Scotch Ale - Smoke your own malt?

I am brewing a Scotch ale on Black Friday and I am considering smoking my own malt.

My plan is to use indirect heat in my grill and take about a pound of the pale malt and use either hickory chips or ceder chips to smoke it. I suppose the best thing would be to get some peat, but I have no idea at this point where I would get that.

Anyone tried this approach and have good results with it? Otherwise I can just use raunch malt from the local home brew shop.

Thanks

Smoked malt is actually not really to style, I find that with the freshness level of it from the LHBS 4 oz is plenty. Rauch malt is beechwood smoked and would be much milder than hickory or cedar smoked malt. Peat smoked malt IMHO should never be anywhere near beer.

rockfish42 said:

Smoked malt is actually not really to style, I find that with the freshness level of it from the LHBS 4 oz is plenty. Rauch malt is beechwood smoked and would be much milder than hickory or cedar smoked malt. Peat smoked malt IMHO should never be anywhere near beer.

Click to expand...

+1 for no smoke malt (rauchmalt) and +10 for peat malt being nowhere near a beer. ( I think that stuff is used in Scotch production)

A 70/- Scottish ale should have English Pale malt, Crystal malt, Pale Chocolate and Honey malt. See Brewing Classic Styles. No mention of smoke malt.

Wee Heavy uses a bit smoked malt so I'd say go for it. Smoked beers are great if they are made correctly.

I am panning to brew a Scotch ale not a Scottish ale specifically a "strong scotch ale". according the the BJCP:

http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2008_Guidelines.pdf

"A small proportion of smoked malt may add depth, though a peaty character (sometimes perceived as earthy or smoky) may also originate from the yeast and native water."

My concern is not so much if I hit any specific style guidelines though. I am more trying to see if anyone has substituted some of these other woods and what flavors they got in the beer and if they liked the taste.

4oz was mentioned but 1 pound smoked for less time could be more subtle than 4oz smoked for much longer, so I know I'd have to keep an eye on it if I did it on the grill.

Thanks

Some would argue that smoked/peat character is OK in a scotch ale, but I disagree.

Who cares if it is to character for the style!? If it tastes good brew it! Smoked malt tastes amazing in a scotch ale which Oskar Blues "Old Chub" opened my eyes to.

Since you are a colorado-dweller pick up a six pack of cans of Old Chub and see if you like it. It's 8% ABV, very very tasty and comes from a craft brewer that only cans!

It would matter if he wanted to enter it in competition, but you're right it doesn't really matter if it's not to style. I personally don't like smoked malt in scotch ales, it's often either over or under done. Depending on the age of the smoked malt it drastically changes the character of the finished beer.

Germelli1 said:

Since you are a colorado-dweller pick up a six pack of cans of Old Chub and see if you like it. It's 8% ABV, very very tasty and comes from a craft brewer that only cans!

Click to expand...

Yes thanks, I've probably had a barrel of that by now. One of the guys that I worked with went to work for them BTW. I didn't realize that they spread business out to your neck of the woods already.

rockfish42 said:

It would matter if he wanted to enter it in competition, but you're right it doesn't really matter if it's not to style. I personally don't like smoked malt in scotch ales, it's often either over or under done. Depending on the age of the smoked malt it drastically changes the character of the finished beer.

Click to expand...

I'm not looking to enter in competition, but yes I agree and that is another reason I'm thinking about smoking myself to make sure it is fresh.

I did a smoked porter a few brewing sessions ago and it came out fantastic. I smoked 1lb. of marris otter over wet mesquite chips indirectly on the BBQ for about an hour. The grain came out toasted and smoked. I've been brewing for only 2 years or so and have under 20 batches under me but this beer came out awesome. The smoke was in the background and not overpowering blending nicely with the chocolate malt. I used wlp 028 Edinburg. Great yeast IMO.

rockfish42 said:

It would matter if he wanted to enter it in competition, but you're right it doesn't really matter if it's not to style. I personally don't like smoked malt in scotch ales, it's often either over or under done. Depending on the age of the smoked malt it drastically changes the character of the finished beer.

Click to expand...

To be fair, even if you were entering a competition, you don't need to brew 100% to style. I understand that you don't want to vary drastically and completely where you are coming from with the cautioning against it.

I just remember a recent article I read (no idea where) about how many homebrew competition awards Jamil Z has won were beers that he included slight out of style variances.

jitteringjr said:

Yes thanks, I've probably had a barrel of that by now. One of the guys that I worked with went to work for them BTW. I didn't realize that they spread business out to your neck of the woods already.

Click to expand...

Yup, they are over here and caused me to no longer be a snob on the can vs bottle issue!

Germelli1 said:

Yup, they are over here and caused me to no longer be a snob on the can vs bottle issue!

Click to expand...

They really have re-revolutionized the canned beer market. I see more and more brands in cans all the time now. If you can get them and if you haven't already tried them, go for their "Ten Fiddy" and "Gubna". Ten Fidy is like oil slick in a can and Gubna is getting an isohumulone blood transfusion - awesome.

OK so an update. The LHBS actually had peat smoked malt just for Scottish type beers. It definitely had a more earthy smell and taste than the rauch malt that I was hopping for so I went with .5# of that so it will be ~2.5% of the grist.

I went with the following bill:

15# British pale
3# special roast
1# flaked barley
.5# Roast barley
.5# black malt
.5 Peat smoked malt
+ 7# pale mat extract. ( my efficiencies tank when I go over 20# in my cooler mash tun)

@ 60% efficiency on the grains that should bring me to 1.116 OG.

I'm shooting for 35BU with Fuggles. I'll be a while before it is ready, but I'll update along the process.

There are really two issues at hand here:

How do I smoke malt?

Is it proper to include peated/smoked malt in a Scotch ale?

The first question can be answered by a forum search. Others have done it very successfully. IIRC, low temps, short duration, and frequent agitation are key. Mesquite should likely be avoided.

The second question is tougher to answer. I agree that smoked malt is not to style. The yeast and malt are responsible for the slight smoky character, but no smoked malt is required. Try Wyeast 1728 or WLP028 along with a touch of roasted barley.

In the end, it's your beer. Brew it the way you prefer. If you want peat character, add peated malt...just go easy on it (your recipe looks reasonable).

Thanks Yuri. Going with WLP028, but I wanted a little more smoked kick.

OK the Wee Heavy is in the fermenter. I hit a 1.110, but I had to boil off 2 gallons to get that. My efficiencies really tank with these big beers.

The smoked taste in the wort was very subtle. A little more from the WLP028 and it should be exactly as I was hoping for.

I brewed a similar HoTD Adam clone today based on this recipe (cut down to 3 gallons) http://www.homebrewchef.com/Adam_Bier.htm. These two recipes look pretty close to the same. The peat smoked malt was very prominent when I was tossing the hops and washing out the brew kettle, but otherwise very light. I'm curious how yours turns out.

bolts said:

I brewed a similar HoTD Adam clone today based on this recipe (cut down to 3 gallons) http://www.homebrewchef.com/Adam_Bier.htm. These two recipes look pretty close to the same. The peat smoked malt was very prominent when I was tossing the hops and washing out the brew kettle, but otherwise very light. I'm curious how yours turns out.

Click to expand...

Same here. Keep me updated on yours. On day 2 of my fermentation, I had to switch to a blow off tube because it was out of control in a good way. I normally fill my primary to that same level but this time the Kräusen was my strongest yet.

I'm on day 4 of fermentation. I've been holding ~68F and getting respectable fermentation. I use Fermcap-S in the boil and don't get huge krausen (at least I think that's why). It smells great -- smells of a big barley wine really with notes of banana and malts with some hops. I'll probably take a gravity reading later this week when it slows down.

Well I transferred to the secondary today. Gravity was down to 1.050 from 1.110, so it is hitting the style guidelines, but I am hoping the gravity will come down to at least 1.040 in secondary fermentation. I have been fermenting at 60F and will probably hold it there another week before crashing it down to 40F for a couple of months.

The peat smoked flavor is nice, but a little strong. I don't know how it will age: if it will become more subtle with age or not, but right now I'm thinking 1/4# of the peat smoked malt would have been better than 1/2#..

On a crazy note, I separated 1 gallon and put it into a smaller fermenter and added hickory chips.

Smoke takes a long time to age out, which isn't necessarily a bad thing with a beer this big. That should keep you from drinking it too quickly

I gave mine 3 weeks in the primary, and just shy of 2 weeks @ 36F to cold crash. Racked to a keg today to get it off the cake and condition longer. It has a fascinating complex aroma.

The smell or taste of the peat malt is nowhere to be found, or at least not though the current aromas. It smells/tastes of figs, rum, prunes, and banana. Has a nice sweet note with a pretty boozy background. Definitely needs to age, but so far I'm a fan.

This fermented out quite low (at least I was surprised). OG 1.096 -> FG 1.018 10.34% ABV.

I've used this little guy to smoke some malt.
http://www.amazenproducts.com/

I love it, worked great with maple dust. Used it in my Raven stout, smoked 5lb of munich. You can see it in the hopville link in my sig.

I bottled it last night. My FG was 1.042 from 1.108 so about 8.7%. The peat flavor really tamed down a bunch but it is still a little green tasting. I wanted to go longer in the secondary but I need to transfer my trappist ale to a secondary and I am out of secondaries, so I'll bottle condition this one for a little longer before I dive into them

Well I stated digging into them. Today I tried a side by side comparison with highway 78 Scotch ale which is a collaboration effort brewed at Stone brewery.

I am amazed but I like mine better. Stone's example is in my opinion was over attenuated and over hopped. Simply put, there wasn't a dominating maltyness or sweetness presence in theirs.

Things I liked about theirs better than mine were 1. I under carbonated. I overestimated how lively the yeast would be after a long 2 month fermentation. And 2. I liked their color better. My color was right at 20 srm and theirs was more copper at like 16-17 srm. In my opinion theirs looked more like mine tasted.

The peat smoked malt really tamed down in mine an provided a very nice depth of flavor. Being so worried that I went overboard with 1/2# of it, I think I hit it right with that amount.

For the next batch, I would change my recipe slightly. I would back down on the roast barley & or the black malt slightly and possibly make it up with a lower SRM caramel malt to try to keep the maltyness flavor but still back down on the color.

Overall I am very happy with it. Stone is an amazing brewery and I can't believe I actually like mine better.

Peat from sphagnum or heather can certainly be to style. It's a water thing though, not necessarily from using that peat to dry the malt.