Rauchy - Smoked Beer

[subfaction]

Hi Guys,

Just planning a smoky beer, after falling in love with Schlenkeria's 'Aecht schlenferla rauchbier', I just have to brew something similar.

I'm out of munich, hence the malts in here, does this sound ok? I'm totally inexperienced in german malts...

Also have a few dry nottingham packets to use up, hence the coldish fermentation, hoping this will be larger-like.
Is the normal thing to rack into a secondary FV for lagering or will it be ok lagering in the same barrel I'll eventually serve from?

Thanks in advance, o-brew-experts!


AG#011_Rauchy
Style: Classic Rauchbier (Smoked Marzen)
TYPE: All Grain -BIAB

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size (fermenter): 25.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 37.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 27.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 kg Smoked Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 1 80.0 %
0.75 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 12.0 %
0.20 kg Carafa III (1034.3 EBC) Grain 3 3.2 %
0.20 kg Caramunich Malt (110.3 EBC) Grain 4 3.2 %
0.10 kg Melanoiden Malt (39.4 EBC) Grain 5 1.6 %
100.00 g Saaz [3.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 27.4 IBUs
2.0 pkg Nottingham - adjusted (Danstar #-) [23.6 Yeast 7 -


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 6.25 kg
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 40.40 l of water at 69.9 C 66.7 C 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min



FERMENTATION
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Name: Lager, Rauch - Nottingham

Primary Fermentation:
14 days @ 15.0 C
ramp up to 22c for 3 days, then crash to 0 for a couple of days, then into pressure barrel for ageing for 4 weeks cold.

[Rick_UK]

That looks like a lot of smoked malt. I am no expert but have recently brewed a stout with a small amount of smoked malt - 250g in 5G and it gave a nice subtle smoked note.More than 1kg may be very smoky!

As for lagering in the keg I read somewhere that lagering should not be done under pressure so you would need to prime or carbonate after the lagering. A more experienced lager brewer can probably confirm this or not.

TBH I found the lager brewing process a tad long winded and will stick to blonde ales for a lighter alternative.

Rick

[subfaction]

I've found really wide ranging opinions on the amount of rauch malt, figure I may as well go big or go home with this one. Any comment on the other malts?

[TC2642]

Graham Wheelers recipe for his clone of Schlenkeria's rauchbier actually has 6kgs of smoked malt and a tiny percentage of chocolate malt. I made it several years ago and it turned out very nicely so I would say go for it, didn't bother lagering just did as I would a normal ale.

[Blackaddler]

AFAIR, Schlenkerla is made from 100% beech smoked malt.

[Rookie]

Smoked porters very nice also.

[subfaction]

Thanks guys, I might just go for this as is, I was hoping to brew tonight but was let down by slow online delivery
I'm tempted to take the advise to just ferment low, ramp up, then crash & rack to PB with priming and see what happens. Nottingham is fairly neutral isn't it?

[subfaction]

Well I went ahead and brewed this a week and a half ago, it's now cold crashing.

I had incredible mash efficiency, over 90% which is the first time I've had anywhere near those numbers, either I've just got my ph spot on, or very fresh grains really do massively impact efficiency. Either way i smashed my numbers, volume and gravity. I made plenty of notes so can dial my kit in better now.

Decided not to liquor back so will have something closer to 6.5%.
Initial tastes of the hydro sample are very promising, seemingly nice balance of smoke and special malts, still a bit meaty/yeasty so will be interesting once it's cleared fully.

Smoke is really pleasant, it's upfront but not at all harsh. I'm looking forward to tasting it after it's had a month cold conditioning. Should make a great bonfire night brew!

I can see me doing this again with more extreme smoked malts!

[alethos738]

I am going to Bamberg for a weekend in 3 weeks time so I have been doing some beer research. The malted grain is dried in open beech wood fired kilns, as was the case almost everywhere before the Industrial revolution. Up too 100% smoked malt is used in some beers by schlenkerla and spezial. Bottom fermenting yeast is used too. I have just bought 3 kg of rauchmalz and some saflager yeast and will be making a brew to go into cold storage (shed) until christmas. hopefully the memories of Bamberg will come backto me when I open a yuletide bottle.

[subfaction]

Very jealous!
I stuck the main batch into a pressure barrel over the weekend, I'll report back in a month with tasting notes.

[zgoda]

Brewer at Mahrs Brau once told me nobody in Bamberg buys Weyermann's malt.

Check out this brewpub, perfect beer and nice food.

[WishboneBrewery]

Go for it, I'm planning a smokier beer than my last one shortly... http://pdtnc.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/a ... moke-beer/

Something like this:
4kg Rauch malt
2kg Oak Smoked Wheat malt
1 Kg Munich
100g Carafa

OG 1065 and 23litres

With some subtle Spalt Select hopping, us-05 fermented cool.

[subfaction]

Ohh that sounds great, I can see me following something along those lines if this one conditioning goes well.

[Cazamodo]

Looks good to me. Very similar to my first smoked batch.

Done a couple of smoked batches at home, and then brewed one at work. My first beer from scratch to be served to punters!

I used 60% smoked, and a hefty whack of crystal also to make it sweet/maltier than usual. And then hopped with Hallertua traditional and brewers gold.
Tasted good when I was putting it into casks!