what I was after. I fermented for two weeks, however over the last two days the smoke flavour disappeared - at bottling it was barely noticeable.

After two weeks in the bottle the smoke flavour was still non existant. At three weeks I can just pick it out, but it is only barely detectable and if I didn't know it was there I would probably miss it. The basic porter flavour is great and so I will be happy if it remains as is. However I was aiming for an obvious smoke flavour so am hoping that it will punch through with a few more weeks in the bottle.

I am guessing that the smoke flavour varies from grain to grain and also age, I got mine from the link below (from NZ). I guess I will know for next time whether to use more or not. Will post back if the smoke flavour gets any stronger. I should also note that I primed for 2.1 volumes and this batch is still under carbonated. Though it was my first time batch priming and I am a little scared I didn't mix the priming solution enough. With more drinking I guess I will find out !!

http://www.thebrewhouse.co.nz/webapps/p/88908/215726/613548
 
Are the hops important here? I plan on bittering with whatever since there's no flavor or aroma additions, probably Chinook or Nugget. Considering two pounds of Rye in here also, DuClaw's Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter is awesome.
 
sivdrinks said:
Are the hops important here? I plan on bittering with whatever since there's no flavor or aroma additions, probably Chinook or Nugget. Considering two pounds of Rye in here also, DuClaw's Imperial Chocolate Rye Porter is awesome.
Click to expand...

No. This is not a hop-centric beer. Use whatever you have to achieve the proper IBU's. That said, I'd shy away from the "stronger" flavor hops (like nugget). Even at 60 minutes, that strong aroma profile might come through and interfere with the subtle smoke tones. :mug:
 
I brewed this a few weeks ago and just cracked my first bottle: it tastes friggin' AWESOME right now.

my question for the field is: will the smoke taste intensify over the next few weeks? or will it fade?

I bottled and bottle conditioned (with maple syrup, cause that's how I roll)
 
KidDynamite said:
I brewed this a few weeks ago and just cracked my first bottle: it tastes friggin' AWESOME right now.

my question for the field is: will the smoke taste intensify over the next few weeks? or will it fade?

I bottled and bottle conditioned (with maple syrup, cause that's how I roll)
Click to expand...

What recipe did you use, the OP? I plan on using 5lbs of Briess smoked when I make this.
 
Question for those who kegged this. Did you notice any lingering smokiness in the lines or keg after moving on to your next beer? I plan on trying a smoked beer in the next few months, but wasn't sure if I should keg or bottle...
 

Similar threads

delcosansgluten
Rauchbier
Replies
14
Views
2K
passedpawn
passedpawn
Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
400
Zippy123
Zippy123
anteater8
Munich Helles Smoked Helles (Silver Medal)
Replies
4
Views
2K
jdauria
jdauria
G
First Custom Grain Bill- Thoughts?
Replies
11
Views
1K
BrewnWKopperKat
BrewnWKopperKat
J
Looking for feedback on a smokey dark ale
Replies
3
Views
901
AlexKay
A
CornyKegs 300

Latest posts

Back
Top