Classic Style Smoked Beer North to Alaska Smoked Porter

I no longer enter competitions but when I did, my version of Alaskan Smoked Porter was generally well received. I do smoke all 9 lbs of the base grain with alderwood (available online). It may seem like too much smoke but it's not. This gives an excellent blend of smoke flavor and balance with the Porter & hops. I spent a few hours talking to a delightful lady at the brewery. I never coaxed the formula from her, but I did get the entire grain bill and hops to experiment with. Wyeast #1968 seems perfect, plus it gets the job done fairly quickly and gets out of the way...

If you change the wood for smoking (apple..cherry etc.), you will not get the same flavor. However, I have found the cherry wood smoked malt from Breiss is excellent in a more lightly smoked porter.

If you brew my version, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over these years. My goal was, not to duplicate the great original, but to get something worthy enough to compare to it...

Equipment: Brew Pot (15 Gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (10 Gal)
I mash @ 156F & boil this brew for 90 minutes

Grain bill

9.00 lb Alder smoked US Pale 2-row
2.00 lb Munich Malt
1.00 lb Crystal Malt - 60L
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt
0.50 lb Black (Patent) Malt
0.50 lb Crystal Malt -120L
1.00 oz Chinook Leaf [13.0%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Williamette Leaf [5.5%] (15 min)
1.00 oz Williamette Leaf [5.5%] (5 min)
London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968

OG: 1.068
FG: 1.018

Notes: Smoke base grain with alderwood (preferably with offset firepit) You want the smoke not the heat. I smoke it for 2-3 hours spritzing it every 30 minutes with distilled water (no chlorine). .

2nd place Kansas City Biermeister's 2005
3rd place IBU Challenge (Iowa Brewer's union) Des Moines IA 2005
1st place GABzBF Great Arizona Homebrew Competition 2005
1st place Carolina Brewmasters US Open 2005
1st place River City Roundup 2006 Omaha NE
2nd BOS River City Roundup 2006 Omaha NE
1st place Hoppy Halloween Challenge...2006 Fargo ND
2nd place Thirsty Classic 2006 Amana IA

This looks TASTY.

I just called up a good friend of mine to acquire some alderwood. This is going on the brew calendar!

What is your OG and FG?

Hanso said:

What is your OG and FG?

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I'm not the owner of this, but it is in the original post:

Original Gravity: 1.072
Final Gravity: 1.021

Lol must have been up too late...

AmandaK said:

This looks TASTY.

I just called up a good friend of mine to acquire some alderwood. This is going on the brew calendar!

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Have you brewed this yet Amanda? I honestly believe, for those who love a good smoked porter, it won't disappoint you...regards from sundowner...aka hophead a 'nother lifetime ago...

sundowner said:

Have you brewed this yet Amanda? I honestly believe, for those who love a good smoked porter, it won't disappoint you...regards from sundowner...aka hophead a 'nother lifetime ago...

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I have not. I've secured a source for Alder wood but I need to be in town for a weekend so I can smoke the malt for it. I'm hoping for 8/24-8/25 weekend for malt smoking and brewing within a few weeks of that.

Our smoking process: we have several 1'x4' "bins" that are made of 0.5"x2" wooden frames with a fine mesh on the bottom for smoke penetration. We wet the malt in the beginning of the day and let it dry throughout the smoking process. This is in a commercial smoker, rotating racks, off set fire box and indirect heat. I am very lucky to have such generous club members (KC Bier Meisters) that have cool equipment!

I'll be reporting back, that is for sure.

Ah yes, KC Bier Meisters...a great bunch. This beer scored a 43 in the 2005 competition there. You have a perfect setup for smoking the grain. Look forward to your reports. Frankly, from the looks of your brewing tastes, I think you're gonna love it...

Love me a good smoked porter...if not baltic!

This is going on the board!!

Cheers!

Smoked the malt today. About 4 hours between 175-225. Drying right now and will be brewing when my ESB is done with WY1968.

Brewed this tonight and the apartment smells amazing.


This was my final batch on my old system, here's to a good one!

Sundowner, this one has been on my list for a while but I lack the means to smoke the malt. Do you have recommendations for a commercially available substitute for the 2 row? I want to make sure the balance is about right and don't want to load it down with all peat smoked malt or something else like that which is probably wrong.

Hanso said:

Sundowner, this one has been on my list for a while but I lack the means to smoke the malt. Do you have recommendations for a commercially available substitute for the 2 row? I want to make sure the balance is about right and don't want to load it down with all peat smoked malt or something else like that which is probably wrong.

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It won't be quite the same beer, but Briess has some cherry wood smoked malt that makes an excellent smoked porter. I would cut the amount down to around 4 lbs though...

sundowner said:

It won't be quite the same beer, but Briess has some cherry wood smoked malt that makes an excellent smoked porter. I would cut the amount down to around 4 lbs though...

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Thanks! And 5 lbs of regular 2 row then, to get to 9 total?

Yes, that should do it. The 1st time I used the cherry wood smoked malt, I treated it like the alder wood and used it for all the base grain...Too much smoke flavor. Cheers!

I think you could use 9# of Weyermann Beechwood Smoked malt and not be too smokey (about 64% for this recipe). I've used 20% and 60% in smoked porter and would recommend the higher percentage.

I plan on brewing this recipe but am skeptical about the mash temperature and yeast (probably my preference for a drier porter). I'd think mashing at 153F and using a high attenuating neutral yeast like Wyeast 1056 would get to the recipe 1.018 final gravity with over 10% of crystal malt.

DSmith said:

I think you could use 9# of Weyermann Beechwood Smoked malt and not be too smokey (about 64% for this recipe). I've used 20% and 60% in smoked porter and would recommend the higher percentage.

I plan on brewing this recipe but am skeptical about the mash temperature and yeast (probably my preference for a drier porter). I'd think mashing at 153F and using a high attenuating neutral yeast like Wyeast 1056 would get to the recipe 1.018 final gravity with over 10% of crystal malt.

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Sure, if you use Weyermann's beechwood smoked malt, 9 lbs is fine. This beer was not designed to be dry and Wyeast 1968 is a perfect fit. If you want a dry porter, there are many other recipes for that...

I didn't want to imply that mashing lower or switching yeast could make a better beer. I will brew this as-is because it's a proven recipe with lots of awards.