Commercially Available Smoked Porter?

I have been reading about smoked porters and would be interested in trying one. At this point, I do not have the knowledge or equipment to do a full-grain which it appears would be required to homebrew a smoked porter.

Thanks!

Pat in WV said:

I have been reading about smoked porters and would be interested in trying one. At this point, I do not have the knowledge or equipment to do a full-grain which it appears would be required to homebrew a smoked porter.

Thanks!

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While I have not had it myself, I hear that Alasking Brewing Co has a smoked porter that's quite tasty.

And you don't need all grain. Just do an extract with a dash of Liquid Smoke.

Alaskan Smoked Porter is pretty aggressively smoked - not bad, but it's really a rauchbier on top of a porter. If you like rauchbier, you'll like it.

Stone makes a smoked portert that I prefer, it's a lot more subtle. It uses a small amount of peated malt for its flavor and aroma. They are both incredible beers, but the Alaskan beer needs a bit of aging, I think. I have a couple bottles of the 2005 vintage that I need to sample.

Persoanlly, I would avoid the liquid smoke, learn to do a partial mash instead. You could either mash a couple pounds (andwhere from 2 to 5, I would think) or rauchmalt for the smoke flavor, or a VERY, VERY SMALL amount of peat malt (2 OUNCES). Liquid smoke isn't the same.

the_bird said:

Alaskan Smoked Porter is pretty aggressively smoked - not bad, but it's really a rauchbier on top of a porter. If you like rauchbier, you'll like it.

Stone makes a smoked portert that I prefer, it's a lot more subtle. It uses a small amount of peated malt for its flavor and aroma. They are both incredible beers, but the Alaskan beer needs a bit of aging, I think. I have a couple bottles of the 2005 vintage that I need to sample.

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Hey Bird, where are you finding Alaskan's smoked? Even the largest distributors in my area can't get hold of it.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like it gets down your way but O'Fallon in St. Louis makes a good smoked porter.

http://www.ofallonbrewery.com/ofallonbrewery.html

Ize

Toilet Rocker said:

Hey Bird, where are you finding Alaskan's smoked? Even the largest distributors in my area can't get hold of it.

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Did a swap with Brewtopia...

Does any recall last years Alaskan Smoked Porter? This years seems more smokey than last. Then again, I have been doing more "tasting" this year and my pallate has gotten better.

I have two bottles of '05, so I can check for you

This years' was the first I've tasted, and it struck me as pretty overwhelming. I'm not going to touch the other bottle of '06 for a year, I think this will definately benefit from some aging.

Yeah, I've got another bottle of '06 as well going into safe keeping. I just don't remember '05 being that smokey.

Gotta say that Stone's smoked porter is one of my favorite beers ever. If you haven't tried it get yourself some. Just a hint of smoke and nearly, but not quite, a stout.

Many smoked porters use Rauch and you need a lot of it, but 2 oz. of peat-smoked malt will give similar levels of smoke. It isn't exactly the same, but close. You could brew a porter and before bottling make a tea by steeping 2 oz. of peat in a pint of water. Bottle all but 2 gallons of the porter, add half of the tea, bottle another gallons worth. Add the rest of the tea and finish bottling.

That would give you three brews to compare.

I just sampled my smoked porter, which used 2oz of peat-smoked malt, and the smoke flavor was pretty much spot-on. The brew's got another issue, I should have held off a bit on some late hop additions (I'm an idiot), but I got the smoke right at least.