Smoked malts????

[beer gut]

Hi everyone i would like to ask the experts a question about two smoked malts.The malts in question are (mind my spelling)Rauchmeild and scottish smoked peat malt.I would like to ask what are the pro's con's of theses malts? iam planning of using one of theses malts in my brown ale but they is no wright up the hop and grape site on scottish peat malt so iam not sure which malt would fit the job best? Any feed back or advice would be fab

[mysterio]

I think if you took a poll you would find that Rauchmalt is the most appropriate for beer. The Scottish peat malt is mainly used by the Whisky industry and the taste can be quite 'offensive' beyond very small amounts. I'm not saying that it can't be done but you have to be much more careful unless you really enjoy the peaty, phenolic Laphroig type of taste.

Rauchmalt is Beechwood smoked so is quite mellow. You can go to around 50% in the batch (some use more) to immitate the German Rauchbiers. I can't really recommend a good amount to use because i've not experimented with it much but i'm sure someone who has will be along soon. I would say start with around a third of your grist as Rauchmalt.

[edit1now]

I once made a 100% Rauchmalz beer, and it wasn't drinkable. I'm currently reading my way through Smoked Beers by Larson & Daniels, and they have some recipes - from what I've seen so far you could go anywhere from a hint (1 - 5%) to Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (about 45%)

The book suggest that you experiment with very small quantities of Scottish peat-smoked malt to see what you like - it's much more fishy (kippery?) than the Weyermann beech-smoked.

[beer gut]

I was thinking of using the smoked malt in my tradtional brown ale.I was thinking of using about a quater of my grain bill on Rauchmield malt, does that sound about right?.Iam also thinking of using the Rauchmield malt in my smoked cherrey porter i was thinking adding a little more smoked malt this time proberley a third of my malt bill.I have never used smoked malts before but i have heard that if you get the balance right, the ale can be outstanding qualitey, i only hope i can get some where close to that.

[mysterio]

That Aecht Schlenkerla rauchbier E1N mentioned is great stuff. I'm lucky I have somewhere close that sells it for whenever I get a craving for it. I really must have a go at cloning it sometime.

[6470zzy]

Give this article a read, it is quite informative on the subject ......

http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/ ... moked-beer

Cheers

[beer gut]

Thanx for that exellent wright up.However yet again it throws up new questions the first one is it states that you can't use yeast that give off fruit taste when making ale, so does that mean that i can't add my cherrey flavouring? caus i want to experment and make a smoke cherry porter.Also i read on the hop and grape site that you can use Rauchmield malt in brown ales, this is what iam also planning on doing aswell. With me living in newcastle in the uk are brown ales are quite bitter and in that wright up that the smoked malts can clash with hop flavour and aroma so what do i do? should i just risk it? my brown ale iam looking at 35I.B.U's for my brown ale bitterness.

[mysterio]

I interpreted it slightly differently. He said that most commercial smoke beers he tasted had a neutral yeast character (not that they are necessarily better).

Also he said to ferment on the low end of the yeast temperature range to preserve smoke character. Presumably he means that an active, warm, ale ferment would cause the CO2 to scrub out smoke flavour and aroma, although it is not quite clear.

I think you should go ahead and make a cherry smoke beer if that's what you want to do! I think a brown ale would taste great with smoke malt too.

[6470zzy]

Thanx for that exellent wright up.However yet again it throws up new questions the first one is it states that you can't use yeast that give off fruit taste when making ale, so does that mean that i can't add my cherrey flavouring? caus i want to experment and make a smoke cherry porter.Also i read on the hop and grape site that you can use Rauchmield malt in brown ales, this is what iam also planning on doing aswell. With me living in newcastle in the uk are brown ales are quite bitter and in that wright up that the smoked malts can clash with hop flavour and aroma so what do i do? should i just risk it? my brown ale iam looking at 35I.B.U's for my brown ale bitterness.

In my experience with a smoked ale you want the smoke to take the front stage and you don't want a clashing competition with hops going on too. Use your hops for bitterness, don't add them for flavour and aroma, let the beer be one of malt, bitterness and smoke. Enjoy it.

Cheers

Edit***just noticed the part regarding the cherry flavouring, not to sure about that one. Cherry is a tricky thing and has a tendency to end up tasting like cough syrup if you overdo it, and I personally don't think that it would go smoothly with the smoked malt, however I never mind being proved wrong

[beer gut]

I was a chef for ten years before i got sick so i kind of get some of my more adventurus ideas from that.I love kriek beer and while i was on holiday i came a across a stout which was a black cherry and chocolate stout it was after 6 pints a little sickle but man that was a sexy stout.I don't know why but i seem to think that a smoked cherry porter to me sounds pritty good i think the cherry part came from when i was reading up on porter and it's history.I was reading down and came across a part saying how oringally porters where stored in the old wooden port casks and how there added a little bit of smokeyness to the porter and that came through the use of brown malt caus there used to smoke the brown malt alot of years ago.All of this got me thinking and i thought let's bring back a bit of history andd let's try and get that fruity smokey taste back to it, there is one twist iam thinking of getting a sliet hint of liquiche in there as well which works brillently with cherry and the smokeyness of the porter.Like i say the brewing god loves a tryer and if it all goes pete tong well then it was not ment to be.

[harold pinter]

Attempted a Rauchbier on my last brew

5 kg. Smoked Maris Otter Pale info
0.25 kg. Weyermann Carafa Special® TYPE I info
0.2kg white sugar
25 g. Sovereign (Whole, 5.6 %AA) boiled 90 min. info
25 g. Beata (Whole, 4.2 %AA) boiled 15 min. info
Yeast : Fermentis S-33 S-33 info

Predicted Classic Rauchbier Compliance
Original Gravity 1.051 1.050 - 1.056 100 %
Terminal Gravity 1.014 1.012 - 1.016 100 %
Color 17.86 °SRM 14.00 - 22.00 °SRM 100 %
Bitterness 24 IBU 20.00 - 30.00 IBU 100 %
Alcohol (%volume) 5.2 % 4.80 - 6.00 % 100 %
100 % overall


Thought I'd smoke the grain myself using some off cuts from the cherry tree at the bottom of the garden. I built a basic cold smoker out of a big wooden box with a metal tray for the fire and a hole where the smoke went into a cardboard box with the grain in. I set of the smoker and kept a close eye on it for 30 mins or so and it was looking great, plenty of lovely cherry smoke in the garin compartment. Popped inside the house for a minute and ended up chatting to the wife for a while. When I went back outside the smoker was on fire!

My wife was panicking, worrying about the house burning down, I was trying to save my grain

Managed to save it all ( some a bit well done) and tasted the fast sample yesterday. It's really nice with a vey soft smokey aftertaste.

Called the brew "The Phoenix"

[beer gut]

This is a little of topic but i saw that you used the hop soveriegn.What is soverign like as a hop caus iam planning on buying some but when i asked around to find out what soverign is like all i got was it is a new hop don't know anything about it.Also did you get any cherry flavour come through when you smoked the grain? if so what is it like? iam only planning on adding a little smoked malt to my brown ale and porter i will use Rachmeild malt for both ales.

[harold pinter]

Sovereign described as a new hedgerow variety with excellent brewing quality, Sovereign is a true ‘English noble hop’ which can be used to good effect as a substitute for,or to blend with, Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger etc.

Theres not too much of a strong hop taste to be honest. I'd kind of hoped for that because I wanted the smoke malt profile to be the star of the beer.

The smokeiness is very nice though. Not so much a cherry taste but a very delicate smokey aftertaste. Not overpowering but definitely present.

Maybe this is down to my haphazard and highly inefficient smoking process but it's turned out quite nice