Smoked red ale recipe

[Troutman47]

Hi all, I want to make a smoked red ale and came up with this recipe, can you let me know what you think please.

Brew length 23l

Og 1.041
Fg 1.010
ABV 4.1%
IBU 22.3
BU:GU 0.54
EBC 19.7

Mash @ 66C for 90 mins
Boil 90 mins

MO 2.722 kg
Smoked malt 0.870 kg
Med crystal 0.629

Chinook (10.5% AA) 18g all of boil

Cheers!

[seymour]

64.5% Maris Otter, 20.5% Smoked Malt, 15% Crystal Malt with Chinook hops?! Oh my god that looks delicious. Promise me you'll use an English or Scottish yeast!

I would order a pint of that on my way home TODAY! Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

My only concern would be the strength of your smoked malt. If it's super-smoky, that's a high percentage. I can only use 5-6% of my crazy smoke malt. If your malt is less-smoky, you're good to go. Some German recipes call for 100% smoked malt.

[Troutman47]

Blimey Seymour, is it that good?

This is the smoked malt I'm going to use http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... Fp9E4jfWK0

The yeast will be Gervins (GV12) English ale yeast

Thanks for your reply!

[seymour]

Hell yeah, man. Go for it!

That's beechwood-smoked German rauchmalt. Even so, some batches are stronger than others. Only one way to find out. If the final beer is too smoky at first, just age it to tone down. Purists would say the Chinook needs time to tone down anyway. I bet it'll be great right away though.

Your Gervin/Nottingham yeast will be fine. Better than Chico/American Ale/Sierra Nevada, etc. If you wanna splurge, the McEwans strain (White Labs WLP028 or Wyeast 1728) would be divine.

Cheers!

[Troutman47]

Thanks Seymour,

I'll be making it in 3 weekends time!

Regards!

[Rookie]

Should be good, just make sure the smoked malt is fresh.

[seymour]

Should be good, just make sure the smoked malt is fresh.

Please tell us more about that...

[Rookie]

Should be good, just make sure the smoked malt is fresh.

Please tell us more about that...

I made a smoked porter a few years ago with rauch malt that I'd had a long time and there was no smoke in the beer which I took to mean the smokiness had faded, but thinking more about it recently it might have been that I needed more. I ended up adding some smoky tea at bottling.

[Troutman47]

I've received the Rauchmalt grain and couldn't resist opening it to have a sniff.

Bit surprised at the lack of smokiness!

Do you think 20.6% of grain bill is enough or should I up it?
I do want to taste the smoke!

Cheers

[seymour]

Everyone's probably sick of hearing about it, but 5% has been too smoky in some of my own brews. So, even if your smoked malt is fairly tame, 20.6% is a huge percentage from my perspective. Then again, some German alt recipes call for 100%, so it's really your personal choice.

[Troutman47]

Only one thing for it…

Make it and change it if necessary.

Gonna make it next weekend.

[simon12]

I used 500g of that exact malt in a porter (my second AG brew) and it had a nice hint of it but not that much but the darker grains likely overpowered it, I can't comment any further as I cannot imagine a very smokey beer but wish you luck and hope this helped at least slightly.

[Troutman47]

Well it's made!

Went really well, hit all the targets. Tasted first runnings, as smooth as Galaxy chocolate!
Couldn't taste the smoke though so hopefully it'll come out after the fermentation.
This is the first brew where I've treated the water after getting a report from Murphy's so an addition of DWB went into the mash.

Looking forward to the end result!

[seymour]

Nice work, can't wait to hear how it turns out!

[Troutman47]

Oh, and those Chinook hops...

What a beautiful smell they have!!

Cor blimey!!!