Peat Smoked Porter

Hey Everyone, I am pretty new to brewing and am about to brew a porter with some peated malt in it. I know there are a lot of strong feelings about peated malt, but I like highly peated whiskeys. Anyways, here is the recipe i am thinking of following and I would appreciate any feedback on it.

For 5 Gallons

8 lbs Briess Pale Ale Malt
4 lbs Weyermann Vienna
1 lbs Crisp Black Malt
.375 Simpsons Peated Malt
.25 lbs Briess Caramel 80
.25 lbs Briess Victory

2 oz Cluster Hops at 60 min
1 oz Williamette at 40 min
1 oz Williamette at 20 min

Safale US-05

Looks pretty good, personally I would go with more peat although most will tell you less. I used 1/4lb of peat and a 1lb of smoked malt in my last 5 gallon batch of smoked porter and it was smokey, but not overly, my next try I will probably go no smoke, but 3/4lbs of peat.

On the whiskey front my new favorite super peaty scotch is Isle of Jura Prophecy, it might be even peatier than laphroiag.

My peat smoked porter had 1 lb peated malt and 3.25 lb smoked malt. It was more smoky than peaty at first. Quite well balanced overall though. But over time the smoke became stronger. It had a hint of leather to it. I personally liked it but could only tolerate a pint once in a while. The next time I'd almost remove the smoked malt altogether and only go with peated malt (still probably at 1 lb). I also love peaty single malts like the Ardbeg Supernova (for a reference, it's about 5 times more peaty than the Laphroaig 10 y.o.).

Don't use too much peat malt. I used 0.3 lbs in 6 gallons of Porter (Stone clone), and is great.

Peat malt and Rauch malt are a lot different. I would have no problem using 100% Rauch malt, but I'm not sure 0.5 lbs of peat in 6 gallons would be very drinkable.

Calder said:

Don't use too much peat malt. I used 0.3 lbs in 6 gallons of Porter (Stone clone), and is great.

Peat malt and Rauch malt are a lot different. I would have no problem using 100% Rauch malt, but I'm not sure 0.5 lbs of peat in 6 gallons would be very drinkable.

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I disagree. I've actually made a smoked porter with a lot of peated malt (1 lb for a 5 gal batch) and it's fabulous. It depends on preference. The OP mentioned he liked highly peated whiskies.

I recently made a beer that had 3lbs of peat per 5 gallons in it and its fantastic, anybody who likes big peaty scotchs would love it, don't let the peat haters scare you.

Thanks Guys, I think I will be adding a little more peated malt, I will let you know how it comes out when its finished.

Also thanks for the advice on some interesting scotch!

Bashiba said:

I recently made a beer that had 3lbs of peat per 5 gallons in it and its fantastic, anybody who likes big peaty scotchs would love it, don't let the peat haters scare you.

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I post that up all the time. The naysayers are the ones that must not like the peat flavor. For the guys that appreciate the flavor will be disappointed when they make a beer following the naysayer tastes.

I did a pound in a low hops barleywine and plan on upping it on the next batch a little bit and upping the oak cubes too.

So I ended up making this beer with 12 oz of peated malt, it should be ready to bottle by this weekend so i will take a taste and tell everyone how it is!

RitsiGators said:

So I ended up making this beer with 12 oz of peated malt, it should be ready to bottle by this weekend so i will take a taste and tell everyone how it is!

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How'd it turn out?

It came out pretty good. The peat was definately not overpowering, I would have probably cut back to 8 or 10 oz of the peat malt and added some normal smoked malt to add some more smokiness to back up the peat. The smoke was present, but not like some smoked beers that I have had that have been like drinking a campfire. Also I would have cut back on the late addition hops as I dont really think they did anything and I found myself waiting for them to fade.

Good to know. Looking at the grain bill from the original post, was the only modification to increase the peat malt from 0.375 to 0.75? If so, then peat malt was about 5% of your total grain bill, which is right around what I was planning. I'm not looking to create a smoked beer (yet), instead I'm hoping to add some smokey complexity to a fairly roasty porter - and I'm really thinking the peat malt is the way to go. Thanks.

Yeah, the only modification to the grain bill was the increase of the peat malt to 0.75 #.

I changed the hop schedule to 1.5 Cluster @ 60 (5%AA) and moved the williamette additions to 35 and 15 minutes. I think i would stick with the original timing on the late additions though.

I'm using Nugget for bittering addition, Willamette + EKG for flavor add. & flame out