Smoked Pale Ale

I am not sure if it's possible, or if it is, if it would taste like crap, but I am going to be doing a double batch with a friend of mine and we would like to try and do an american smoked pale ale. Does anyone know of a recipe? I was also wondering if the smoked 2 row malt would add to much color to make it a pale ale? Any thoughts?

It is totally possible: it is your beer.

The BJCP classification gives a good range to APA. My current batch has a small amount of chocolate malt, 120 and 60L in it. It is still in the middle of the range for APA. Smoke malt is typically very light in color.

I would take a recipe like Haus pale (2row, vienna, 15L) and sub 4-8 oz of rauch malt for 2row. I would start there for 5 gallons. I think that would be hint of smoke range. 1lb would be smoky, maybe out of balance depending on the hop.

Or steep the same amount for extract 8 oz of rauch malt.

That is my thoughts.

It will not affect the color much. Don't worry about it.

Make sure you know what smoked malt you are using. If it is peat smoked malt, keep to about 0.25 lbs max (yes; very little). For other smoked malts, you can add a couple of lbs or more.

good words calder... peat quite potent compared to rauch malt.

I personally would not go a couple lbs on a pale ale the first time. I think 1 lb max. But YMMV, again its your beer!

Depending how smoky u want it,I did a < 1/4 oz on a (5 gal scalewise ) dunkelweizen and i got just the right amount of noticability for smoke.If you got a complex grain or hopbill i wouldnt get too carried away,unless you want to.First one i would stick to less than a half # for myself.
Also i think Northern Brewer has a smoked amber not shure about pale ale. If you want to check out that recipe, thats how i usually check around along with recipes looking at min-max.

jonmohno said:

,I did a < 1/4 oz on a (5 gal scalewise ) dunkelweizen and i got just the right amount of noticability for smoke..

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You did a 1/4 OZ and got it smokey? or did you mean 1/4lb (4oz).

And was it peat or rauch? I have not used the peat. Everyone says it is super strong. I usually just smoke some 2row on oak myself and let it sit for a while in a paper bag.

Just curious. This thread has me thinking about adding some smoke to a pale ale for kicks.


Has anyone tried Shiner's smoked beer? I had it on draft and it was tasty. Tasted sweet and smokey like scotch... but came in pints and cost a lot less!

chefmike said:

Has anyone tried Shiner's smoked beer? I had it on draft and it was tasty. Tasted sweet and smokey like scotch... but came in pints and cost a lot less!

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It's definitely one of Shiner's better beers. The 102 isn't bad. It's better than their hefeweizen. I'm also a fan of Shiner Cheer, although I know a lot of people are not.

I am terrified by their new summer seasonal. Grapefruit and ginger? Gross. I didn't like that Magic Hat ginger beer and I'm not a grapefruit fan.


To the OP: I don't think of hops and smoke going together but I brewed a gratzer, which is a smoked wheat beer with pale ale-level hopping. It's really good. The smoked wheat is smoked over oak, which has to be done personally since nowhere sells it, but I find the oak-smoke flavor lends itself better to hops than I think the beech-bacony flavor in rauchmalt would be. Just something to think about if you decide to smoke your own malt instead of buying rauchmalt.

After searching all night and a lot of this afternoon, I am having a hard time coming up with a pale ale recipe with any smoke in it. Most of them are porters or lagers, or extracts. Does anyone have a good pale ale recipe with some smoke in it? I am thinking a cherry wood smoke might be good, but I am open to any kind of smoke. Any ideas on where to find a recipe? Or better yet, has anyone done a recipe like what I am looking for with good results, and are willing to share the recipe? I am still a little new in the hobby to try and formulate my own recipe.

chefmike said:

You did a 1/4 OZ and got it smokey? or did you mean 1/4lb (4oz).

And was it peat or rauch? I have not used the peat. Everyone says it is super strong. I usually just smoke some 2row on oak myself and let it sit for a while in a paper bag.

Just curious. This thread has me thinking about adding some smoke to a pale ale for kicks.


Has anyone tried Shiner's smoked beer? I had it on draft and it was tasty. Tasted sweet and smokey like scotch... but came in pints and cost a lot less!

Click to expand...

Yeah, i meant< 1/4 #. On a 5 gallon scale it would have been 3 oz to be exact.It was Breiss smoked malt,its a cherrywood smoked malt and tasted pretty good just out of the bag too. I also wouldnt say it was smokey, just had a smoke note to it wich was what i was going for especially using it for the first time.

i did a smoked amber ale (on the lighter side for an amber) and kept the hopping to a minimum (did almost 50% smoked malt and it wasn't too much for me, just right, but i liked smoked beers). personally, i think a more earthy hop presence would work better than the citrusy hops, and keep it on the low side for APA specs. i wouldn't be afraid to go between 20-40% rauch malt for this beer. i prefer to taste the smoke, not just think i taste it. and i think this is a great idea.

It depends on how much smoke you want. Since a pale ale is somewhat hoppy you need enough smoke to compete with the hops but neither get lost behind or overwhelm them. I would say substitute 10-25% of the 2 row or pale malt with smoked malt and you should get a small smoke flavor. Increase from there depending on how smokey you want it.