Home Brew Forum

Ok, since I haven't posted any of my recipes/brewdays up here yet, here is a quadruple whammy for your perusal. I recently came into 5 kg of Warminster smoked malt, so you might spot a bit of a theme...

All 20 litre or thereabouts batches.

Smoked Brown Porter

2.10 kg Maris Otter pale
1.75 kg smoked malt
0.45 kg brown malt
0.37 kg crystal malt (130 EBC)
0.17 kg Carafa Special II

Single infusion mash at 152 F for 60 mins + 10 min mash out at 168 F

75 minute boil

50 g Fuggles - 60 mins - 27 IBU

WLP011 European Ale yeast, fermented at 18 C. Some of it is 'lagering' in a demi-john in the garden.

OG 1.048 - FG 1.012

Made this a couple of weeks ago and I love it!


Smoked Dusseldorf Alt

1.53 kg Weyermann pils malt
1.46 kg smoked malt
1.45 kg Munich malt
0.24 kg Caramunich
0.23 kg aromatic malt
0.07 kg Carafa Special II

Was planning to mash this at 149 F but missed mash temp and did a two step mash, about 140 F for 60 mins, 158 F for 20 mins, 10 min mash out at 168 F.

90 min boil.

55 g Tettnang - FWH 90 mins - 29 IBU
20 g Tettnang - 15 mins - 5 IBU

WLP011 European Ale yeast re-used from the smoked porter, again fermented at around 18 C. It is still in the FV and first taste suggests it is a touch too bitter, but luckily not too thin, which I was worried about after the mash cock up.

OG 1.052 - FG 1.010


Smoked Weizenbock

Got the mash on for this as I write this.

3.48 kg wheat malt
1.51 kg Weyermann pils malt
1.05 kg smoked malt
0.65 kg Munich malt
0.25 kg Caramunich
0.10 kg Carafa Special III

Did a ferulic acid rest at 113 F for 10 mins, doing a 60 min rest at 152 F now, then gonna mash out at 172 F (a bit extra heat makes lautering easier with wheat apparently).

90 min boil.

38 g Liberty - 60 mins - 17 IBU

WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale yeast

Going for an OG of 1.067 for this and hoping it's cold enough near my back door to ferment at 17 C.


Smoked Red Ale (next week's brew!)

2.75 kg Maris Otter pale
0.75 kg smoked malt
0.45 kg crystal malt (130 EBC)
0.34 kg crystal rye malt
0.23 kg amber malt
0.008 kg Carafa Special III

Nicked the idea of doing a no sparge brew off a mate, so single step 22.55 litres to mash at 158 F for 40 mins, followed by 10 min mash out at 168 F. Apparently conversion at this temp can be complete in 15 -20 minutes, but I don't plan to do an iodine test, so am going for 40 mins to be on the safe side.

75 min boil.

32 g EKG - 60 mins - 22 IBU
12 g EKG - 10 mins - 3 IBU

Wyeast 1318 London Ale III yeast

Aiming for OG 1.049 and will ferment at 19 C.

Hell yeah!

Update: Lautering the weizenbock was a bit of a b1tch despite the 172 f mash out. Collected 24.5ish litres at one point under target pre-boil gravity, and couldn't be bothered to wait any longer while it trickled out. Ended up with 18.5 litres at 1.072 post boil.

When I took the spent grain down to the pigs the next morning a lot more wort had collected at the bottom of the bucket, full of sugary goodness no doubt...

Nice work! Is it weyermann smoked malt? I did a hefe with 70% wheat and didn't h e a run off prob! What mash manifold are you using?

The smoked malt is from warminster - it's got great flavour.

I use a mash tun with a stainless steel mesh tap connector. I reckon the problem may have been the quantity of grain in the tun as I split a 25 kg sack of wheat with two mates and neither of them had lautering issues and they both made hefes with 50% wheat.

Anyway it's fermenting nicely at 17 c by the back door now, so happy daze

Any results, how did these turn out? My friend is looking into a smoked wheat beer currently.

Smoked Porter: smoke comes through nicely at 35% and complements the brown malt nutty roast. Wlp011 is a lovely yeast I've decided - really let's malts shine and is clean and free of esters.

Smoked Alt: took ages to drop bright and was overly fruity from the aromatic malt, also a bit too caramelly, which masked the smoke a bit. Tettnang is a lovely hop - clean bitterness and spicy, and the beer has cleared and malts mellowed allowing smoke to come through a bit more. My mate said it reminded him of smoked sausage, and since I was going for smoky Bacon am happy enough. Would almost certainly benefit from lagering.

Smoked Weizenbock: still in fv as it has taken ages to ferment out. First taste suggested very little smoke (it's only 15%) but nice esters and clove phenols. Apparently Schneider or one of the other bavarian weisse breweries use a small proportion of smoked malt in their grist and hardly anyone knows as it just adds a layer of complexity.

Smoked Red Ale: came out a touch darker than expected. Still in fv, waiting for a free corny. Not tasted it yet.

Me and a mate have been discussing smoked beers a fair bit, and his conclusion is that generally esters and smoke clash. His smoked porter is much more smoky when he uses Wlp001 rather than Wlp002. He also made a smoked hefe-weizen with Wlp300 (67% wheat malt, 33% smoked) and while it is interesting, it will be better when the banana esters have backed off a bit. Which kind of goes against the point of a hefe if you ask me.

My limited experience of making smoked beers bares out the principle of keep it clean to keep em keen.