Rauchbier help (first orig recipe)

[uofmguy]

This is actually the first recipe I made my own, so I would appreciate any feeback!

I actually posted an early version of this asking for tips (and got some great ones). Just wanted to see if anyone had any tips before going to buy everything!

Partial Mash
5 Gallon Batch
2 lbs light DME (24% grain bill)
2 lbs Weyermann's smoked malt (24% gb)
3 lbs Munich (35% gb)
1.5 lbs Vienna (18% gb)

1.5 oz Vanguard pellets 60min (24 IBU)
0.5 Vanguard pellets 30min (6 IBU)
0.5 Vanguard pellets 3min (1 IBU)

WL029 German Ale/Kolsch Yeast (fermented at lower end of fermentation range)

Help with this problem please!
beersmith is saying that I'll have 30 IBUs and Brewtarget is saying that I'll have 46 IBUs.... I definitely want it as 30 IBUs. I don't want to make a German IPA (at least not right now....) I want it nicely balanced, maybe a touch more on the malty side than hoppy...

Other concerns of mine are:
Too much hop flavor?
How do the grains look?
I want smoke flavor, but not too much. How's 24% of the grain bill?

Thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it!

 

[dkennedy]

I like the simplicity (I've been working on a lot of simple, purposefully built, recipes lately). I'm doing a lot of Munich/Vienna in place of Crystal in my recipes, I like the flavor.

To answer your questions (all my opinion only):
- I wouldn't be scared about the flavor addition. I might do something like 1 oz @60 (bittering), 0.5@20 (flavor), 0.5@FO (aroma), just because I don't like having leftover hops (they tend to "fall in" at the end, which sorta undermines my recipe building work)
- Looks light, I'd darken with Carafa, maybe 4-6 oz.
- I suspect that 25% is going to give you a definite rauchbier...no hint of smoke here. I'd run with it, the rest of your malt bill should help smooth it out.

Post back with results!