Cherry Smoked Chocolate Porter Recipe Critique

I received some Cherry Smoked Malt as a gift and was thinking of how to use it. So here we go

Batch Size: 5.5 Post Boil
Efficiency: 70%
Boil Time: 60min
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.79%
IBU: 33
SRM: 30.43

9# Maris Otter
1# Cherry Smoked Malt
.5# Crystal 40L
.5# American Choc Malt
.5# English Choc Malt
.5# Wheat Malt
.5# Carapils

1oz Galena FWH 13AA
.25oz Cascade @ 15min 7AA
.25 Mt Hood @ 5min 4.8AA

WLP002

Mash at 156F

Then for the Choc I was thinking of either using 5oz of Unsweetened Bakers Choc in the boil or using Cocoa Nibs in the secondary.

Any advice is appreciated

I;ve used this malt a few times and I donlt think 1lb will give a noticeable smoke presence. Espeically for a dark porter, i'd recommend 2-3lbs

I always use nibs in the primary for any chocolate character. Boiled in ~100ml water with 2 vanilla beans and dumped into fermentor. Works great

m00ps said:

I;ve used this malt a few times and I donlt think 1lb will give a noticeable smoke presence. Espeically for a dark porter, i'd recommend 2-3lbs

I always use nibs in the primary for any chocolate character. Boiled in ~100ml water with 2 vanilla beans and dumped into fermentor. Works great

Click to expand...

Did you enjoy this malt? Can't say I have ever had a smoked beer

Also, how long do you leave the nibs? 1 week?

I like smoked beers. I see it basically as rauchbiers (where smoke is the main element, tastes like a bacony campfire) and then normal beers with a touch of smoke (which is what I'm guessing you are going for). Try stones smoked porter, that should give you a good idea. They also make a vanilla one and a chili variety

I leave the nibs for 5-7 days like a dry hop. I think the boiling beforehand extracts a lot of the chocolate flavor though

Thanks for the reply m00ps

Any other suggestions out there?

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1420513885.128081.jpg

Here is my smoked cherry Porter recipe. 3.5 lb in 11g. batch. really tasty, slight cherry, light smoke.

EDIT. Forgot to add; m00ps is correct. 1 lb in 5g will not be very noticeable.

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muels said:

View attachment 246909

Here is my smoked cherry Porter recipe. 3.5 lb in 11g. batch. really tasty, slight cherry, light smoke.

EDIT. Forgot to add; m00ps is correct. 1 lb in 5g will not be very noticeable.

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Click to expand...

Thank you for the response I really appreciate the input. Also that looks like a great brew.... So I should bump it up to 2lbs?... Also thinking I might go with a 3Gal batch & use 1lb.... Thoughts?

Otherwise the recipe looks good?

Disclaimer: I am not a recipe guru. I use recipes that I find from friends and online then slightly tweak till it suits me. I am still learning (we all are I guess!).


I love the recipe I posted, one of my favorites. The smoked malt is about 13% of the total (in parentheses on the recipe). I would say if you are in that ballpark you will be ok as far as smoke and cherry flavor. I started at 3 lbs and upped it to 3.5 lbs. I may try 4lbs next time for experimentation!

Use mine, or another proven recipe, as a general guide for the first one and tweak from there! Everyone's tastes are different. What I think is a "slight, average" flavor may overpower you, or vise versa.



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Forgot to mention. I don't see anything specifically wrong with your recipe. I would rely on some other more experienced folks for fine tuning though. I just wanted to let you know the percentage of smoked malt I used in mine and how I perceive the flavor.


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