Smoked Beer?

[Wampus]

OK, so once I drank a smoked beer (German) at an authentic German Restaurant in Indianapolis. I've never been able to find one since.

Anyone ever done that? What process does that entail?

I know all about smoking fish, pork, beef, cheese, etc.....but BEER?


It was VERY good though.....yummy.

 

[jsstewar]

you can easily turn any recipe into a 'smoked' version of that recipe by adding a conservative amount of liquid smoke. Like a couple drops from an eye dropper will do it, that stuff is potent.

obviously this is best for the dark side of brews, a coffee smoked porter with a hint of chili pepper is a brew unlike you will find anywhere but O so drinkable in the winter months.

have fun experimenting!

 

[BillyBeer]

I would guess it had smoked grain - like smoke peat. I have made a smoked peat porter that people either loved or hated. Smoked grain is very strong so I would start small. For my 11 gal Porter I had 2% smoked Peat and I would cut that back to 1.5% next time I brew it.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers!

 

[the_bird]

Rauchmalt. Smoked beers are easy if you're an AG/partial-mash brewer, just sub in a good amount of Weyerman rauchmalt for your base malt. Beechwood-smoked. Classic rauchbiers can be 100% (or close) rauchmalt, although you don't have to go that high. Any good homebrew shop will stock rauchmalt/smoked malt.

I've seen some other hardwood-smoked malts (applewood, cherrywood) available, have not tried them. You can smoke your own malt, as well.

Avoid peat-smoked malts, those are a completely different beast. The classic German smoked beers use beechwood-smoked malt. Alaskan Smoked Porter uses alderwood, which is also absolutely outstanding. If you're trying to duplicate the German beer you loved, stick with the rauchmalt.

Now, if you're an extract brewer, it's a bit tougher since rauchmalt needs to be mashed. Partial mashes are easy to do, though. Not sure I trust liquid smoke.

 

[glockentalk]

I bought 4lbs of smoke malt, and plan to make a batch with it soon.

 

[PanzerBanana]

If you have a smoker you can smoke your own malt. The last issue of Zymurgy even did a little feature on it.

I tried smoking a portion of malt for my last beer. While it smelled pretty smoky, it still wasn't smoked enough to give the flavor to the beer. So next time I'm going to step it up. I was using peat. It's smoky flavor is generally a little softer than it's aroma.

 

[android]

they recently cloned captain lawrence smoked porter on 'can you brew it' (on thebrewingnetwork.com if you haven't heard of it), and it sounded like a good, not too overly smoky porter. that might give you a good jumping off point for a recipe.

 

[Homer]

My LHBS here in Chicago has an extract kit for a smoked porter that I plan on trying real soon.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've been to the Schlenkerla in Bamberg, Germany at least 100 times...I worked in Bamberg for 5 years.

I made a Kaiserdom Rauchbier recipe using 1 lb of rauchmalz, but it was really low. I have one in the secondary right now that I used 2 lbs and it's tasting really nice.

 

[vagabondat02]

Most of the Rauchbier formulations I've seen use 50 to 75% smoked base malt. I've only brewed one, but 50% wasn't smokey enough for me. Papazian's book has a recipe on pg. 306 with all smoked base malt. Peated malt is completely different though. I've made five wee heavies/90 shilling Scottish ales with it (my stepdad/drinking buddy is from Inverness, Scotland...) and two or three ounces is plenty if it's fresh. I would avoid aroma and flavor hops too, they overpower or over intensify the smoke depending on the type. BTW, I wouldn't use liquid smoke on my food, much less my beer...

 

[Wampus]

Interesting. Thanks all.

I do have a couple of smokers, but since the only brewing equipment I have is the Mr. Beer set that's been on a shelf in my garage for about 4 years, I don't think I'll be smoking any malt any tiime soon.

I'm just now reading "How To Brew" and only just the other day located a home brew shop in Indy. Still haven't made it there yet.


I was just curious about the smoked beer. I'll have to make an attemp some day....