• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

Roast 'em, Toast 'em, Smoke 'em If you Got 'em

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Regarding wetting the grains, I just realized that we use the EXACT same ratio of water to grains (0.6 cups water per lb of grain). ha ha. I just never gave any thought to it resting for 15 minutes since it barely coats the husks anyway. So resting or not, makes no difference.

Like you, I follow the smoking advice in Smoked Beers. Although I found that they're overkill on the amount of wood and smoking times.

You should look around a bit for beech chips; I've found them a couple places locally. Even if you have to order, they're worth it. Applewood is nice too, but I've seen no reason to deviate from the tried-and-true. Yeah I'm a huge Schlenkerla fan (made a few trips to Bamberg, including one just for the beer...)
 
Regarding wetting the grains, I just realized that we use the EXACT same ratio of water to grains (0.6 cups water per lb of grain). ha ha. I just never gave any thought to it resting for 15 minutes since it barely coats the husks anyway. So resting or not, makes no difference.

Like you, I follow the smoking advice in Smoked Beers. Although I found that they're overkill on the amount of wood and smoking times.

You should look around a bit for beech chips; I've found them a couple places locally. Even if you have to order, they're worth it. Applewood is nice too, but I've seen no reason to deviate from the tried-and-true. Yeah I'm a huge Schlenkerla fan (made a few trips to Bamberg, including one just for the beer...)

Where are you finding Beechwood?

What store and what neighborhood in Chicagoland?

I'm there every weekend.

I'd buy that and Alder too if they have it.
 
When I saw that you had traded your Twitter name for five cases of beer, I knew I had to try some of it. Found a bottle, snatched it up, and wow, that's good. I eventually want to try and smoke some malt. I had heard that cold smoking malt was the way to go. Any thoughts?

IMG_20170924_142511872.jpg


morealdersmoke.jpg
 
Where are you finding Beechwood?

What store and what neighborhood in Chicagoland?

I'm there every weekend.

I'd buy that and Alder too if they have it.
It's been a while (I stocked up!) but one place was Wannamakers, on Ogden just off I-88 / I-355. Call first cuz it's out of season now. They had both Weber and Budweiser brands of beech chips.

Amazon also has 3 lb bags of beech for $12 right now.
 
.. I eventually want to try and smoke some malt. I had heard that cold smoking malt was the way to go. Any thoughts?
Like Schlenkerla suggests above, you definitely want to buy the book "Smoked Beers". Temps of 170-200F are typical for smoking food, and work fine for malt. The main thing is to absolutely avoid hot spots since they'll cause ashy flavors. Happened to me once because of radiative heat from the coals; i.e. if the malt can visually see hot coals you'll probably have a problem. Must use a proper smoker, or big green egg with ceramic heat shield, etc. If your malt gets toasted at all, dump it and start again.
 
Here's something you guys might find interesting. This is a picture of three grains. Each cut in half.

One is plain pale malt, the other two are from my smoked brown malt that I made yesterday.

The bleach white one is the grain that's not been smoked. That's the one on the far right.

The other two (middle and left) were soaked so they were wet all the way through the grain when they started smoking. They kind puff up when wet, then go back to the original size when dry.

This is what I wanted. Slightly roasted brownish malt, but smoked. Hopefully good for my smoked brown porter ale.

View attachment 1508430242169.jpg
 
It's been a while (I stocked up!) but one place was Wannamakers, on Ogden just off I-88 / I-355. Call first cuz it's out of season now. They had both Weber and Budweiser brands of beech chips.

Amazon also has 3 lb bags of beech for $12 right now.

I know where that is... I pass it on 88 you can see their name on the back of the building.

I may have to stop in there this weekend. I'm going to call them.

Thanks!!! :mug:
 
When I saw that you had traded your Twitter name for five cases of beer, I knew I had to try some of it. Found a bottle, snatched it up, and wow, that's good. I eventually want to try and smoke some malt. I had heard that cold smoking malt was the way to go. Any thoughts?

According to "Smoked Beers" Cooler is better. You definitely don't want the grains exposed directly to flame. The wood should be doing a very slow burn with wafts of smoke coming up. I posted how I cold smoked using a tin can to hold apple pellets.

If you do it cold the grain color won't change for the most part. If its done hot and long enough it will roast the grains like coffee beans.

Yesterday I did hot. The first hour was all smoking with the bottom pan filled with carbon filtered water and soaked maple chips in the wood cup.

My soaked pale malt never saw flame in the smoker cabinet. The drip/water pan is above the gas burner, with a middle cup filled with chips. It smoked for an hour below 200F. I'm guessing about 180F on low heat seeting. Then one hour on 50% medium heat setting it was at 200F. By this time the water pan is dry. So it transitions into roasting with some smoke. Then on 75% med-high it was about 300F for 2.5 hours before I took it off an started drying at 170. I can see that it browned on the husks.

While the smoker box is at 200F the grain was about 142F. With smoker box at 300F the grain was about 155F.

This will make what I guess will be like a smokey brown ale or a brown porter. The browning is not even. I'm ok with that.
 
The doppelbock is a Christmas Seasonal and is very rare from what I understand. Its a Oak Smoked beer.

eiche-200.gif



Its much more mellow than the beechwood smoked Weizen, Marzen and Urbock.

Interesting thing about the Helles. Its not smoked. It picks up smoke from the contact with all the plumbing.

Here's the Schlenkerla varieties. Click Me...


Gonna pick up a few of the doppelbocks right now . . . :rocking:


1n74.jpg
 
Just Dough'd in with this grist....

Hefe Weizen Mit Rauch


Edit :

I mashed for 90 minutes instead of the normal 60 minutes. I thought the diastatic power would be diminished from the smoke and the hotter temps. That was wrong.

Target 1.052 OG @ 5 gallons. Refractometer was 9.0 Brix; converted its at 1.034 @ 6.21 gallons off the sparge. So 81.21% Efficiency. I'm pretty f'ing happy. :rockin:
 
Anybody smoking today???

Just fired up the 22WSM for the first time in 2 years. (I have a Fast Eddy120 and a Alkorn Kamado so the WSM tends to get neglected) and put the pernil on ( Puerto Rican-style pork shoulder injected with mojo criollo and rubbed with adobo).

I'll post a pic when that chicharron (skin) starts to crisp brown.

Normally, I prefer to make my own mojo criollo wth fresh lime, orange and grapefruit juice loaded with garlic and spices, but I was lazy today and got the bottled stuff from Goya. I also prefer to use a Boston Butt, but the shoulder is more traditional. Since the shoulder tends to dry out (less marbled than the butt), I put the shoulder in a roasting pan with the extra mojo. When you go to the bodegas, the stuff gets better as it sits in its juices in the steam tables.

I'll take into 185° halfway between well done and pull apart tender, although I am tempted to bring it to pull of the bone tender and let the meat fall apart and fresh in the juice. I'll make that call later as the adobo might make the juices too salty.
 
Just fired up the 22WSM for the first time in 2 years. (I have a Fast Eddy120 and a Alkorn Kamado so the WSM tends to get neglected) and put the pernil on ( Puerto Rican-style pork shoulder injected with mojo criollo and rubbed with adobo).

I'll post a pic when that chicharron (skin) starts to crisp brown.

Normally, I prefer to make my own mojo criollo wth fresh lime, orange and grapefruit juice loaded with garlic and spices, but I was lazy today and got the bottled stuff from Goya. I also prefer to use a Boston Butt, but the shoulder is more traditional. Since the shoulder tends to dry out (less marbled than the butt), I put the shoulder in a roasting pan with the extra mojo. When you go to the bodegas, the stuff gets better as it sits in its juices in the steam tables.

I'll take into 185° halfway between well done and pull apart tender, although I am tempted to bring it to pull of the bone tender and let the meat fall apart and fresh in the juice. I'll make that call later as the adobo might make the juices too salty.

Sounds delicious.

I love using goya mojo on skirt steak. Arrachera. I usually buy the bitter orange. Right now I have the adobo seasoning and mojo marinade on hand. Both are goya.

If you have a recipe for home made mojo please post it here.

Is a Puerto Rican-style pork shoulder a different cut of meat or is it just how you prepare it?

I like the idea of using a pan to collect the drippings.

Looking forward to pics.
 
IMG_0037.jpg

2+ hours in. 125° WSM temp @ 265°

Pernil is made with the shoulder. no special cut just the marinade and adobo.

Any mojo recipe will do - just use a mix of fresh squeezed lime juice, orange juice and grapefruit juice to replace the naraja (bitter orange) but since you have access to bitter orange, go with that.

This is the recipe from La Caja China that I tend to follow (I omit the pineapple)

1 cup sour orange juice **
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon bay leaves
1 garlic bulb
1 teaspoon cumin
4 teaspoon salt
4 oz. of water
4 oz. Pineapple juice (optional)




I used Royal Oak Charcoal a about 8 hickory chunks (normally I would use just the royal oak or just one or two hardwood chunks for a light smoke, but today I kicked up the hickory on a whim).


I may make a lime/sugar solution and spritz to kick up the skin
 
It's been a while (I stocked up!) but one place was Wannamakers, on Ogden just off I-88 / I-355. Call first cuz it's out of season now. They had both Weber and Budweiser brands of beech chips.

Amazon also has 3 lb bags of beech for $12 right now.

Just left Wannamaker's....

I grabbed two bags of beech wood chips, plus one alder, and one oak.

They also have orange wood too. Was tempted to get it... resisted the temptation.

Thanks for the tip!!!
 
Smoking a big beef chuck pot roast with mesquite tonight. Just a couple hours to smoke and brown the outside.

It's slathered with horseradish and dusted with freshly crushed black pepper and some adobo seasoning.

Tomorrow this hunk of meat is dinner in a smoked pot roast. It's gonna slow cook all day with with potatoes, baby carrots, onion and celery.

I added a drip pan below the roast with a cup of water to add to the crock pot.

This is a first time to say that I'm smoking some water.
 
Since its smellin' smokey out here. Time for a Helles... to go with the smell of mesquite.
:D


HBT 0 spartical post 52.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 1508981589159.jpg
    48.1 KB
Last edited by a moderator:
Back at it... getting ready to rack smoked weizen and a smoked marzen to carboys so why not have the smoker going.

Cold smoking a block of cheddar, a diced up log of summer sausage, and why the hell not, a bowl of cooked penne pasta. :rockin:

Using apple pellets today. The pasta is a left over but it needs a warm-up before nuking, so why not have some 100F smoke help do the job.
 
Made black malt last night... My whole place smells like burnt popcorn. Barley smoked quite a bit. Now a can say it's self smoked.
:D
 

Latest posts

Back
Top