Question about using SMOKED grains/malt.

[BigRob90]

How much is too much? I'm thinking of taking your really basic Porter recipe and adding some Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt from Northern Brewer as seen here:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...rain-malts/briess-cherrywood-smoked-malt.html

The description says it gives a smooth, strong, sweet and smokey flavor. But how much should I use? I'm also planning on fermenting the Porter on puree cherries from Oregon Fruits to give it some cherry flavor.

Smoked Cherry Porter (Cherry Bomb)

Any tips, advice, anything at all would be helpful! Thanks!

 

[passedpawn]

Barely smokey: 25%

Nice and smokey: 50%

I really, really like smokebeers: 100%

Seriously.

 

[ploppythesausage]

If it were me, I'd replace the base malt with smoked malt. But I'm a big fan of rauchbiers (100% smoked malt) and have never found any smoked porter to be particularly smokey at all. Having said that I don't know the particular taste of the cherrywood (i had the oak smoked dopplebock from Schlenkerla the other night, man it was magnificent - smooth, caramelly, oaky and smokey as hell!).

 

[Coldies]

Its basically what passedpawn said. It really depends on how much you like smoked beers. If you know you like smoked beers try with 50% of the grain bill to start out with. It also depends on how long the grains have been sitting around the brew store as well, obviously the fresher they are the more potent the smoke will be so be sure and ask the guy at the store.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

As much as I like smoked beers I usually prefer smoked porters with just a touch. My recipe is only like 5-10% smoked malt. It's easy to drink without getting burnt out on the smoke flavor.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I actually tried to do the very thing the OP was proposing, but my LHBS didn't have the cherrywood malt. (Well, they did, but I didn't see it until what I subbed out was already weighed, mixed and crushed). Instead of using all-Cherrywood as my base malt, I went with equal parts 2-row and peated malt, with cherries added in secondary. The smokiness was over-the-top, aggressive and when combined with the cherries, absolutely delicious.

I say to go with a heavy dose of smoked malt; if it's too much, just wait for the smokiness to fade.

 

[Mk010101]

I did a smoked porter earlier this year and used about 45% Weyermann smoked malt in the recipe. First smoked beer ever, so I didn't know what to expect. Aroma is smokey, although not overly so. Taste has definite smokey flavor, like it was brewed in a cabin in the mountains! I did miss most of the porter flavors that I really like, but it was drinkable. Goes so well with anything grilled. I bought another 5lbs of the malt to do it again, but will reduce the % of the grain bill to allow the other malts to shine through.

 

[Bobby_M]

The Briesse Applewood is probably about 25% stronger in smoke flavor than the Weyermann Rauch malt. I've used 40% Weyermann in a Porter and the smoke was pretty gone after 2 months in the keg. I'd replace about 40% of your base malt with smoked.

 

[passedpawn]

BTW, I have a smokebeer in my recipe pulldown with pics. It's half Breiss cherrywood, half Weyermann beechwood.

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