Smoked Grain

[suckerpunchltd]

Hey all,

Another quick question. Have plans to do a smoked porter and wasn't thinking (didn't really think about it all to be exact) and went ahead and crushed the grains at the LHBS when I bought them.

Most things I've read note that smoking the grains should be done when they are whole and that they should be moist to avoid toasting/burning them.

Well, I have an electric smoke that has separate smoke/cook control and can do a cold smoke where in the oven temp won't get anything over about 4-5 degrees over ambient air temp.

Would I be okay to go ahead and cold smoke the crushed grain this way? I know adding moisture is out of the question as that would just make a mash out of it, but thinking that no heat smoke should still work okay.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I would go out and get some peated malt and add that to your grain bill. Then again, I'm not sure if that will have the same effect as smoking all of your other malts..

 

[Curtis2010]

Rather than risk screwing it up at this stage, I would just buy some smoked grain...you won't need much. For next time, smoking your own grains is easy.

 

[suckerpunchltd]

I would go out and get some peated malt and add that to your grain bill. Then again, I'm not sure if that will have the same effect as smoking all of your other malts..

Yes the peated malt will not be the same in this instance as the flavor profile isn't the same.

 

[suckerpunchltd]

Rather than risk screwing it up at this stage, I would just buy some smoked grain...you won't need much. For next time, smoking your own grains is easy.

The grain bill calls for 5lbs of smoked grain, so it's quite a bit and LHBS is $1.50 2-row and $2.99 smoked, was hoping to save just a bit and experiment smoking myself...then I crushed them at the store.

 

[JonM]

Five POUNDS? Are you sure that's not supposed to be ounces? Five pounds would be a lot even for a Rauchbier.

ETA: Never mind - Biermuncher's recipe calls for five pounds.

 

[suckerpunchltd]

see next reply

 

[suckerpunchltd]

Five POUNDS? Are you sure that's not supposed to be ounces? Five pounds would be a lot even for a Rauchbier.

ETA: Never mind - Biermuncher's recipe calls for five pounds.

Ah you found the recipe I was just going to reference, lol.

 

[suckerpunchltd]

Here is a stack exchange thread where in one poster smoked after crushing, seems it may impart more smoke flavor so I think I will just go with it, as I have everything else in my home brew experience thus far, and smoke it up and go about 15 minutes less time than originally planned - it will get about 20-30 smoke time.

http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/2867/how-to-smoke-your-malts

"I smoked my own base malt for a smoked porter I made a few months ago, and it turned out really well. I used this Brinkmann smoker (I smoke a lot of meat so I already had it handy) and simply placed about 2 pounds of malt at a time on a bed of cheesecloth on the top rack of the smoker. About every 10 minutes, I sprayed the malt down with bourbon to keep it moist (and add a bit of flavor), and turned the malt with a fork to get an even smoking.

I smoked each batch of malt for about 45 minutes. My LHBS recommended that I smoke the malt before milling, but since I didn't have a grain mill I had to mill it at the store and then smoked the grain after it was crushed. The smoke flavor in the beer ended up being very prominent, which I really enjoy, but is a bit too much for other people.

I recommend smoking before milling if you can, otherwise plan to smoke less of your base malt or smoke it for far less time.

If you don't want to invest in a smoker, you can easily fashion a makeshift smoker from a stainless steel trash can, as seen here (and search for "trash can smoker", there's plenty of tutorials online). The parts required are relatively cheap.

If you don't want to make a smoker, a slightly less effective method is to use a gas or charcoal grill with very low heat as a smoker, although I don't recommend this as you run the risk of roasting/burning your grain."

 

[Curtis2010]

Wow, 5 lbs. Thats gonna be potent. You might scale it down/lightly smoke so its not too smokey - cant fix that, except maybe by blending.

 

[Owly055]

I think the best procedure for smoking grain is to fill your bong with grain instead of water. I suspect hash is probably better than pot due to the oils..... If you can get hash anymore. The active ingredient dissolves in alcohol, but not in water, so I would suggest adding the smoked grain to the fermenter instead of the mash ;-)

Disclaimer: I haven't done any of this stuff since I was in High School..... Just turned 60 this year, so my knowledge is a bit out of date.

H.W.

 

[uechikid]

This companies products are great for cold smoking. The use pellets.

https://www.amazenproducts.com