Anybody smoke their own grains?

[Schmoogdaddy]

I was sitting by my fire pit on my patio enjoying a couple of Oktoberfests with a nice smell of oak smoke in the air. I started to wonder about smoking my own grains for a rauchbier. Anybody ever done this? I believe beechwood is normally used. What about oak or cherry? What methods or equipment are used?

 

[corkybstewart]

Last fall I smoked 2 10 pound batches of 2 row, one with pecan, the other with apple. The pecan is definitely smoother. Almost any wood can be used.
I have a smoker with an offset firebox. I make a small fire with the wood in the offset and keep feeding it small amounts of wood for an hour or so. The malt is in cheap aluminum pans with hundreds of holes poked in them, each one holds 5 pounds. About every 15 minutes I stir the malt to make sure it all gets smoked, then I put it in a paper grocery bag for a couple of weeks to breathe.

You want to try and keep the temp as low as possible while it smokes, with my setup the malt stays about 5 degrees above ambient with the smoker door shut. BTW it's also great for smoking cheese in the winter.

 

[pmkealiher]

What temp did you smoke them at? I have a weber smoky mountain and would like to try this as well.

 

[corkybstewart]

Since I'm just just making a small smoldering fire there's very little heat on the malt.

 

[Revvy]

Yes, one of our members, who we lovingly call "donkey Sniffer" becasue his handle is too difficult to write or say,put together detailed info about it in his Snmokey Braggot porter thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f77/smokey-boggart-porter-59670/

But the rules are you MUST wear a snazzy tweed jacket whilst doing it.

 

[Schmoogdaddy]

Well here it is 3 years later and I'm about to give it a go. My electric smoker is warming up.

I recently got a 55 lb. bag of Weyermann rauchmalt. I made a rauchweizen with 7 lbs. of rauchmalt and it wasn't smokey enough. Then I made a 100% rauchmalt rauchbier which is in the primary right now. I don't think it will be as smokey as I want it to be. So...

I'm going to try re-smoking the rauchmalt for a smoked amber ale using oak. I don't know how crazy that sounds, but I'm going to try.

Comments anyone?

 

[kingwood-kid]

I cold-smoke mine (while I barbecue) by running a dryer hose from my grill to a box I built out of spare parts that holds some grain. Try to spread the grain as thin as possible to maximize surface area. Smoking for an hour or so and using a little over 1/2lb per gallon gave me a nice smoked porter. Err on the side of too much smoke; it fades and smooths out as it ages, so eventually it'll hit a sweet spot.

 

[SpeedYellow]

I definitely wouldn't try this without buying the book Smoked Beers, which gives great advice on a variety of smoking methods. Remember to first wet them with distilled h2o, use multiple screens if needed to keep ash away, keep the temps low, etc. Lots of wood plus 2 hrs smoking means you'll only want to use like 20-30% in your recipe.

 

[Schmoogdaddy]

SpeedYellow, I took your advice and ordered the book Smoked Beers. However, I also brewed a smoked amber ale yesterday using my oak re-smoked rauchmalt. It smelled and tasted awesome, so I went with it.

BIAB partial mash @ 154
5 lbs. Weyermann rauchmalt
2 lbs. oak re-smoked Weyemann rauchmalt
3 lbs. amber LME
1 lb. amber DME
1/2 oz. Cascade and 1/2 oz. Willamette @ 60 min.
1/2 oz. Cascade and 1/2 oz. Willamette @ 30 min.
Topped off to 6 gallons for 1.057 O.G.
US-05 rehydrated and fermenting at 66 degrees.

 

[Brew_Bro]

Seems like it would be difficult to keep them lit. Do you use a hooka, or a regular little pipe, or do you roll 'em up with...

Wait a second. We may be talking about different things, here...