Tips on my first original recipe? (Rauchbier)

[uofmguy]

Hey,
So I'm trying my hand on making my own recipe for the first time and was hoping you guys could give me some tips before I brew.

I want to make a rauchbier. Except I don't want the smoke to be overwhelming, so I plan on not using it as the biggest grain addition. Also, I'm trying to make it more amber colored than dark. And I'm making it with ale yeast instead of as a lager.....

Yeah, I'm straying from the style a lot so maybe its not a rauchbier, but a smokey, german, amber ale.... But hey, that sounds good!


The things I'm most concerned about are:
*Too many pounds of grains?
*Too much hop bitterness or hop flavor? (beersmith says its at 29 IBUs / high end of rauchbier flavor style)
*Should honey malt be included or not?
*Will it be smokey enough / too smokey?

Here's the recipe:
Extract

3.3bs Pale LME
2lbs Smoked Malt
2lbs Munich Malt
1.5lbs Vienna Malt
.5lbs Honey Malt

1oz Vanguard 5.5%Aacids 60min
.5oz Vanguard 5.5%Aacids 30min
.5oz Vanguard 5.5%Aacids 3min

White Labs 003 German Ale II

1/2 Wirlfloc Tablet

Thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate it!

 

[Calder]

How are you planning on handling the grains. You say it's extract, but it looks like a PM.

I wouldn't use the honey malt, but I don't like it.

What smoked malt are you using?

 

[uofmguy]

Actually, I made a mistake while writing it. It should be 6.6 lbs of LME. Although, when I steep grains, it really is a partial mash as I bring the temp to 155 then add the grains and hold it for 45 min.

I think you're right about the honey malt

And the beechwood smoked malt from Weyermann

 

[uofmguy]

So how's this for a change?

5 Gallon Batch
2 lbs light DME (24% grain bill)
2 lbs Weyermann's smoked malt (24% gb)
3 lbs Munich (35% gb)
1.5 lbs Vienna (18% gb)

1.5 oz Vanguard pellets 60min (24 IBU)
0.5 Vanguard pellets 30min (6 IBU)
0.5 Vanguard pellets 3min (1 IBU)

WL029 German Ale/Kolsch Yeast (fermented at lower end of fermentation range)

I cut the honey malt, changed the grain percentage, changed the yeast to a less estery yeast, and upped the hops a touch to balance them out with all the malt.

Help with this though!
I feel more prepared now, but beersmith is saying that I'll have 30 IBUs and Brewtarget is saying that I'll have 46 IBUs.... I definitely want it as 30 IBUs. I don't want to make a German IPA (at least not right now....) I want it nicely balanced, maybe a touch more on the malty side than hoppy...

Any new tips other than the hops?

 

[Calder]

Suggestions:

Mash the grains in 2 gallons of water at 150F. The lower temp will make it more fermentable.

Sparge the grains with the rest of your water at 170F. Remember the grains will soak up about a half gallon, so add it to your soarge water.

Trust Beersmith for the IBUs. IBUs are only an estimate, it is best to stick with 1 calc, and get used to what it gives you. The two programs are probably set to different calculation methods.

I just used 4 lbs Beechwood in a stout and it is quite smokey. You should be good with 2.

 

[uofmguy]

Ok cool. Thanks man!

One more thing if you have the time. What do you think about the flavor/aroma hops? I'm drinking a german lager now and I'm not completely sure how well the noble hop flavor would go with smoke. I can see it being very good, especially with some more good background malt flavors (Its a light lager, my rauchbier will have munich and such). But I can also see it being a weird combination. I think I'm more on the side of brewing without the flavor/aroma hops (but with the same overall IBUs) and possibly doing the same beer later, but with the flavor/aroma hops if the first one works out well.

Also btw, that smoked stout of yours sounds awesome! How was it?