smoky flavour in beer?

CornyKegs 728
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.
A

Alx Rains

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
97
Reaction score
1
Location
Townsville,QLD Aust
A bloke I work with asked me today about how to get smoky flavours into a beer, especially a lighter beer like a lager, he was looking for a crisp taste with smoky flavours. I told him I had no Idea but would ask the experts! Any Ideas, expeeriences? hints?
Thanks in advance Alx
 
Alx Rains said:
A bloke I work with asked me today about how to get smoky flavours into a beer, especially a lighter beer like a lager, he was looking for a crisp taste with smoky flavours. I told him I had no Idea but would ask the experts! Any Ideas, expeeriences? hints?
Thanks in advance Alx
Click to expand...

Hi ya

Ive never done it and im no expert :) but liquid smoke could be ago.. its not to hard to make ya own to.

Daza
 
I wouldn't use liquid smoke. . . although I've seen it in some recipes. The better option is to use some smoked malt. You can purchase some peat-smoked malt from any HBS. Use it sparingly as the smoked flavors can get fairly intense.

Addtionally, you can experiment with smoking your own malt. Once, I took some specialty grains - biscuit, I believe - and put them on a wood smoker. It didn't take long for the grains to pick up smoky aromas. I steeped those grains (1/2 lb . . . if I remember right) in a extract recipe for a lighter american style ale.

That has been a number of years ago . . . but it is exactly what your friend is asking for. It was a fairly good beer, but I probably won't do another smoked beer. I prefer smoke flavor on my pork ribs rather than my beer :) :p
 
I agree with sonvolt... no liquid smoke... it will be rather nasty by all accounts... I would use a small portion of peat smoked malt or German rauchmalt... and only a little of either one for your first attempt... they have different flavors; the peat more scotch like and the beechwood smoked rauchmalt more smokey cooking flavors (the last Rauchbier I had was like drinking liquid smoke, so again, go easy for the first batch no matter which way you go)

Here's what Beer Advocate has to say about Rauchbier:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/7/

And here is what Brew Your Own has to say on making great smoked beers:

http://byo.com/feature/597.html

hope that helps,
mikey
 
I made a rauch with liquid smoke that I'll be bottling this weekend. Rauch-malt is hard to come by around here and I didn't feel like smoking my own, so liquid smoke it had to be. I found one with all natural ingerdients and used about 15ml for a 5gallon batch. At first I thought it was the worst thing I had ever tasted and for a while I even thought the batch was infected. After about a month of lagering the flavors are actually pretty good and mellow.
So yeah, you may not get a medal-winning rauch with liquid smoke (or you might) but for the reasonably small amount of effort to see if you would like to persue the style, why not use a quality liquid?
 
Rauch malt or peat smoked barley. Word of warning, peat smoked is used by the ounce. Never use more than 4 ounces per batch (unless you are making Old Bog Water Barleywine). Rauch malt is much less intense and is used by the pound. Some recipes use all rauch.
 
Since I've started doing all-grain, my favorite malt to use is what I smoke myself with hickory or oak pellets!:D It lends a great, subtle smokiness to my scotch ale!

I've used peat smoked malt only once. A little goes a long way! Rauch isn't avaliable at any HBS near me.

I've used liquid smoke before and the results were very good. Use a good quality liquid smoke if you go that route. Wright's is my personal favorite.
 
Alx Rains said:
A bloke I work with asked me today about how to get smoky flavours into a beer, especially a lighter beer like a lager, he was looking for a crisp taste with smoky flavours.
Click to expand...
I'll second what others have said about the peat malt, especially in a lighter beer...a little goes a long, long ways. I recently did an amber ale with 1/2oz of peated malt which I was quite dubious about, but the peaty falvor is very palpable. I'm not sure I would use peated malt at all in a light lager. Stick with a bit of rauchmalt, or as Rhoobarb says smoke your own. Beechwood (the rauchmalt) is a little odd to me, anyways. I'd go with hickory or for a lighter touch maybe apple, cherry, or pecan.
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
... Beechwood (the rauchmalt) is a little odd to me...
Click to expand...

Yeah, and who uses Beechwood to smoke food?:confused: The again, Budweiser supposedly uses beechwood to age their beer. At least I remember all those TV ads with Ed McMahon saying, "beechwood aged... Budweiser.":)
 
Wow thanks for that Guys! I'll pass it on to him! It's great to be able to tap into so much experience so easily! long live the forum!
Cheers Alx
 
sonvolt said:
I wouldn't use liquid smoke. . . although I've seen it in some recipes. The better option is to use some smoked malt. You can purchase some peat-smoked malt from any HBS. Use it sparingly as the smoked flavors can get fairly intense.

Addtionally, you can experiment with smoking your own malt. Once, I took some specialty grains - biscuit, I believe - and put them on a wood smoker. It didn't take long for the grains to pick up smoky aromas. I steeped those grains (1/2 lb . . . if I remember right) in a extract recipe for a lighter american style ale.

That has been a number of years ago . . . but it is exactly what your friend is asking for. It was a fairly good beer, but I probably won't do another smoked beer. I prefer smoke flavor on my pork ribs rather than my beer :) :p
Click to expand...

If you look in "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing", by Charlie Papazian (pg. 215) ISBN 0-380-76366-4

He suggests a liquid smoke but second to smoking malted barley. Anyhow 1/2 oz of "Wright's Liquid Smoke" EH Wright Company, PO Drawer 899 Brentwood, TN 37027 USA.

7 lbs Munton & Fison liq extract
1.5 lbs smoked crystal malt - OR - 1/2 oz liq smoke for 5 gal (2 teaspoons)
1.5 oz Hallertauer hops 8 hbu boiling (40 min)
1/2 oz Hallertauer flavoring (20 min)
1/2 oz Hallertauer/Tettnanger finishing (final 2 min)
1/4 c. chocolate malt
1-2 packs lager yeast
3/4 c. corner sugar or 1.25 dried extract


Good Luck!
 
You could collect your own liquid smoke. I watched it on "Good Eats" the other night.

Alton Brown took a smoker, put a long pipe leading up into a bundt pan, with an upside down bowl over the top and a bag of ice. Pretty much a still. As he smoked wood chips over charcoal, liquid smoke collected in the pan. It would be a really cool hands-on way to get all natural liquid smoke.

Edit: I can't believe I wrote "Elton Brown" the first time. My bad.
 
Are you suggesting a beer-bong, Poster Formerly Known as Happy Mug?:cross: :cross:
 
Sasquatch said:
Are you suggesting a beer-bong, Poster Formerly Known as Happy Mug?:cross: :cross:
Click to expand...

A beer bong based on a large smoker? With a six-inch diameter, five foot exhaust pipe and a large cake pan, a large inverted mixing bowl and a one-gallon zip-lock filled with ice? It stood seven feet high!

I like the way you think. We have GOT to get together some time and build it!
 

Similar threads

MaxStout
I've been invited to do a pro/am brew. I'm stoked!
2
Replies
66
Views
4K
Hoppy2bmerry
Hoppy2bmerry
R
Limoncello beer
Replies
3
Views
386
DBhomebrew
DBhomebrew
alutis05
Brewing ALL-GRAIN dark beer (lager).
Replies
9
Views
533
AlexKay
A
A
Off flavour after kegging?
Replies
10
Views
968
Adamkav
A
MightyMosin
Mead Class... Looking for suggestions
Replies
12
Views
723
Johnny2
J
Brewer's Friend 300

Latest posts

Back
Top