Rauch Ale Recommendations

[Schmoogdaddy]

I have become the proud owner of a 55 lb. bag of Weyermann rauch malt. I want to make a rauch ale, because my lagering refrigerator is busy with Oktoberfest right now, so no traditional rauchbier lager for now.

I will partial mash as much rauch malt as possible, (5-6 lbs.) the rest will be extract. Has anyone ever gone this route with Pilsner, Golden, Extra-light or Light DME? I was wondering about the outcome.

I have made a smoked amber ale in the past that was excellent, but this time around I wanted to try one of the lighter extracts. I expect to use Hallertauer for bittering and flavoring.

I also was wondering about yeast. I was thinking US-05, but I wanted a little more clarity like I usually get with Nottingham, but my basement temp is right up ther near the dreaded 70 degree mark where Nottingham can get a little yucky.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[passedpawn]

If you can get to my recipe pulldown, there's a smokebeer that others have made into an ale with success. I've always lagered it (have one on tap now in fact). It also has equal amounts Briess cherrywood smoked malt, which has a pretty large effect on it, but maybe you can skip that and experiment with just the Weyermann malt.

I think Schlenkerla uses 100% smoked malt in their smokebeers, so you could try that and chew up some of that malt pretty quickly.

 

[SpeedYellow]

I'll just say this: use it QUICKLY because it loses it's smoke flavor fast. I've made multiple rauchbiers with 90+% Weyermann and folks say it doesn't come out very smoky. That's because it's so darn hard to get the malt fresh.

 

[Schmoogdaddy]

I went with 3 lbs. of wheat DME along with my first BIAB partial mash of 7 lbs. of rauchmalt. WLP 300 for yeast and 1oz. of Hallertauer at 60 min. I topped up to 5.5 gallons to get down to 1.060. I can't wait to try it.

Next up, I'm going to go 100% rauchmalt with my house lager yeast and hops, WLP and Hallertauer.

 

[Schmoogdaddy]

Oops. WLP 838, that is.

 

[Schmoogdaddy]

I'll just say this: use it QUICKLY because it loses it's smoke flavor fast. I've made multiple rauchbiers with 90+% Weyermann and folks say it doesn't come out very smoky. That's because it's so darn hard to get the malt fresh.

Exactly. I just sampled my rauchbier made with 100% Weyermann rauchmalt. What a disappointment. It tasted much like dry Cheerios.

Since the time I brewed this, I have bought a smoker. I have re-smoked the Weyerman's with apple and hickory for an amber ale and today's brew will be a brown ale with hickory and cherry re-smoked malt.

Next up will be something like passedpawn's rauchbier, except I will re-smoke the Weyermann's with cherry wood instead of using the Briess.

That will just about use up that bag and end that experiment.