Smoked IPA?

[crawfman]

Has anyone ever had a smoked IPA? I was curious about its taste and possibly brewing one. I recently had Schlafly, O'Fallon, and New Albanian breweries collaboration ale which is a oak aged smoked rye pale ale. It made me start thinking about a smoked ipa.

If I was to make one, which would be a better smoked malt...cherry wood smoked malt or beechwood? I was thinking of adding some peated malt too. Possibly in a 4:1 ratio, smoked malt to peated malt.

Any recipes or advice on how to pull one off?

 

[PinkyOFloyd]

If it were my recipe I would smoke 1/4 to 1/3 of my base malt with Alder Wood and use that. Or if I didn't have time to smoke it I'd use Smoked Malt (Rauch Malt). Smoked Malts range in "smokiness" so you'll have to be the judge as to how much, anywhere from 10-50% IMO peated malt is nasty!

 

[jmo88]

Beechwood is most subtle IMO. That said, if you must do it, use that one because I can't imagine it being good. Although, I never had that beer you'd mentioned, so maybe I'm wrong. Most smoke beers only use bittering hops and let the aroma come from the smoke since hop aroma and smoke aroma clash.

 

[crawfman]

The beer mentioned uses cherrywood smoked malt. So use minimal late hop additions to let the smoke come through in the nose? If that's the case, stick with 60 through 30 minute additions. Would dry hopping be out of the question as well...or just limit it?

 

[PinkyOFloyd]

Remember that smoked malt will add some bitterness depending on how much you use so watch your bittering hops...

 

[jmo88]

If you have the ability to split the batch, one late hopped and one 60 min only, than try an experiment. If not, I'd try 60 min only first and see how you like it with the smoked malt. That way you know it'll be drinkable. If you can imagine some hop aroma with it, try adding a twenty and fiveinute addition next time. Dry hopping would be my last choice.

 

[leghorn]

I made this last April, and it turned out pretty well. You may find this useful as a guideline. The smoke was subdued, so you may want to increase the percentage on that malt (replace the biscuit with more Rauchmalt). Also, the EKG and smoke blended nicely, but I am considering a little roastier caramel next time (like 80-90 lovibond range). American C hops would be a good alternative as well:

8lb Marris Otter
2lb Flaked Rye
2lb Rauchmalt
2lb Biscuit
1lb C60
1oz Target (60)
1oz EKG (45)
1oz EKG (30)
1.5oz EKG (20)
1.5oz EKG (5)
WLP023 Burton Ale

Mash at 152 for 60
OG:1071
FG:1015
58 IBUs
13 SRM
7.3% ABV

Good luck!