Smoked flavor/aroma in 'Dark Lager'

[chaps]

I recently brewed the GFHB kit 'Dark Lager' with some small changes to accommodate my kettle size. It was my first time brewing with the Mash and Boil and I can't say the brew day went smoothly as I had alot of problems keeping the temp consistent throughout the kettle during the mash, difference between top and bottom of almost 20 degrees. During fermentation my temp controller went haywire and dropped the temp to 58 (possibly lower). Fermentation never happened so i added extra enzyme, some Safale-05 after proofing, and raised temp (after calibrating ink bird) to 78. It ended up mostly fermenting but now I have some really strong smoked flavor and aroma in the beer. Almost rauchbier levels.

Couple of options that Im hoping to get opinions on:

1. Bottle it as is and let it sit for a while (2 months?) and see what happens
2. Put in some vanilla extract (amount?) at bottling to help smooth out the flavor a bit
3. Dump it to crump it

Thoughts?

Recipe and Mash schedule
Fermentables
12 lb Pale Rice Malt
2 lb Biscuit Rice Malt
0.5 lb James' Brown Rice Malt
0.5 lb Gas Hog Rice Malt
0.5 lb Dark Rice Malt

Hops
0.5 oz Magnum 45 min
0.5 oz Domestic Hallertau 15 min

Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
-- w/ Tetra for 50 min Temperature 180 F 10 min
-- w/ Seb L for 120 min Temperature 163 F 60 min

 

[JohnSand]

Well, I haven't brewed GF or anything smoky, so take this for what it's worth. You might try adding vanilla to some of the bottles, even varying amounts. Leave some alone as a control, and check them over time to see if they improve. Also let someone else taste it, it may not be as bad as you think.

 

[glutarded-chris]

I would bottle and let it sit for a few months. Personally, I would not add anything like vanilla. If you do, +1 on only adding to a few bottles for a test. Let the recipe and the fermentation do their thing. The temperature rollercoaster may not have a negative impact.

 

[chaps]

So I went with the middle road. I split the batch into 4 then added nothing, .5ml per bottle, 1ml, and 1.5ml vanilla per bottle to each of the lots. I’m going to open some up every week or so to see how it progresses as well as preferences on vanilla strength. Pipets were a dream tool in accomplishing this. Still now clue why it has such a strong smoke flavor.