Smoking grains and recipe advice

[Yeastie_Boy]

I posted in the smoked/aged section, but figured I'd place it here too to get more traffic, since I plan brewing in the next 24-48hrs. I will be smoking a few racks of ribs tomorrow, and I thought about trying to smoke some grains after when temp dies down. Was thinking of doing 45min at around 100-120F? My thought is to steep those grains with some others in a English mild extract batch, then add oak spirals to the fermenter for a "Smoked&Oaked" profile. I picked up 3.3lb of Maris Otter LME, 1lb maris otter grain, .05lb Breiss Chocolate, 1oz UK 1st Gold, and dry Nottingham. Thinking of adding a cup of brown sugar in the boil to ramp up the OG. Should I smoke all of the steeping grains or just the otter? Any thoughts/feedback will be appreciated! Prost!

 

[Yeastie_Boy]

Well I just had a pint of this and it turned out awesome. Chose not to add the Brown Sugar, was 1.042 OG, ended up 1.010 for a 4.2%ABV. Primary only, 13 days of fermentation, added 2 heavy toast oak spirals after 6. Kegged at room temp, 35psi, shook for 5mins, chilled at 39F for 24hrs.

 

[ph0ngwh0ng]

Well I just had a pint of this and it turned out awesome. Chose not to add the Brown Sugar, was 1.042 OG, ended up 1.010 for a 4.2%ABV. Primary only, 13 days of fermentation, added 2 heavy toast oak spirals after 6. Kegged at room temp, 35psi, shook for 5mins, chilled at 39F for 24hrs.

Glad it turned out well! I tried smoking grains (hickory in my bbq) last summer and brewed a scotch ale using 8 lbs of it (AG brewer) and tasted absolutely no smoke flavor... I had the grain in a bag for a while though before I got around to brewing with it so maybe that was the cause...

 

[Chadwick]

I found that smoking base malt requires a cold smoke and the grains need to be damp to help them absorb the smoke. It's super important that they are not allowed to get above 100F. You wouldn't want to make crystal malt.

 

[Yeastie_Boy]

I waited until the smoker was under 100, then just added some small pieces of Hickory that were left over to the remaining coals. Didn't think about making them damp. Put the 1 pound of Maris Otter in an open foil pack and let it go for 1 hour, then put them in a sealed container. I don't have a mill, so the next day I brought them to my local shop. The owner had a head cold and was stuffed up, but said even through his plugged nose, he thought the smoke was really strong and I was a bit concerned it would be overpowering. I sampled it after a week, and was exactly the amount I was shooting for. I think the oak really complements it well.