Smoked Porter

[Jacob]

Smoked Porter

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           40.0
Total Grain (kg):         12.100
Total Hops (g):           115.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.060  (°P): 14.7
Final Gravity (FG):       1.015  (°P): 3.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  5.89 %
Colour (SRM):             39.0   (EBC): 76.8
Bitterness (IBU):         50.0   (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 65
Boil Time (Minutes):      90

Grain Bill
----------------
8.000 kg Maris Otter Malt (66.12%)
1.000 kg Munich I (8.26%)
1.000 kg Wheat Malt (8.26%)
0.600 kg Crystal 120 (4.96%)
0.500 kg Black Patent (4.13%)
0.500 kg Chocolate (4.13%)
0.500 kg Rauchmalt (4.13%)

Hop Bill
----------------
60.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (6.5% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil) (1.5 g/L)
35.0 g Pilgrim Leaf (10.1% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
20.0 g Pilgrim Leaf (10.1% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with WLP013

----------------
OG: 1.053

ABV: 5.21%

[delzep]

Gotta be called 'Smoke On The Porter'

[Jacob]

With 0.5kg of smoked malt I woudn't expect a lot of 'smoke'.
Hopefully it will be noticable :/

[Bubbles]

This style is definitely on my to-do list. The rauchmalt is supposed to be quite mild. I think Jamil uses over a kilo in a 19 litre batch but hopefully you'll get some subtle smokiness. Does you get any smoky aromas from the fermenter?

I've seen some homebrew experts (including the aforementioned Jamil) steering homebrewers away from Peat-smoked malt, but it seems to crop up in a few commercial beers.

[Jacob]

I've used that malt before with few brews so I know that it's mild. There are no smoky aromas coming out from the fermenter. Going to transfer it to secondary next week so will try a small sample then

[Bubbles]

Cool. Have you tried the White Gypsy RIS? Such a well-judged level of smoke in it that complements the beer perfectly. Peat-smoked, somone on Beoir seemed to think, but who knows? I'm very interested to hear how this one works out - I'd say it would be very easy to misjudge the amount of smoked malt in a beer.

I'm bottling a stout in a few days and I'm planning on spiking a few of the bottles with a small piece of dried chipotle peppers.

[Jacob]

Have you tried the White Gypsy RIS?

Yep, had a bottle or two some time ago. Lovely stuff but not as heavy as RIS should be, also don't remember any smoke flavours or aromas 

I'd say it would be very easy to misjudge the amount of smoked malt in a beer.

In that case you have to try my 100% oak smoked wheat -Grodzisz beer 

[Bubbles]

Yep, had a bottle or two some time ago. Lovely stuff but not as heavy as RIS should be, also don't remember any smoke flavours or aromas 

Yes, I thought it was a bit light-bodied and a bit outside the "style" alright. But the ABV is under the 7% mark IIRC. And in fairness to the brewer, would you want to drink a 750ml bottle if it was a syrupy 10% monster?

Funny you should say that; I didn't notice any smoke the first time I tried it - tastebuds must have been on a go-slow. But it's definitely there, just a background smokiness. Of course it's possible they've changed the recipe, you might try another bottle and see if it's different?

In that case you have to try my 100% oak smoked wheat -Grodzisz beer 

Now I'd like to try that! Great for a summer barbecue??

[Andy Q]

Deffo Keep us informed of how this turns out, have had my socks knocked off by Carraig Dubh in the county bar, and had formulated a similar recipe, albeith with brown malt instead of munich and a lot less IBU's, would be keen to know how yours turns out before finalising the recipe/placing the order, freaky timing(I brew like 6 times a year, so don't have much time for trial and error), Thanks Andy

[Boycott]

i used 500g of that rauchmalt in a 3L batch and smokiness was at a very minimum. i doubt you will taste it in this batch at all!

[baconsarnie]

Rauch is a base malt and to get a real kick of smokiness you'll need to use plenty of it.

I've used 500g and it's been completely lost. I brewed a rauchbeer and used 3.5 kilos in the mash and that certainly worked

[Jacob]

Ok, tried that stuff y-day. No smokiness at all but still decent porter  8-) Next time will use 2 or 3 kg of rauch malt!

[Bubbles]

Thanks for the update Jacob. I'm quite surprised how much rauchmalt you actually need to get even a moderate smoke character in the beer. All part of the learning experience though.

I'm planning on doing my smoked porter next month when I have some free bottles. I'm going to be using peat-smoked malt (maybe 100g in a 19 litre batch?) so hopefully it will give me the right level of smoke. I've had my eye on BYO's clone recipe for Stone Smoked Porter for some time, so I'll be taking some ideas from that.

Cheers.

[biertourist]

Yep. 50% Rauchmalt is basically considered the minimum to really get any smoke.  It's VERY lightly smoked.


Adam