What's been your experience with peated malt? What recipe did you use it in?

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brewandbeast

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What's been your experience with peated malt? What recipe did you use it in?

I am looking at developing a peat smoked beer as a special release kit.

What recipes or styles do you think work best?
 
I've never made a peat beer, but I have tasted a friend's and this I can tell you for sure.

A little goes a LONG way when it comes to peat.
That smoky taste is definitely an acquired one and it can overpower the taste of a beer easily.
 
I use it in my smoked porter recipe, which is pretty delicious. Check my recipe dropdown. There was a member that sent me couple bottles of his 100% peat beer. It was surprisingly good. Maybe not for everyone, but I liked it.
A touch of peat malt is good in Scotch ales, Rauchbeir, and stouts/porters.
 
It is a different kind of smoke, phenolic like peaty island scotch whiskey and not for everyone. I however love it! A dosing of .5 to 1.5% in most any non-hoppy beer would play well. It would be interesting to me at half a percent in a blonde ale. I've used it in 80 schilling scottish style beers at 5 oz per 5 gallon batch and its been well received. I'm toying with the idea of brewing up a small batch of 50% peat beer with a super high gravity to ice concentrate down into something like a peaty scotchy wood aged 30% alc/60 proof whiskey beer thingy... if that makes sense. ;)

A 1% dosing is a good place to start as it is a strong flavor.
 
I use it in my scotch ale, but I caution you that it's very powerful stuff, anything more than about 3% (by gravity points) of the grist and it could overwhelm other flavors.
 
I love the peaty scotches like Lagavulin and wanted to show off that flavour in a beer. I was thinking something in the Scotch ale style for our kit. Pretty sure my 50lb bag is going to last a good long time.
 
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