Early next year I’ll be doing a lager and I’m torn between a marzen and a rauch. I was thinking of brewing the marzen and splitting the batch after primary fermentation is done. My idea is to cold steep some rauch malt and add it to half the batch. I did this when I turned part of an IPA black using a cold steep of midnight wheat and it turned out great.
German smoked malt is essentially pilsner malt exposed to wood smoke. Soaking it in cold water may dissolve some smoke flavor but won’t do much to the malt itself. Cold soaking base malt, unlike a specialty malt, is also going to dissolve out some starches potentially leading to haze and/or infection.
Perhaps a mini mash is called for.
Perhaps a mini mash is called for.[/quote]
Yep. And you’ll want to boil it and add it earlier than the end of primary.
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“Rookie L A”]]
Perhaps a mini mash is called for.[/quote]
Yep. And you’ll want to boil it and add it earlier than the end of primary.[/quote]
Denny,
The problem is that I’m wanting to get two beers out of one batch. Would I rack the half I want to make a rauch before primary is over? At what point?
My problems would all be solved if I could only win the lottery. Should I start buying tickets? :?
[quote=“Rookie L A”][quote=“Denny”][quote=“Rookie L A”]]
Perhaps a mini mash is called for.[/quote]
Yep. And you’ll want to boil it and add it earlier than the end of primary.[/quote]
Denny,
The problem is that I’m wanting to get two beers out of one batch. Would I rack the half I want to make a rauch before primary is over? At what point?
My problems would all be solved if I could only win the lottery. Should I start buying tickets? :? [/quote]
How about splitting it pre fermentation? After you mash the rauch malt, boil it and add it to the fermenter.
[quote=“Denny”]
How about splitting it pre fermentation? After you mash the rauch malt, boil it and add it to the fermenter.[/quote]
This is starting to get too complcated. :?
This batch won’t be happening for 3 or 4 months so I have a lot of time to figure it out.
You could just add instant smoke so some before you bottle. It probably wouldn’t taste too good, but it would be in line with most of the brew-pub Rauch beers I’ve tried.
Using the malt in moderation allows a really nice, subtle smokiness to come through. One possible option could be to do a partigyle, adding the smoked malt to the mash tun after you drain the first runnings. That would confine the smoke to the second runnings, but would result in a pretty weak beer unless you boost it with extract.
[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]You could just add instant smoke so some before you bottle. It probably wouldn’t taste too good, but it would be in line with most of the brew-pub Rauch beers I’ve tried.
[quote]
I’ll take a pass on that.
