Smokey Belgian Brown Ale

[NYCBrewGuy]

I've been wanting to do a brown ale with some smoked malt, and once my Belgian IPA is out of primary I'd love to reuse the yeast cake, so I've come up with the following partial mash recipe. Not sure if I'm on the right track as I'm still new to formulating recipes, never done a brown ale, and never used smoked malt. Still, I bet a few of you have done something like this...
I appreciate all feedback:

5 lbs Light DME
1.5 lbs Caramunich
1 lb Aromatic
1 lb Smoked Malt
0.5 lb Special B

1 oz Willamette Hops (4.5% AA)
Pitch to Wyeast 1762 yeast cake

OG Est. 1.080
FG Est. 1.019
8% ABV
25.4 SRM
16.2 IBU

Thoughts?

 

[Oldsock]

How big is your batch? That seems like more gravity than you could get in a 5 gallon batch unless your mini-mash is very efficient.

I would back way down on the cara-malts, and up the smoked malt. 1 lb rauchmalt won't give you much character (not sure how much you want), and you will have a lot of sweetness and dark fruit from the caramunich and special B as is.

I would probably add some dark candi syrup to help dry it out and add some complementary flavors. I might up the IBUs a little as well, that is a lot of malt for only 16 IBUs.

Hope that helps, good luck, should be an interesting batch.

 

[NYCBrewGuy]

Should have mentioned it was a 4 gallon batch (not sure how drinkable this will be given the high gravity, and heavy malt/smoke flavors. How much rauchmalt is too much? I'd like it to have a noticeable smokiness, but obviously don't want it to overpower the beer. Maybe drop the caramunich to 1lb; up the rauchmalt to 1.5 lbs; and up the hops to 2 oz of Willamette to get to 32 IBUs. Maybe add a pound of dark candi syrup to the mix as well...

On a side note, I know you've done plenty of experimenting to with sugars. Can I replace dark candi sugar with plain old cane/beet sugar added early in the boil? Seems a waste of money to buy candi sugar but I guess I can always make my own if I can't just add cane sugar to the boil.

Thanks again

 

[Oldsock]

Smoked malt can be variable depending on freshness, but you won't over power the beer with 2-3 lbs in my experience.

To caramelize sugar you need temperatures well in excess of the boil, so adding succrose early in the boil will not get you the same results. You can make your own, but I have had the best experience with the commercially available syrups. You could also get some unrefined sugar (muscovado, demerara etc...), the rummy flavor will go well with the other elements in this beer I think.

 

[NYCBrewGuy]

OK. Here goes:

5 lbs Light DME
2.0 lbs Smoked Malt
1 lb Aromatic
0.75 lbs Caramunich
0.5 lb Special B
1 lb Demerara sugar

1.5 oz Willamette Hops (4.5% AA) 60 min
0.5 oz Willamette Hops 30 min
Pitch to Wyeast 1762 yeast cake

OG Est. 1.084
FG Est. 1.020
8.4% ABV
21.4 SRM
26.4 IBU

Should still have plenty of malt flavor and 2lbs of rauchmalt will up the smoky-factor. I like your idea of using unrefined sugar for the rum flavor. I plan on brewing and pitching to a yeast cake of WY1762. Question, after I rack the beer currently in my primary, can I just dump this brew right in on top of the yeast cake? Do I need to worry about trub in the fermentor? I guess the alternative is harvesting the yeast (which I might do anyway since my brew day might not line up well with the day I rack the older beer...)

Thanks again. Getting thirsty just thinking bout this...

 

[Oldsock]

Looks tasty to me.

I wouldn't use the whole yeast cake. Overpitching with a Belgian strain will lead to a redudced ester profile. You can just pour some of it out and pitch onto the remainder.