Smoked vanilla Porter

[michaelpeach76]

Going to brew a smoked vanilla Porter in 2 days and need to know how to use the smoked grain in the grain bill. I want to use Vienna for my Base grain and want to know how much of the smoked malt should I use. Is the smoked malt used as a portion of the base grain or is it used as a specialty grain?

 

[RussPDX]

Typical Rauchmalt can be used as a base malt, it has enough diastatic power to convert itself. Without knowing anything besides smoked vanilla porter I would probably say 15-25% depending on taste. 15% will probably be around the fainter side, but 25% might be in real competition with the vanilla. Also depends on how long you plan to age it. The smoke will fade over time. Hope that helps. Here is a BYO article on smoked malts you might find interesting. http://byo.com/water/item/858-hot-tips-for-making-great-smoked-beers

 

[Calder]

What smoked malt are you planning to use, and how much were you thinking. It can make a significant difference in the beer. Some you can use up to 100%, while peat smoked malt can become objectionable if you use more than a quarter of a lb.

 

[michaelpeach76]

What smoked malt are you planning to use, and how much were you thinking. It can make a significant difference in the beer. Some you can use up to 100%, while peat smoked malt can become objectionable if you use more than a quarter of a lb.

I ended up using Beech-wood smoked malt and .25 lb of it.

 

[Calder]

I ended up using Beech-wood smoked malt and .25 lb of it.

You will hardly notice it with that much. Beechwood smoked is pretty mild. I'd be looking at starting with around 4 lbs of that in a batch.