Working on Smoked Maple Brown Ale Recipe...Any Thoughts???

All-Grain - Smoked Maple Brown Ale
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Safale S-04 English Yeast Ale
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.063
Final Gravity: 1.017
IBU: 31
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 24 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21

Looking to give this beer a nice malty medium body, with a sweet rich caramel, toffee, roasty, toasty, smokey & maple flavor/aroma. Light on the hops.

Ingredients:
6 lb. Marris Otter 2-Row Pale Malt
2 lb. Smoked Malt (Rauch Malt)
1.50 lb. Maple Syrup (Add into the Primary Fermenter 5 days after fermentation begins)
1 lb. American CaraMunich Malt (60L)
.5 lb American Chocolate Malt
.5 lb. Flaked Oats
1 oz. Willamette Pellet (5.5%) 60 Minutes
.75 oz. Cascade Pellet (6.6%) 15 Minutes
.5 oz. Cascade Pellet (6.6%) 5 Minutes
Safale S-04 English Yeast Ale


Mash Profile:
Name: Single Infusion
Mash Grain Weight: 11.5 lb
Mash Temperature: 154.0 F for 60 Minutes
Mash Out Temperature: 168.0 F for 10 Minutes
Sparge Temperature: 170.0 F
Boil 7 Gallons for 90 Minutes

** Based on 68% brewhouse efficiency**

You're not going to taste anything but the smoked malt. I've had plenty of experience with Maple Syrup in beers (One of my favority family recipes contains it), and it's a very delicate flavor. Putting anything smoked in with maple syrup is just going to overpower it and it'd be a complete waste of money.

What if I reduce the smoke malt down to half a pound or less? How noticeable is the Maple Syrup in your beer? Is it noticeable in the flavor and aroma?

I love the idea. let me give another suggestion, i was listening to a podcast with drew beechum the other day and he mentioned some other smoked malts, with less "smoke" the rauchmalt. Here is what I would use http://www.folsombrewmeister.com/servlet/-strse-435/Maple-Wood-Smoked-Malt/Detail
It might be right up your alley

I'm not against using smoked malt... I just don't think there's a point of using maple syrup if you do. In my experience with maple syrup...it's a VERY delicate flavor. As I mentioned, one of my house brews uses it. I use 12fl.oz. of it (a whole bottle of quality syrup, about 10 bucks) in my recipe. I add it at the end of my boil. After fermentation, it is only slightly noticeable. It's there, but only slightly. Adding it in your fermentor may help a little, but I just don't think it'll be enough to taste with any smokey flavor.

I myself don't like smoked beers... if I wanted BBQ, I have a grill. But, to each his/her own.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

You're not going to taste anything but the smoked malt. I've had plenty of experience with Maple Syrup in beers (One of my favority family recipes contains it), and it's a very delicate flavor. Putting anything smoked in with maple syrup is just going to overpower it and it'd be a complete waste of money.

Click to expand...

Yep............

I notice that a great deal of Smoked Robust Porters use about 2 - 3 pounds of Smoked malt, while Scotch Ales use a minimal amount of Smoked Malt to give only a slight hint of smokiness. If reduce the smoke addition to a low percentage of the recipe somewhere to 2%, might that help?

Looking at the recipe without the smoke and just going right into a Brown Ale, does the recipe seem stable? I'm more partial to a Brown Ale with a greater mouth feel and that is why I added Flaked Oats, do I need to up the Oats to a pound perhaps? The chocolate malt and caramunich seem proportioned to the point where I will get the flavors from both and they will not overpower. Does the recipe need any munich malt? I've see a few that add munich malt.

You can try lowering the smoked malt. I'm no expert on smoked malt, I just know it's a very distinct flavor and syrup isn't.

It looks good for a brown though. No need for Munich. If anything, I'd add a few pounds of Vienna. Everything else looks pretty good for a Brown.

There's a difference between smoked malt and peat smoked malt. The smoked porters use a beechwood smoked malt which has a very, very slight smoked flavor. Peat smoked malt, on the other hand, is the one you want to use very, very little of. It's traditional in Scottish Ales, but they use very little because it has an intense flavor. I used 15 oz. in a smoked holiday porter recently and the flavor is there but barely.

I disagree about cutting down the smoked malt. As the poster above said, if using rauchmalt, I would be confident using 3-4 lbs for a brown ale application. I don't think it's going to mask any maple flavor at all.

You might want to look into fennugreek for some maple flavor, might be better able to stand up against the smoked flavor. While I don't have much experience with smoked malt, +1 to the comments that maple syrup is a slight, subtle flavor.

PseudoChef said:

I disagree about cutting down the smoked malt. As the poster above said, if using rauchmalt, I would be confident using 3-4 lbs for a brown ale application. I don't think it's going to mask any maple flavor at all.

Click to expand...

I stand by my comments. I made a 3# smoke and I think it would overwhelm maple.