How much Smoked malt is too much?

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rustbucket

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im working on a recipe.. i posted in the recipe but received no answers.

i want to use cherry wood smoked malt 1.5 lb for a 12.5lb grain bill an 5.5 gallons.

Im not sure how much smoked malt is too much, i want the flavor to be there but not overpowering to where the rye wont be tasted. so before i go and pull the trigger and ordering this stuff, i wanted to see if iv used to much smoked malt or to little

Again this is my recipe.
7.5 2row
2 # rye malt
1.5 # smoked cherry wood
1 # 60L
.5 # flaked barley (for head retention)

hops
1 oz chinook 60min
.5 oz cascade 45 min (just to boost the ibu levels)
.5 oz chinook 30 min
.5 oz chinook 5 min
 
I did a smoked porter with 56% smoked malt for the grain bill. It wasn't quite as much smoke as I was looking for. I'm also doing a brown soon that only uses 2 lbs for an 11 pound grain bill. It really just depends what you want. With the porter I wanted to match the smokiness of Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen but came in short.
 
I did a smoked wee heavy and used about 60% smoked malt... after a few weeks of conditioning, it is way too smoky for me... but maybe it will improve with a few more weeks.

I would guess that your recipe will end up with a nice mellow smoky character.
 
I'm hoping to make something with a smoked flavor soon too (get it ready for fall). The last time I made something with smoked malt I only used 1# for a 10# grain bill. No smoke flavor at all (or almost none). Also, have you used rye before? It has a fairly strong flavor...
 
no, but i have had commercial rye beers... well this is my theory.. when i think of rye i think of bourbon (i dont want to use any) so i was thinking a smokey flavor with rye would go well hand in hand.

+ i have like 18 lbs of rye malt hanging around..

so should i up the smoke to like 2 1/2 lbs then or more?
 
I just did a 66% smoked helles bock. I was going for something uber smokey, and 66% didn't quite do the trick.
 
The only smoked one I attempted was a smoked proter with about 60% smoked... If I were to re-do it, I would back it off below 50% & use something other than briess for the malt - it ended up way too smokey & phenolic in the beginning. The smoke has mellowed out quite a bit (2months later) & it is not too bad, but the phenolic is still worse than Id like.
Depending on how smokey you make it, the smoked might be too much, but it really depends

Are you smoking it yourself, or buying it that way? I hear wyermanns is a pretty good one to go with & less harsh than the briess
 
It depends on what type of malt you're using as well as personal tastes. I love smoked beers. Remember the stuff out of Bamberg is 100% smoked malt. I've done two pounds of peat smoked malt in a beer just recently. I just finished a beer that had a pound of peat smoked malt. Sometime this year I'll be making a smoked stout that's probably 25% briess cherry smoked, and 25% something else. I figure in a roasted beer like a stout you need at least 50%, in maltier less roasty beers less is probably more.
 
I put 11.6% in a smoked Mild and was worried that it wouldn't be enough. It turned out to be just right, a hint of smokiness without overwhelming the beer.
 
Thats odd. Both Schlenkerla and Weyermann are in Bamberg, Germany. You'd think that the beer is made from the weyermann smoked malt. Maybe they uses more than 100% smoked malt :D

Haha.

Schlenkerla and Spezial have their own maltings. The other rauchbier producers around Bamberg use Weyermann. Notably Schlenkerla and Spezial are making what is effectively smoked munich malt. Weyermann makes what is effectively smoked pilsner malt. When I use it for a rauchbier I am at maybe 92% or so with some caramunich and aromatic or something. So I haven't quite gone with 100%, but close enough to extrapolate.

There could be freshness issues too with getting it in the US and I think it is variable (variable freshness?). I intend to try some smoked beers with home smoked malt in the near future. The trick will be getting cured beech wood. I can get oak/hickory/various fruit/nut woods (grape, persimmon, apple, pear, pecan etc) locally which may be good for other smoked beers but obviously I need beech to try to make a Bamberger rauchbier.
 
i plan on using briess cherry wood... basiclly i want this to be a beer to sit around a fire with... at night with some friends..

btw this is going to be an IPA style. i think im goign to up it to 2.5 lb which puts me at 20%
 
Maybe it's just me but, I can't see the smoke character and high IBU's getting along. I have read that Briess Cherry Wood Smoked Malt is pretty intense. I have a smoked amber recipe that I made up that calls for 46% (6 of 13#) Weyerman Beechwood Smoked malt and it's about a med - med/low level of smoke (for me). Rebel Brewer suggests usage for Briess Cherry Wood Smoked Malt as follows:

"5-10% - Noticeable smoke character in lighter styles such as Scottish Ales and Oktoberfests
10-20% - Pronounced smoke character in lighter styles like Scottish Ales and Oktoberfests
30-60% - Noticeable to pronounced smoke character in darker styles like Stouts and Porters
We recommend limiting usage to 60% (but we really can't tell you what to do...you rebel)"
 
eah.. idonno, im going to try it anyways.. im going back to my initial amount of 1.5 lbs, im not looking for anything overpowering, just to give this a little different flair if that be.. who knows.. after all said and done might be really really good or really really bad.. if its bad ill just feed it to my friends when they are drunk...
 
My Smoked Porter uses 5% Briess Cherry Smoked malt. It blends perfectly, and isn't overpowering in either the aroma or the flavor. Good enough that I'm willing to sacrifice a few bottles to Sam Adams this year.

I'm upping it to 15% for this batch, just to see what happens. I'm an experimentalist by nature--you can't really tell a recipe is perfect until you've tried to break it every possible way.
 
I just kegged (and have been serving for a few days now) a smoked porter that was 50% Weyermann beechwood smoked malt. I don't find it to be too much at all. In fact, I'd say the roast-y character of the porter masks, or at least compliments, a lot of the smoke character.
 
my smoked porter uses 5lbs pale malt and 4lbs smoked and I remember it being very good. I haven't made it in years, but bought the smoked malt last week and am planning it as my next beer.
 
I just used 1lb (7.1%) Weyermann Rauch Malt in a Smoked IPA Braggot and it's just shy of the smoke I was looking for. Then again, in a really hoppy beer Rauch malt tends to emphasize the bitterness quite a bit so 10% might be alright but anything above that would be unbalanced to me. Also, just my $0.02, peat smoked malt is too strong for anything but a scottish! If you want mellow, drinkable smoke that can be blended with other flavors, I'd stick to Rauch malt. Happy Brewing!
 
Like anything else, it's all about balance. 10% in a mild would be very noticeable, but would be lost in a Baltic porter. I do a smoked and oaked porter that has equal amounts of smoked malt and base malt. However, it also has 1.5 pounds of molasses, 0.5 pounds of brown sugar, and about a pound of dark grains. It is complex, yet balanced.
 
I did a smoked wee heavy and used about 60% smoked malt... after a few weeks of conditioning, it is way too smoky for me... but maybe it will improve with a few more weeks.

I would guess that your recipe will end up with a nice mellow smoky character.

My beer is definitely blending better over time... it is not too smoky any more, but I think it does need more time to blend better to be even better than it is already.
 
Like anything else, it's all about balance. 10% in a mild would be very noticeable, but would be lost in a Baltic porter. I do a smoked and oaked porter that has equal amounts of smoked malt and base malt. However, it also has 1.5 pounds of molasses, 0.5 pounds of brown sugar, and about a pound of dark grains. It is complex, yet balanced.


can we have that recipe?
 
How'd this one turn out rustbucket? I put together my first recipe and bought the ingredients earlier today before finding this thread. I went with

6lb pale 2row
3lb cherrywood smoked
3lb rye
.5lb 60l caramel
.5 flaked barley
.25lb black patent

Hop schedule is a bit different too - Mt Hood/Tettnanger for lower IBUs. Wondering what to expect in the finished product.
 
Just bottled 98% weyermann smoked, 2% dehusked carafa II using S-04 at 64F.

Currently fermenting is 98% weyermann smoked, 2% dehusked carafa II using WL820 at 54F.
 

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