Laphroaig Ale

[jgourd]

Just did a second version of this, decide to make the batch a little bigger and the beer a little bigger. Left out the Rauchmalt this time as I felt the smoked malt and peat malt were running together a bit to much, and wanted to see what it would be like with more peat.

Here is what we went with, all numbers are figured for an 11 gallon batch.
10lbs Vienna
8lbs 2 Row
6lbs Honey Malt
6lbs Simpsons Peated
2lbs Crystal 60
4oz Fuggles - 5%AA at 90min
2 packs of Safale 05

Brew went good, OG was 1.080

We will give it a few weeks to ferment out fully then put it on medium oak cubes for another 3-4 weeks.

I'll update again when this batch is complete with the results.

I have been drinking my For Peat's Sake Smoked Porter for a few weeks now. Great brew and perfect for this time of year around the bonfire. But I also think the next time I will completely do away with the smoked malt and go with peat malt only. And I will increase it. Last time, it was about 9% of the grain bill. I think I want to go 25%. Go big or go home.

 

[smokinghole]

I did a full pound of peat in my barleywine and I love how it came out. I think that will be almost impossible to replicate the medicinal iodine taste in a beer due to the distillation process. However my beer has received rave reviews and I think I need to prep to brew it again or even two more times real soon. I have friends begging for more. Considering I let this thing go for three months in secondary with oak it came out super smooth.

I may up the peat slightly to 1.5lbs or two lbs for the batch. I do think however I have a good balance. My next batch may be the same grain bill except replace the american 2row with MO and add .5oz more oak over the three month aging time. Then a third batch will be a peatier stronger version.

 

[starman]

So its been a year, any updates on the Smokey Peaty effort? I suppose adding sea salt wouldn't be good for the yeast.

 

[jgourd]

Don't know about the salt; maybe someone else can chime in.

I haven't yet brewed For Peat's Sake Smoked Porter (or a variant) again. I plan to, but it's one of those things where other beers seem more important at the time. If I recall, I brewed it at the beginning of Oct 2010 and floated the keg at the very end of Dec 2010, so it lasted 3 months. It was a sipping beer (especially good around the bonfire), but my friends were split 50/50 on whether they liked it or not (you either loved it or you hated it). I'll say that I typically went for 1/2 pint as opposed to a full pint on this one. The peat level was fine, but it tended to overwhelm your palate pretty quickly. It did take on a slight leather aroma after a few months.

 

[Bashiba]

My second batch came out good, but not quite as good as the first which had both Peat and Smoked Malt. I think you probably hit a Peat flavor saturation point somewhere as the 2lbs/6gallons was just as peaty as the second batch with 3lbs/5.5gallons.

After just doing a Cherry Wood Smoked Scotch ale, Cherry Wood will probably be included in the next batch which will probably have to wait until Spring unfortunately.

The great thing about this beer is that it ages well, the peat flavors mellow a bit but don't fall off badly either.

Here is how the next batch will look. Also I will use the charred inside from a used bourbon barrel for ageing.

11 gallon batch
20lbs Vienna
6lbs Honey Malt
3lbs Peated Malt
4lbs Cherry Wood Smoked Malt
30-35 IBU's worth of bittering hops.

 

[starman]

Excellent, thanks for the updates. I'm going to mull things over and hopefully get a batch going in the next two weeks. It certainly wont be mistaken for single malt, but if its possible to replicate some of the main notes -ill be happy.

For what its worth, one of the local Scotch reps said that the coopers will re-toast a used barrel to open up the sugars (and tannins). No idea whether thats a smart move for a beer. This guy has the envious job of traveling Scotland and buying single casks for bottling.

Thanks again!

 

[Qhrumphf]

Necro thread, but I stumbled across this while searching for something else. My Islay Scotch Ale I did last fall was a similar concept, although nowhere near the levels that y'all are talking about. NHC judges hated it, but I quite enjoy it, and everyone who tried it that likes smoky single malts loved it. I've got two bottles left that I'm going to hold on to a couple years.

Batch size was 2.25 gallons w/ a 120 min boil. I mashed fairly high, but I don't remember at what. 156-158, I think.

4 lbs Maris Otter
12 oz Crystal 60L
5 oz Peated malt
2 oz Chocolate malt

.5 oz EKG at 30 mins

And then Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale fermented at 62 for 4 weeks, during which time I had one medium toast American oak spiral soaking in Laphroaig Quarter Cask. After primary, an additional 4 weeks in secondary, with the oak, and I added the Scotch dregs the oak was soaking in too.

OG was 1.067, FG was 1.018.

 

[smokinghole]

How funny this thread resurrection happens to be. I still have one bottle of this beer that I brewed back in 2010. I rebrewed the beer with some tweaks and still have a lot of that. I used to drink it much more when I worked at a cigar shop. Now I don't smoke as much and always forget about it. Maybe next weekend I will stop by the cigar shop and open the 2010 bottle and the 2011 stuff too.

 

[Bashiba]

Still one of my favorites, I brew a batch every year now, each one a little different than the last. Here was the last version.
11 Gallon Batch
14lbs 2-Row
6lbs Munich
3lbs Cherry Wood Smoked
3lbs Peat Smoked
2lbs Crystal 90
2lbs Honey Malt
2oz Nuggett at 75 min
Wyeast 1056

We aged half on Bourbon barrel bits and the other half on Fresh Cherry wood. The Cherry wood was much drier and a touch tanic, but otherwise not much difference between the two.

This years batch is coming up soon, I haven't decided on the recipe.

I also did a Laphroaig added Baltic Porter
11 Gallon Batch
20lbs 2-Row
6lbs Munich 10
2lbs Crisp Brown
2lbs Caramel 90
2lbs Smoked Malt
1lb Peated Malt
12oz Debittered Black Malt
2oz Galena at 60
Dusseldorf Alt Yeast

Half will be bottled as is, the other half is getting a quart mason jar of oak chips that were soaked in Laphroaig Quarter Cask. Its ageing with the chips right now, I can't wait to bottle it.

Not to mention I did 10 gallons of Gratzer last week, so plenty of smoked beer on the horizon at my house.

 

[nhindian]

Subbed to this.. I love peaty scotches (Lagavulin, Bruichladdich, Big Peat) and now Lost Spirits in California is making some wonderful 'scotch-style' single malts that are heavily peated. I have a bottle of their Bohemian Bonfire which is very smokey.


I just got into brewing, but I seriously considered ordering Northern Brewer's Peat Smoked Porter kit as one to try. Maybe I'll just make my own though!