How to maximize aroma from smoked malt

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millsware

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I want to brew a s’mores beer with smoke in the aroma, but not as much in the flavor. I brewed a couple batches with briefs cherry smoked malt and was very disappointed. I am going to try weyermann smoked malt this time. I can already tell that it smells smokier. I’m also going to try smoking my own malt.

Could I cold steep the smoked malt and add it late?

What other ways could I maximize the aroma and minimize the taste?
 
I've always brewed for flavor and aroma when using smoked malts. I am not sure you can separate the two.

Smoked malts are very different from one wood to another and Cherrywood is very mild. Try different malts and different amounts. But do some research first. You can use a lot of Cherrywood, but if you did the same with Peat Smoked malt you would make something that you probably wouldn't want to drink.

I always have just mashed them like any other grain.
 
"Smoked" is an aroma, not a flavor. Your tastebuds only taste sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Your nose and your nose alone is responsible for anything else, so basically you're saying you want a strong smoke aroma and at the same time a low key smoke aroma which is obviously impossible.

Smoked malt is a base malt requiring conversion so you can't cold steep it or add it late to the mash.
 
Smoked is a flavor descriptor like any other and detectable on the pallet in different proportions than in the aroma.

You can certainly steep smoked malt but you won't get any sugar from it, so you can just add a bit of grain to your base malt to compensate.

OP If you want it only detectable in the aroma you need to to be volatile, which is hard to do with smoke flavor since it is composed of phenolic compounds that bind easily with other molecules. You could look at adding smoke infused marshmallow vodka to your beer and see if that might do it.

Personally, I don't think a smoked smores beer sounds good, but if you can pull it off great!
 
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Smoked is a flavor descriptor like any other and detectable on the pallet in different proportions than in the aroma.

Your tongue has taste receptors and they can only detect the five flavors I listed before, with a sixth possibly on the way.
In your nose there are aroma receptors that will detect everything else, either directly when sniffing or retronasally when swallowing something. In either case they are the same receptors and they will detect the same aromas, any perceived difference is due to warming in the mouth and persistence. If it is the same receptor detecting the same aroma component how then do you plan on getting less of it in your mouth then what you get straight in your nose from the same beer? Short of brewing two different beers and using one for sniffing and one for actual drinking you're just chasing a chimera.
 
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There are compounds that are not perceptible in aroma because they are dissolved in solution and volatilize when they warm in the mouth, and visa versa. Beer aroma and flavor can be very different and sensory analysis is a very complex subject that I don't fully understand because I'm not a neurologist. However I do know that it's not two simple boxes of taste and smell that are separate. They are co-mingled. To that effect there are other flavors such as earthy, spicy, tangy, toasty, etc that don't fit neatly into the five/six basic flavors but when I say them, someone else can understand what I mean. Who is also to say that smokey doesn't contain some combination of sour, salty, and bitter that our brains can interpret as smokey.

If you can convey the flavor that you want, and others can understand what you are describing, then it is a valid flavor descriptor. For example, many beers with fake lime I describe as tasting like urinal cakes. I have never in my life licked a urinal cake, but I believe most people would understand me because thats a smell that can easily be linked to a taste profile.
 
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Maybe play around by adding some liquid smoke to other beers and see if that might do it.

Don't do it! Learn from my mistakes :drunk:

I added liquid smoke to a porter years back and it just came out tasting like someone had melted tires into my beer.. it was my very first dumper
 
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