Smoking My Own Malts

[Tony]

OK

I have found info on how to smoke it and it doesnt include tally ho's <_<

all i have to do is soak it in water for 15 min and then smoke it over the grill in a webber BBQ till dry. Then store it for a month of so to mellow.

Problem is i dont have a webber BBQ.

I have a 18gal (68 liter) keg with the top cut out to accept a saucepan lid

I was wondering if any one knows of the best way to set something like this up?

I was thinking i could get a heap of those heat bricks burning in the bottom and then chuck in some soaked smoking timber

I might make a basket out of fine stainless mesh big enough to hold a couple of kilo's and hang it fron the top of the keg and put on the lid and let it smoke away

I found a range of different smoking timbers made from various aussie gum trees at BBQ's galore and would love an aussie smoke flavoured pale ale for the BBQ

if anyone has any advice, ideas or links to web pages i will be most gratefull

cheers folks.

 

[Darren]

I have made a nice smoked beer by simply bottom heating my converted keg mash tun full of grains.
I walked away for a few minutes and scorched the grains. Took me about half an hour to get the burnt debris off the bottom. The smoke flavour lasted until the keg was gone.
Sorry, never made an intentional smoked beer!
From my readings most people seem to use fruit tree woods such as cherry, plum etc.
Not too sure how gum tree would go though.
Let us know how you get on
cheers
Darren

 

[deadly]

Had a mate that gave it a go - tasted like ashes so i never tried it

 

[jayse]

From my readings alder wood is what seems to be the best choice followed by apple and then cherry. Alder wood is what is used in the alaskan smoked porter i think which seems to be a pretty popular smoked micro brewed beer.
Not sure of the best way to smoke it but if you spend a few minutes with google iam sure you'll be a expert in no time.

Roll over rover, let Jimi take over
Jayse

 

[warrenlw63]

I did Hickory once.

Get a cast iron smoking box (about $20). Soak the woodchips in water for about 20 mins. Stick them in the box and then into the BBQ with a cover and let the heat do the work.

Good idea is to put your pale malt into a foil roasting tray with lots (100s) of holes punched into it. Srpay your malt with a pump sprayer to keep it wet for a while. Trick to good smoke is to let your chips and malt stay moist for a while to create a smouldering/smokey/smoke inhalation then death effect.

Smoke for about 30 mins or so or visually inspect the malt. Malt should go from it's standard colour to a greyish-tan colour and really stink in an overwhelming way.

How did it taste? Started out purely shithouse. Rounded out into a very, very nice smoked Porter. Early impressions were 'BACON', later impressions 'HAM' (will happen if you persist with hickory). Very late impressions were overwhelming smoke that added character to the dark malts. Great beer with smoked foods.

Warren -