After tasting O'Fallens smoked porter I became interested in this smoked beer idea. I didn't jump right into it like I usually do things. This was mostly because at the time the only smoked malt I could get my hands on was peated malt. I did brew several peated ales but those beers are really a totally different thing.
I attempted to smoke my own malt on the smoker. I cold smoked 5 lbs of 2-row malt by spraying them down with a little water and setting them on the smoker and cold smoked for about an hour with hickory. They smelled smokey. But in the end, the flavor did not translate into a smoked beer. I used all 5lbs of that grain in a barleywine and you couldn't even detect the smoked flavor after bottle conditioning completed.
Now I have purchased 2lbs each of Oak smoked wheat malt, and cherry smoked barley malt. What can I expect from these malts? Should I throw them both into my kettle with 1lb chocolate malt and stir away giggling like a madman knowing it will be smokey and dark, or is there a better approach?
What will these malts impart? I know that both oak and cherry are woods I don't smoke meat with, so I'm not sure what kind of flavors to expect. Bacon? Campfire? Forest fire?, Appalachia in the winter?
One more thing, and I swear I'm not kidding. Coal. Yeah, that stuff that the EPA and green-minded people would have you to believe is the devil made mineral. It has its own unique flavor. Coal-fired brick pizza ovens are not famous for nothing. I want to get that flavor into a beer too. Because nothing says Appalachia like the smell of coal burning in a wood/coal stove mixed with the smell of venison roasting. I want to capture that in a beer.
I attempted to smoke my own malt on the smoker. I cold smoked 5 lbs of 2-row malt by spraying them down with a little water and setting them on the smoker and cold smoked for about an hour with hickory. They smelled smokey. But in the end, the flavor did not translate into a smoked beer. I used all 5lbs of that grain in a barleywine and you couldn't even detect the smoked flavor after bottle conditioning completed.
Now I have purchased 2lbs each of Oak smoked wheat malt, and cherry smoked barley malt. What can I expect from these malts? Should I throw them both into my kettle with 1lb chocolate malt and stir away giggling like a madman knowing it will be smokey and dark, or is there a better approach?
What will these malts impart? I know that both oak and cherry are woods I don't smoke meat with, so I'm not sure what kind of flavors to expect. Bacon? Campfire? Forest fire?, Appalachia in the winter?
One more thing, and I swear I'm not kidding. Coal. Yeah, that stuff that the EPA and green-minded people would have you to believe is the devil made mineral. It has its own unique flavor. Coal-fired brick pizza ovens are not famous for nothing. I want to get that flavor into a beer too. Because nothing says Appalachia like the smell of coal burning in a wood/coal stove mixed with the smell of venison roasting. I want to capture that in a beer.
