Smoked variant of 2B C&E - feedback?

[starman]

The first time I ever had Two Brother's Cane & Ebel was at Sweet Baby Ray's restaurant paired up with an awesome plate of smoked meats. The combo works so well that I'd like to do a lightly smoked variant of the beer with an increase in rye over the pro version.

A draft recipe for the testbatch is below, feedback very much welcomed. The base recipe comes from one 2B shared with HBT Dummkauf.

The grainbill has an increase in rye malt as well as an addition of 2lbs of cold smoked malt and 1lb of cold smoked pilsner malt. I'm thinking applewood chips but would be open to suggestions. A buddy also has hickory, JD barrel, and oak chips available. Does 3lbs smoked malt seem like enough for a mild, but complimentary smokey quality? There's enough going on with the rye and hops it can't be too big of a presence but don't want it to be lost.

The hop schedule is pretty much unchanged other than the 60m bittering hops have been bumped to FWH but reduced in quantity slightly to drop IBU's and smooth it out.

Really waffleing on yeast... Stick with WLP005 or go with some Denny's or maybe 1056 to make a little room on the palette?


Recipe: Cains Rye Smoke
Style: American IPA

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.077 SG
Estimated Color: 18.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 56.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.5 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.50 gal Chicago, IL Water 1 -
11.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 2 -
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 3 5.2 %
9 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 47.0 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 5 13.1 %
2 lbs Rye Malt, Cold smoked w/ Applewood (4.7 Grain 6 10.5 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7 5.2 %
1 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Cold smoked w/ Applewood Grain 8 5.2 %
8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 9 2.6 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 10 2.6 %
8.0 oz Simpsons Crystal Rye Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 11 2.6 %
2.1 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 12 0.7 %
0.33 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - First Wo Hop 13 6.8 IBUs
0.33 oz Summit [17.00 %] - First Wort 15.0 min Hop 14 8.3 IBUs
1 lbs Thai Palm Sugar (100.0 SRM) Sugar 15 5.2 %
0.50 oz Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 16 17.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 25. Hop 17 13.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 18 10.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) [35.49 Yeast 19 -
2.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs


Total Grain Weight: 19 lbs 2.1 oz

Oh yeah one last thing, no biblical scholar here but the supposed reason Cain killed Able was because his offering smoke didn't rise to the heavens like his brother's... Not sure whether thats a good or bad omen for this testbatch.

 

[SC_Ryan]

In my experience, 10-20% smoked malt is perfect to add a good smokiness without making it too overwhelming. 3# would be at about 18% which would be great for a higher gravity beer. You may want to do some looking in to smoking your own malt. I thought I remembered reading once that it is a good idea to age the malt for a while after it is smoked to allow it to mellow. There are good smoked malts that are commercially available too. Good luck with this beer, it looks tasty.

 

[starman]

Thanks very much for the feedback. It definitely made me feel better about the grain bill.

I brewed this 03/25 as above with Northwest Ale WY1332 yeast. The 3lbs of malt was cold smoked in a second chamber above my buddy's propane smoker for 2 hours with apple wood chips.



Yesterday I drew a hydrometer sample and force carbed it. The aroma is excellent, maybe a bit more smoke than I had in mind but not objectionable. The rest of the batch was dry hopped with the simcoe. The flavor is pretty dang good as is.. hopefully it stays in balance thru bottle conditioning.

Unfortunately this was done late in a multiple brew day so OG was not recorded so ABV is ?

FG is a solid 1.012

Thanks.

 

[SC_Ryan]

The smoke will mellow with time. You should age some of this a bit to see how it changes with time. I bet in four to six months it will be incredible. I might just make up another smoke beer myself. I'm feeling inspired!