Smoked Raspbery Porter

[Beer Snob]

I found a recipe for Smoked Raspberry Porter on the BYO site. One commend at the end said to plan to drink the beer soon as smoke and raspberry tend to fade within a few months. I was wondering how acurate this commend would be from your experiences?

Thinking of my inauguration back to brewing....

 

[Beer Snob]

Smoked Raspberry Porter
by Scott Russell


The darkness and slight bitterness of a porter, the tangy sweetness of fresh raspberries, and the haunting, fragrant smokiness of smoked malt. It reminds me of a toasted raspberry nut bread. Complex, yet not overloaded. This ale should be served warmer than most beers, 60° to 65° F or so, to allow all the complexity to come out, to blend, to swirl around in your mind. You should be able to pick out each individual aroma and taste, one after another, several times through.



Ingredients:

2 lbs. pale malt
4 oz. chocolate malt
4 oz.black patent malt
8 oz. dark crystal malt (90° Lovibond or darker)
8 oz. smoked malt (German rauchmalt, Scottish peated malt, or smoke your own on the grill)
1 oz. Northern Brewer or Nugget hops (8% alpha acid) for 45 min.
1 qt. neutral ale yeast culture (Wyeast 1056, American Ale, works very well in this brew)
4 lbs. fresh raspberries
2/3 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Wash and freeze raspberries. This will help to break them down in the secondary. Heat 1 gal. water to 164° F. Crack pale, crystal, chocolate, and black malts. Mix cracked grains into mash water, which should settle to around 152° F. Hold 75 min. at this temperature, then begin run-off. Sparge with 2 gal. at 169° F.

Steep smoked malt in the run-off for at least 20 min. Remove the smoked malt and begin heating kettle. Add dry malt extract and bring to a boil. Add bittering hops, boil 45 min., then turn off heat.

Chill and top off in fermenter with enough cold, preboiled water to make 5.25 gal. Cool to 70° F. and pitch yeast.

Ferment at 65° F for 10 days or until primary fermentation seems to have stopped. Thaw raspberries, place in secondary fermenter, and rack beer onto them. Age on fruit for 10 days near 65° F, then rack the beer off the fruit into another vessel. Allow to age and clarify for about two weeks at 58° to 60° F. Prime with corn sugar and bottle.

Bottle condition for at least two weeks. Plan to consume this beer relatively soon. Both smoke and raspberry flavors tend to fade within a couple of months.

Notes:

All-grain: Omit the dry malt. Increase the pale malt to 7 lbs., increase the black and chocolate malts to 8 oz. each. Mash in 2.5 gal. water for 90 min. Sparge with 3.5 gal. water.

All-extract: Omit the pale malt and increase the dry malt extract to 6 lbs. Steep the black, chocolate, crystal, and smoked malts in 2.5 gal. of water, heating gradually to 170° F and then removing grains. Add extracts, hops, and boil as above.

Smoked malt: Most complete homebrew suppliers offer some type of smoked malts these days, but if you should find yourself unable to procure the appropriate malt, try smoking your own. Build a small wood fire in your barbecue, and put on green/wet branches (maple, beech, apple, or other fruit tree) to make a smoldering smoky fire. Place pale malt on a metal screen and allow it to sit in the smoke (high enough to not be touched by the flames, however!) for about 15 minutes. Voilà, smoked malt.

Fruit: Fresh is the key. Plan your brewing around the availability of fresh fruit. I prefer regular red raspberries, but black raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, or any other related fruit would be okay, too. Freeze them for a least a week to break down the skins and enable easier extraction of flavor and aroma during secondary fermentation.


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[Dude]

I've found it is really hard to brew with fruit. It would take way more experimentation to get it right, IMHO.

When I did my smoked porter, the smoke never faded, even after 6 months. Of course 50% of the grain bill was smoked malt.

 

[david_42]

Peat-smoked flavors fade. Which is to say after 6 months my Old Bog Water 2005 was drinkable and a year later it's great. I haven't noticed any fading in my berry ciders.

By the way, anyone who thinks 8 oz. of German Rauch and 8 oz. of Peated Malt produce the level of smoke is smoking something else. The former is a wiff, the later a WAP!

 

[Beer Snob]

By the way, anyone who thinks 8 oz. of German Rauch and 8 oz. of Peated Malt produce the level of smoke is smoking something else. The former is a wiff, the later a WAP!

So if I do this... dont use any more then 8oz or I'll regrete it Gotcha

I was actually also thinking what you said about fruit Dude. Especially with raspberries....I can see a possible issue with the seeds. I know the wine folks use pectin for that reason... as a clarifier. So far I have not seen anyone mention the use of pectin in the beers though. I had a lot of luck with the cherry puree and am starting to wonder if the Oregon raspberry would be equally easy to use. The cherry was just a syrup.

 

[david_42]

I've used Oregon raspberry, don't remember any seeds. These days, I'm picking my own and I just put them in a grain bag and let them ferment. That might not be an option if you use carboys.

 

[Beer Snob]

I've used Oregon raspberry, don't remember any seeds. These days, I'm picking my own and I just put them in a grain bag and let them ferment. That might not be an option if you use carboys.

Nah I think I'm going to get a bucket for this one.