Giving smokey flavor to my beer

Scruffy1207 · May 27, 2011

What would be the best way to give my porter a subtle smokey flavor? It's a 1g batch already in the fermentor transferring to a secondary next week to "dry-pork" it. I think it would go together quite nicely.

Jakemo · May 27, 2011

I'd recommend a very small amount of liquid smoke. Very small, be careful.

That or maybe you can get .5oz of smoked malt and steep it in like a pint of water, boil it, and put some in. That might result in a more natural smoke flavor.

Otherwise, add a touch (1%-2%) of smoked malt next time. Search for the thread "bert grants perfect porter tribute" by Humann Brewing for a great porter recipe with a delicate smoke flavor. Cheers!

Scruffy1207 · May 27, 2011

Yeah, I read someone saying they wanted to add liquid smoke buy I heard it could kill head retention. I might go with that smoked malt idea, sounds like it would work orry nicely.

badhabit · May 27, 2011

There are two kinds of smoked malt that can be used, Peat Smoked and German Rauch. The two differ quite a bit in terms of intensity of the smoke flavor. The Rauch is wood smoked, with Alder I believe, and gives a much less harsh flavor than the Peat. The classic German Rauchbrau is made with Rauch as a base malt and obviousoy then as the majority of the malt bill. How much you use in an extract recipe is going to be largely dependant upon your taste. I have brewed my extract recipe Rauchbrau with 2 lbs of Rauch malt. I would spend some time looking at recipes and threads before deciding how you want to go, particularly on a smoked porter. IMHO it is a lot easier to drink a Smoked Porter that is a little short on smoke flavor than one that is way over smoked.

Jakemo · May 27, 2011

My only other thought is after you steep the smoked malt, make sure and give it a healthy boil for 10-15 min then chill it as you would wort just to be sure it's safely and thoroughly prepared for the yeasties in case there are any sugars...