Smoked Porter

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Brewsmith

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I'm putting together a recipe for a smoked porter that I will do when I get my brewery back in order. How much smoked malt should I use? I was planning to use rauch, and right now I've got it at one pound. I want it to be noticable, not just really subtle. Along the lines of Stone's Smoked Porter if anyone's tried it. Also, I don't want to have a harsh roasted flavor to it, so the dark malts are as follows: 0.5 lb. Chocolate, 4 oz. Black Patent and no roasted barley. How does that sound? Feedback please. :)
 
What if I post the whole recipe I'm working on? Will you reply then? :D

Smoked Porter

7.5 lb. 2-row
1 lb. Rauchmalt
0.5 lb. Crystal 75
0.5 lb. Chocolate malt
0.25 lb. Black Patent
0.5 lb. flaked barley

0.5 oz. Target 10.6% 60
0.5 oz. Target 10.6% 30

OG: 1.056
SRM: 29
IBU: 38

If it needs more smoke I'll swap rauch for 2-row.

Now maybe some replys... :)
 
Brewsmith said:
Along the lines of Stone's Smoked Porter if anyone's tried it.


I had that over the weekend. I rather enjoyed it. Very subtle flavor, but definitely there.
 
FWIW, when I did mine I used 5 lbs of Rauch malt. It was definitely there but not overpowering by any means. I think any less than half of the base malt and you'll struggle to know it is there.

Just my input....
 
Do you have access to "Designing great beer"? I just read the porter chapter yesterday and I have to say it was incredible. Perhaps you can go to Borders and look through the chapter, you wont be disappointed. From his information it appears that Porters had a smokey flavor and he goes through several ways that this flavor came about in the style. Incidently, at some point in time these berries where an addition in Porters... cant remember the name of the berry off the top of my head, but they were posionous! The big brewers were making beers that they themselves would not want to drink and serving it to the masses!
 
We did 1 pound of smoke malt in the Imperial Hellfire and in mine it can't be detected. I would say it will take more than 1 pound. Maybe 5 pounds like Dude said.
 
I would go with the 5 pounds. It is a good solid amount and at 50% of the grain bill would be noticable. What mash temperature are you going for? I would suggest something above 150, maybe up to 154.
 
GOD said:
it appears that Porters had a smokey flavor

All beers had a smokey flavor in the past, not just porters. This was simply due to the way that the freshly malted barley was kilned. it came in contact with the smoke of the hardwoods that fueled the kiln. You'll run across references to smokey flavors in a lot of old beer styles in that book.

I admit that it does sound good. I added a little rauch malt to one of my brews last year, but not enough to have it be noticable.

-walker
 
Walker-san said:
All beers had a smokey flavor in the past, not just porters. This was simply due to the way that the freshly malted barley was kilned. it came in contact with the smoke of the hardwoods that fueled the kiln. You'll run across references to smokey flavors in a lot of old beer styles in that book.

I admit that it does sound good. I added a little rauch malt to one of my brews last year, but not enough to have it be noticable.

-walker

Interesting info...

I would think that getting enough smoke flavor in an extract brew would be really hard to do.

The concept of a smoked beer sounds odd, but it really works. My porter was really nice. It is definitely on the list to do again.
 
Dude said:
Interesting info...

I would think that getting enough smoke flavor in an extract brew would be really hard to do.

The concept of a smoked beer sounds odd, but it really works. My porter was really nice. It is definitely on the list to do again.
Maybe some liquid smoke would work???
 
Dude said:
Interesting info...

I would think that getting enough smoke flavor in an extract brew would be really hard to do.

depends on the smoke apparently. (beechwood, no / peat, yes)

I read Deisgning Great Beers when I was putting together the recipe for my Scottish Ale. In that section they talk about the fact that all beers were smokey due to the kilning process.

COmmercial examples of scottish ales today often have peat smoked malt in them, but the book makes it clear that this not traditional. The smokiness of a scottish ale came from hardwoods in the kiln and the yeast strain itself, and not from peat smaoked malts.

So... when I was putting together the recipe for Gruagach, I decided to go "old school" and brew it with beechwood smoked malt and the proper yeast.

After asking around about smoked malt (on this forum) for my scottish ale, I got the input that a couple oz would be plenty.

Well, it turns out people assumed I was talking about peat smoked malt and were letting me know that that stuff is PO-TENT. But, I went ahead and used rauchmalt, but only a couple oz of it. That was certainly not detectable.

So, in an extract, I would agree that getting hardwood smoke flavor might be hard, but apparently you can get peat smoked taste by jujst waving the grain near your wort.

-walker
 
GOD said:
Anyone ever try using a smoker?

not for grain, but I smoke meat on the grill (not a smoker, just a regular grill). Works great. You can certainly make your own smoked malt easily.

-walker
 
Walker-san said:
not for grain, but I smoke meat on the grill (not a smoker, just a regular grill). Works great. You can certainly make your own smoked malt easily.

-walker

They even got all the specialty wood to use to impart the smoke flavor too as well..... now that its warming up, might be something neat to try:)
 
Thanks for all the info, guys. I guess I'll go with something closer to the 5 lbs. I think I'll go with maybe a total of 9 lb. base malt and split 4.5 lbs. each 2-row and rauch.
 
GOD said:
Anyone ever try using a smoker?
I know somebody on here has done it...maybe drengel? Apparently it's pretty easy and can be done on a regular grill, as Walker says. We've got a "Barbecues Galore" nearby that has all different types of wood for smoking (or if you've got a hardwood mill nearby, even better). I'm thinking about smoking some pale malt over pecan to put in something tbd.
 
Maybe the next time I'm in Arizona I'll pick up some mesquite and try to smoke some. Barbeque Beer??? ;)
 
A couple months ago Rewster and I brewed an apple smoked porter. We smoked three pounds of pale malt over apple wood chips for 45 minutes. We did a mini-mash with the smoked grains, 1/3 lb black malt, 1/2 lb roasted barley, and a bit of aromatic, then backed that up with 6 lb dme and 3lb lme. Even with 1/2 lb of roasted barley, the smoke flavor came through quite nicely.
 
kaptain_karma said:
A couple months ago Rewster and I brewed an apple smoked porter. We smoked three pounds of pale malt over apple wood chips for 45 minutes. We did a mini-mash with the smoked grains, 1/3 lb black malt, 1/2 lb roasted barley, and a bit of aromatic, then backed that up with 6 lb dme and 3lb lme. Even with 1/2 lb of roasted barley, the smoke flavor came through quite nicely.
That's probably what I was thinking about.
 
I did the smoked porter yesterday, and at first I thought that the 5 lbs. of rauch malt was going to be too much, but after the boil, I think it's going to be great. The aroma of smoke was huge during the mash, but tasting after the boil it was not overwhelming. The recipe was something like this (I can't remember the hop amounts off the top of my head ;)):

Smoked Porter 5.5 gallons

5 lb. 2-row
5 lb. rauch malt
0.5 lb. crystal 75
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
0.25 lb. balck patent
0.5 lb. flaked barley

Target 60 min
Willamette 30 min
East Kent Goldings 30 min

OG: 1.059
SRM: 29
IBU: 35

This one is going on tap. When it's gone, I'll try it again but with peated malt (not 5 lbs though! :D)
 
Next time I do a smoked beer I'm going to smoke the grains myself. I don't think you get as much smoke flavor from the german rauchmalt stuff.

By smoking it yourself, after a few times you'll be able to dial it in pretty good to what you like as far as smokiness.

I want to try a smoked IPA one of these days.
 
When I was at the LHBS picking up the grain, one of the guys working there told me he had just made a smoked hefeweizen. I'll ask to sample some the next time I'm in there. Sounds interesting.
 
I racked it to the secondary last night. Nice and smooth. No harsh roasted flavors, and the smokiness comes through without being overpowering. Can't wait to get it on tap when I finish the kegerator. :ban:
 
I just got back from a vacation in the San Diego area and had a great tour of the new Stone brewery where I was told that they use just less then 1% of peated malt in their smoked porter.

The tour was great, and I will tell everyone about it when I have a free moment.
 
Brewpastor said:
I just got back from a vacation in the San Diego area and had a great tour of the new Stone brewery where I was told that they use just less then 1% of peated malt in their smoked porter.

The tour was great, and I will tell everyone about it when I have a free moment.

About time you checked in :) What there was no internet where you were? The Pastor was gone... we lost our sense of direction and all you know :D
 
I just got back the other day from being away for about 2 weeks, and I was also wondering where the good pastor went. Glad to have you back. I'll be visiting Stone in July!
 
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