Attempt at Smoked Porter

[Brianaala]

Hi folks, I'm relatively new to brewing. I had a Porter extract kit (for 2 gallon) that I wanted to use up before it got old. I thought a smoked (like campfire/ BBQ flavor) would be nice as the weather gets cold. So I kinda went rogue and got some hickory wood chips (2oz.), blackened them with a torch, put them in a muslin bag and soaked them for a couple of days in bourbon (Maker's 46). Then dry hopped them at day 10 of fermentation. At day 14 (+2 days of cold crash), bottling day I tasted the brew. I was...underwhelmed. The smoke flavor was extremely subtle. I'm hoping that with aging it will become more pronounced. Any thoughts? Where did I go wrong?

[sneezles61]

Usually the malt is smoked.... Welcome to this rewarding hobby... Many of us started out like you, wondering what went awry.... Through trial and error.... coupled with reading and questions... we were able to up our brews... Should you stick with it... Your brews will improve!!
Sneezles61

[squeegeethree]

Peat Smoked Malt.. only used it once. Smokey and peaty.

[hd4mark]

You could buy some Rauch malt, German smoked malt and steep it for an extract or mash it for all grain. Or smoke your own by using some 2 row or any light crystal malt by putting it on a screen over smoking wood chips.

[wilcolandzaat]

Most the time its trial by error. Buy some german rauchmalt. This might give the flav your looking for. Or you can visit. A bbq specialty store. They do sell. Different kind of flav wood chips. See if that works. But welcome to the fun hobby

[Brianaala]

Hi everyone,
thanks for your input! I was actually going for a campfire smoke kind of a thing. Turns out that after about 2 weeks conditioning in the bottle it turned out great! the smoky flavor is subtle but distinct and not overpowering. It ended up being a really nice, coldweather porter. Thank you again for all of the suggestions!

[sneezles61]

And there you have.... Trial and error... You won!!!
What's next?
Sneezles61