# How much smoked malt to add?



## Yola (20/4/17)

Thinking of a dry smokey porter, but how much smoked malt should I use? 
Going to hop with fortnight if my guy has any left. Thoughts on that too?? 
Cheers


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## Liam_snorkel (20/4/17)

it really depends on the smoked malt. with gladfield manuka I'd look at using at the very least a kg if you want it to be noticable


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## Droopy Brew (20/4/17)

I would work on 20% as a good starting point.

Not sure how Fortnight would go with it. IIRC it is a fruity hop? Not really what I would be looking for in a smoked porter. Stick with the Fuggles/EKG/ Styrians .


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## Yola (20/4/17)

They only have pear smoked malt not the gladfeilds. Any thoughts?


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## Yola (20/4/17)

Peat sorry


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## Yola (20/4/17)

What about if I shit canned the smoke and use keep it simple and go with the fortnight would that work???


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## MHB (20/4/17)

My favourite smoked porter is the one from Alaska, https://byo.com/mead/item/3011-alaskan-smoked-porter-clone.
It is a bit dated perhaps, Breiss have some interesting smoked malts that might be worth playing around with.
I would start with the BYO one above and play from there.
Mark


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## earle (20/4/17)

Yola said:


> Peat sorry


Of all the smoked malts I reckon this is the trickiest one to work with in beer. Really easy to make awful beer with this one unless you use a light touch. A Brisbane based commercial brewery made a peat smoked beer that was on at Brewoomba a year or 2 ago. Most people took one sip and had no more, including experienced smoked beer drinkers.


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## Randai (20/4/17)

Yeah honestly I did a smoked beer with peat. It turned out pretty bad, and I love smoked beer. It was mixed with some weyermann rauch malt. So I'd just go with the standard smoked malt, but really depends on the smoke level which fades with time, which I also found was hard to tell from just chewing on the malt as it didn't taste smokey at all, but it was once it was in the beer.


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## lmccrone (20/4/17)

none, the only reason home brew shops carry smoked malt is to give to customers they don't like so they stop coming in, same as hefeweizen yeast


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## earle (20/4/17)

lmccrone said:


> none, the only reason home brew shops carry smoked malt is to give to customers they don't like so they stop coming in, same as hefeweizen yeast


I think this might be from one of those spambots.


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## MHB (20/4/17)

Funnily enough there are a couple of all Peated Malt beers made in Belgium, one of them is Nessie that I don't mind another made by Dupont Triomfbier Vooruit
Mind you I don't think they are going to be to everyone's taste.
Mark


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## Mardoo (20/4/17)

lmccrone said:


> none, the only reason home brew shops carry smoked malt is to give to customers they don't like so they stop coming in, same as hefeweizen yeast


you had a bad night on the smoked hefeweizens, didn't you?


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## Ducatiboy stu (21/4/17)

At the end of the day......

1. Do you like beers with smoked malt
2. What smoke flavour do you like
3. How much smoke is in the malt


An old brewer on here called Tony once did some smoked malt using Ironbark

It was strong

Very strong

I have tasted a few ...lets just say...beers with smoked malt

If you want to brew a smoked malt beer, I would suggest you brew one first, then work out what you want


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## Weizguy (21/4/17)

lmccrone said:


> none, the only reason home brew shops carry smoked malt is to give to customers they don't like so they stop coming in, same as hefeweizen yeast





earle said:


> I think this might be from one of those spambots.


Or worse. A TROLL...

Bait taken, and running.


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## Hop Star (21/4/17)

My favourite Smoked Porter is from Blackman's in Torquay, VIC. It has a really nice level of smoke flavour that doesn't overpower like a lot of other smoked beers I've tried.

I've asked the head brewer about how to clone it and he said they use 20% Weyermanns smoked malt. They also use about 45-50 IBUs with EKG hops (think the ABV is around 5.5-6% from memory).

I'll second a few others by saying I can't see Fortnight working with the style. I'd be more inclined to use Fortnight in an American Stout if I was brewing something dark with them.


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## pcmfisher (21/4/17)

I tasted a smoked ale from Waikiki Brewing while I was there last week.
I don't know if it was a good example as I have never tasted one before, but to me it was shit. Tasted like a cross between an ash tray and bandaids.
Their other beers were nice though.


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## Liam_snorkel (21/4/17)

the amount of peat smoke to use will depend on whether it's heavy peated or medium peated.
Heavy peated is ******* powerful, you could dip your toes in with as little as 1% to add some complexity. If you use it any more than 5% it will start to dominate the beer.
Medium peated malt is far less intense, you can treat it like regular smoked malt and substitute some base malt, say 10-20%.


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## Ducatiboy stu (21/4/17)

Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules when using smoked malts as there are so many variables from how heavy it is smoked, with what it is smoked with & the brewers taste buds

The only way to find out is to brew one and go from there


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## Fatgodzilla (26/4/17)

Noobie warning ..peated malt isn't really for beer. Unless you know it well avoid at all costs.

Weyermanns smoked (rauchmalt) .. I love this stuff. When fresh, 20% is a good start. Used up to 50% on older stock in porters and in a chilli porter.

Sniff your malt. The amount of smoke you get (old stock looses its aroma) will tell you how much to use.


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## bigmacthepunker (29/4/17)

Glaffield Manuka smoke malt is the goods. Fantastic in my porter.


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## mr_wibble (30/4/17)

I've made this a number of times, it's the standard house porter. It's reasonably smokey, but no rauchbier.
I found the recipe years ago, and never recorded the original author.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 31.09 l
Post Boil Volume: 26.82 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 22.00 l
Bottling Volume: 19.16 l
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 33.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.60 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 62.2 %
0.47 kg Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.1 %
0.42 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.3 %
0.42 kg Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.3 %
0.38 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.6 %
0.30 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.2 %
0.20 kg Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 7 3.5 %
29.57 g Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 8 14.7 IBUs
17.74 g Willamette [7.10 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 10.2 IBUs
17.74 g Goldings, East Kent [4.70 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 10 4.4 IBUs
18.26 g Willamette [7.10 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
9.13 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 0.0 Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg London (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 13 - 

I just have the brewshop make up the grain bill for me, so I don't know what sort of smoked malt he uses. 
But given it's nearly 1/2 a kilo, it's probably not peat smoked malt. I will ask next time I'm in.


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## Weizguy (1/5/17)

If you like Rex or the more power Xerrex peated ale from the Yeastie Boys, you might also like the Adelscot clone in Brew Classic Euro Beers book (Protz & Wheeler).
It contains about 80% peated malt (i have used medium peated) and the remaining grist is flaked maize (actually about 18% and the remainder is the peated).
Bittered to 23 IBU with a combination of Hallertau and Styrians. Dry English ale yeast. Alcohol comes out at about 6%, depending on how dry the beer ferments.

Very smoky/peaty/ band-aid at first sip but it grows on you rapidly. Planning to have it on tap as one of my house beers, due to it's addictive flavour and shock factor for guests.


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## klangers (1/5/17)

Beech is the typical wood used to smoke malts for beer.

Peat (not a wood) is used for smoking distilling malts - where only some of the extreme flavor gets carried along with the distillate. 

There is obviously a huge difference between wood smoke and coal-precursor smoke.

You can make a mild post-smoked (ie smoked after kilning) malt yourself if you can be bothered. Smoke gentle-wetted grains to dryness in a smoker.

Otherwise the easiest way to reach a good level is to simply ad "liquid smoke" until it's to taste. These are used by home distillers and should be easily available at home brew stores.


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## earle (1/5/17)

Weyermann also make an oak smoked wheat malt which is milder than their beech smoked malt and made to be used up to 100% of the malt bill


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## pirateagenda (1/5/17)

If anyone around wollongong wants to try some smoked ale, I've got 2 fresh cornies of smoked red amber ale. Finished fermenting maybe 2 weeks ago, 1 fully carbed, 1 not. I'm not really a fan of the smokiness, happy to trade it for something different is someone wants to do a swap. The wort was brewed by 5 barrels brewery last month at an open day they had and shared the wort to homebrewers.


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## Ducatiboy stu (1/5/17)

I remember about 50yrs back when Tony made some smoked malt using Ironbark and smoking wet grain

That stuff was intense...really intense


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## Garagebrew (29/5/17)

If using a liquid smoke just make sure its a quality one without any vinegars or other additives, the best description I've heard for a good liquid smoke is "Bong water from a hickory wood fire". Cant remember where I read that but it made me laugh.

I found this stuff ok, best to go easy with it though. I love a smoked beer but this stuff can get pretty harsh.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Want-The-Best-Natural-100-Pure-Aust-made-Commercial-Grade-Hickory-Liquid-Smoke-/161692887650?hash=item25a5a5aa62:g:lIgAAOSwShJXLrak


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## thumbsucker (10/6/17)

I love the taste of peat I love Isla Whiskeys with their salty iodine seaweed & smoky flavours. I made two smoked beers the first one was just blah, to many ingredients no single style idea. My second attempt was an English Smoked Stock Ale. With 35% Simpsons peat malt, Simpson Dark Caramel Malt, Gladfield Munich, Dark Brown Sugar, Simpson Black Malt. I boiled / caramelised the first 10 litre of the wart drawn from the mash tun. It was my best beer ever, even non smoked fans enjoyed it. 

Next time I will push the Peated Malt to 45%. I think the beer worked because the caramel notes played against the smoked earthy notes. The Simpson Peat is two times the PPM that of the Gladfield Peat. So you could go even higher then 35% if you use the Gladfield Peat.

If you love smoked meat, bbq, bacon & Isla Whiskeys, then the sky is the limits, if you dislike salty iodine seaweed & smoky flavours I would just skip this style.

I have drunk the Yeasty Boys 100% Simpson Peat malt beer, it was to just a little overboard. After drinking a single bottle I felt like I had just eaten a few kg's of heavy smoked red meat. Not a bad thing but not so good out of a small bottle.

I would say 30% to 60% is a good range depending on your palate.

PS. I am an ex smoker, cigars & tobacco this has skew my palate. Be warned.

Looking at your recipe I would drop the chocolate, with the smoked flavours you have enough going on.


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## Stouter (2/7/17)

Is there a fade in the "smokiness" over time after bottling, as occurs with hops aroma?
If so, can this be compensated with higher % addition?




Fatgodzilla said:


> Noobie warning ..peated malt isn't really for beer. Unless you know it well avoid at all costs.
> 
> Weyermanns smoked (rauchmalt) .. I love this stuff. When fresh, 20% is a good start. Used up to 50% on older stock in porters and in a chilli porter.
> 
> Sniff your malt. The amount of smoke you get (old stock looses its aroma) will tell you how much to use.


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## Jack of all biers (2/7/17)

Smoky flavours from smoked malt tend to be monophenols and don't really fade with time like esters or fusel alcohols


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