Off the wall question from a newbie

[benxrow2002]

Ok...let me first say that I am pretty new to brewing and have never made up any batches with anything other than LME...although I am going to give all grain a try pretty soon. But I had an idea today and wanted to run it by you guys to see if you'd think it might work.

I like to BBQ a lot and have a pit smoker that I throw a lot of stuff into. All kinds of meats and lately more veggies. Well, last weekend I smoked some corn on the cob....and my thoughts immediately went to beer brewing and barley. So...

Do you guys think it might be possible to smoke malt? And, what effect would that have on the flavoring of a final batch? My thinking is that it's obviously common to roast barley, why not a little smoke too?

Again, just off the wall but was just curious to hear what your thoughts on something like that would be.

 

[McKBrew]

Excellent idea. It's been done before, I'll try to get you some more info. Commercial examples of smoked beer include Alaskan Smoked Porter. That stuff is like a BBQ in your mouth. Awesome. After recently having an Alaskan Smoked Porter, I'm definately going to make a smoked beer this year.

Here is a link to the smoked beer recipes on this forum.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=77

 

[McKBrew]

http://byo.com/feature/597.html

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Yes indeed! McKBrew had it right to give you that article! I am currently brewing a smoked porter that I home smoked. I just racked to secondary and already I am positive this is my best brew ever! Mmmmm, so good and complex after only one week. Definately give it a try. Just a word to the wise, I believe it would be very easy to oversmoke the grains. We tried to gauge the smokiness by tasting/smelling the grains during the smoking process and could barely notice a smoky flavor. However, we had faith in BYO and smoked for only 20 minutes over 1/2 and 1/2 apple wood and hickory. Now that the beer is brewed, we have a big (yet not overpowering) smoked porter to enjoy, the smoke flavor really comes out in the beer.

Have fun in the world of smoke beers!

Cheers to Rauchbier!

 

[RLinNH]

Great Thread! Really has my gears turning n the old noggin. Maybe I'll smoke some grain. Question for you boerderij, Did you smoke All the grains, or just a partial amount?

 

[malkore]

Rauchbier malt. see if your LHBS has a bag. then you have something to compare your DIY smoked malt to.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

RLinNH, you really only need to smoke your paler malts. The darker grains will not pick up as much smoke flavor and you run the risk of over roasting. The pale malts will pick up the nice subtleties of the smoke with out any astringency. I have some pictures of my $5 grain smoker I will try to post.