Peat Smoked Malt

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.

Skipper74

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
205
Reaction score
3
Location
Franklin
I recently bought a pound of peat smoked malt because I enjoy the peat flavor in many brands of Scotch Whisky and I thought it may add an interesting dimension to a Scottish ale. After reading a number of threads about peated malt, I see that I should probably only use 3 oz. or so in a five-gallon batch. Therefore, I am going to have a lot of leftover malt. Has anyone used peat smoked malt in something other than a Scottish or a Scotch Ale?
 
Impreial stouts can use a small % to get a smokey flavor, Milk stouts could use a lilttle smoke

I also had a local 10% "triple" ipa, while it was not advertised as smoked, it had this nice meaty smoke character that had to be smoked malt.
Also a huge sweet sticky body

Experiment with it, i LOVE smokey tones, peated malt and SCOTCH, but havent been able to mess around with it to much in brewing.
Cheers!
 
I also bought a pound recently and put myself in a similar boat. I brewed my version of John Palmer's Elevenses and since it already had smoked wheat malt I went easy (I think) with just 1.6 ounces.

To use it maybe we need to do something crazy like making an American Pale ale, adding some Peat Smoked malt, and using a White Labs California ale yeast or Wyeast Northwest ale yeast and naming it Wildfire.
 
I have only used peat-smoked malt once, and I was really not happy with the results. I put it in a strong Scottish ale. I love peated scotch, but there's something about those same flavors in beer that really doesn't do it for me. I much prefer just normal smoked malt, which doesn't have those dead corpse phenols to go along with the normal "smoke" taste. But hey, give it a shot. Lots of people report different results.

If you're nervous, one thing you could try is making the main beer without any peat at all, and then separately steep the peated malt and save it for bottling/kegging time. You can then taste the beer with different proportions of peat flavor to see what you like. (If you cold-steep it, you won't get any fermentables; you can also micro-mash it and use it as part of your priming sugar if bottling.)
 
If you're nervous, one thing you could try is making the main beer without any peat at all, and then separately steep the peated malt and save it for bottling/kegging time. You can then taste the beer with different proportions of peat flavor to see what you like. (If you cold-steep it, you won't get any fermentables; you can also micro-mash it and use it as part of your priming sugar if bottling.)

I like this idea. I also wouldn't have thought of using the peated malt in an IPA, but it could be good. Anyone else actually tasted a beer other than a Scottish or Scotch ale that contained peat smoked malt?
 
There are some interesting comments and reports in this thread. I'm looking for something similar as I really don't like scottish ales, but I do love the peat flavor. For my whacked tastes, I think it would be hard to overdo the peat, but I am concerned introducing that medicinal flavor into the mix. I think I'll be trying my steam recipe with .75lbs of peated malt thrown into the mix and see what happens.
 
For my whacked tastes, I think it would be hard to overdo the peat, but I am concerned introducing that medicinal flavor into the mix. I think I'll be trying my steam recipe with .75lbs of peated malt thrown into the mix and see what happens.

That is going to be a real strong peat flavor. I used three ounces of peated malt when I brewed my Scottish Ale this weekend and the peat aroma was very noticeable as I was cooling and aerating the wort.
 
If you like peat in scotch, but you are "concerned introducing that medicinal flavor into the mix," then I think maybe you are confusing two things. You probably like a smoke taste. But you may not like a medicinal, strong phenol taste--or at least, not in beer, even though it's good in whiskey.

If that is so, I recommend that you DEFINITELY not add .75 lbs of peated malt. Instead, consider adding at most 4 oz of peated malt--and maybe even as little as 1 oz--but then add a significant quantity of ordinary smoked malt. It won't matter much whether that's American smoked malt, German smoked malt, or home-smoked malt. German rauchbier, for example, has a high percentage of smoked malt--close to half of the malt can be smoked--but it's not peated malt. Peat has flavors that are much stronger than, and more objectionable than, just ordinary smoke.

Again, this advice is based on your comment that you don't want "that medicinal flavor."
 
If that is so, I recommend that you DEFINITELY not add .75 lbs of peated malt. Instead, consider adding at most 4 oz of peated malt--and maybe even as little as 1 oz--but then add a significant quantity of ordinary smoked malt. It won't matter much whether that's American smoked malt, German smoked malt, or home-smoked malt. German rauchbier, for example, has a high percentage of smoked malt--close to half of the malt can be smoked--but it's not peated malt. Peat has flavors that are much stronger than, and more objectionable than, just ordinary smoke.

Hmm...I think I see what you mean. I didn't realize that the peated malt imparted much of the phenolic quality in those styles. My experience in brewing smokey styles is zero at the moment, and actually just in general my knowledge of those styles is limited. What kh54s10 described is exactly what I was looking for...something light and refreshing but still with some smoke. I have a California common beer that I do regularly that I might start experimenting off of.
 
Yeah, I mean, peated malt will definitely impart some pure smoke flavor. But along with that smoke will be just loads of preserved-corpse-covered-in-bandaids-exhumed-from-the-swamp flavor. If what you want is just a smokey beer, then I think as an initial experiment, you should try it with zero peat malt whatsoever, but a fair amount (say, 15-20% of the base malt) of smoked malt. You can then use the cold-steeped method to add some peated flavor post-fermentation, but only after tasting different proportions to see what you like.

I say this as someone who really likes peated scotch!
 
Back
Top