I’ve been obsessed with smoked beers of any kind lately so thought it’s about time to give one a try at home. Would love some feedback from all for this one, especially the smoked malt %.
5 Gal. Batch
Mash @ 152F for 60 min
9lb 8oz 2-Row Malt
1lb 0oz Smoked Malt (Cherrywood)
12 oz Caramel 80L Malt
8 oz Chocolate Malt
6 oz Black Malt
0.50 oz Columbus(Tomahawk) (15.5%)(FWH)
0.50 oz Columbus(Tomahawk) (15.5%)(10 Min)
0.50 oz Cluster (7.5 %)(10 Min)
0.50 oz Cluster (7.5 %)(1 min)
[quote=“a10t2”]At that level I doubt you’ll even be able to taste the smoked malt. Cherrywood is more subtle than the beechwood malt. I’d go with 30% minimum.
I only used one pound of smoked malt in a porter last year and couldn’t taste it a bit; it was a three gallon batch. I made a strong! cup of a smoked tea and added it into the secondary. It came out okay, but I’ll definately go with a lot more smoked malt next time.
I’m curious about the amount of hops - will their flavor compete against the smoke flavor? All your numbers are at the high end of a Robust Porter, and they’re very balanced, but I think you may want to back off slightly on your hops since you want the smoke flavor to come through.
Crazy Horse…I was a little worried about the hops initially too but brewed it up anyway just to see. So far so good. Had a nice smoke aroma through the boil and can even pick some up through the blow off during primary. Hops IMO wasn’t overwhelming the smoke (but then again the more hops the better for me).