SCOTTISH PEAT SMOKED MALT - A recipe dilemma

[leedsbrew]

laphroaig is one of my favourite whiskeys. While having a late night shopping session I have purchased 1kg of scottish peat smoked malt from H&G with the aim of brewing a beer inspired by this awesome Islay single malt. The question is where to start?

I was thinking of a Scottish 80 shilling as a base and tweaking it. Has anyone done anything like this before?


Cheers

[6470zzy]

http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/ ... moked-beer

I think that perhaps this might be of interest to you ...especially the part entitled "How Much"

Cheers

[leedsbrew]

When brewing with peat-smoked malt, restraint is the watchword. With this malt, it is unlikely that you would ever want to exceed 5% of the total grist. In fact, unless you really like gobs of smoke, with a pungent “peaty” character, you’d be better off keeping this to 1% or below.

Thanks for the heads up 647ozzy. A very interesting article

[dave-o]

I would really like to try a peat smoked ale - i am also a big Laphroaig fan.

But i don't know if i can justify spending £4.15 on a kilo when there is not a chance in hell i am going to use more than about 200g before it's out of date.

Want to sell any of yours?

[dmonbeer]

There is one problem with smoked malt - it has no units of measurement for smokiness. Be careful that you don't make the beer so smokey that you have to blend it away with one of your other brews. Having said that, I made a smokey stout a few months ago using almost all smoked malt & it was fine. Definitely a sipper though rather than a quaffing ale! Also don't use many hops - bitterness & hoppiness don't go too well with the smoke flavour. I've copied the recipe from my website http://www.dmonbeer.co.uk;

Mash - 1 hour 30mins, 72°C strike temperature then held at 67°C.
1 teaspoon of CaSO4 (gypsum)
3 Kg smoked malt malt (from Stockport homebrew shop)
410g crystal malt
130g chocolate malt
90g of roast barley

Boil 2 hours. (I had trouble getting the temperature to boiling so I left it a little longer than normal)
Goldings hops: 42g at start of the boil.
Northern Brewer hops: 2g at start of boil.
Cascade: 20g after 60 mins.

Verdict on bottling: tastes a little thin, definitely a big smoke flavour though - a bit more body would balance that out.

Verdict after 6 weeks: Doesn't taste thin at all anymore, the smoked flavour isn't overpowering as feared & doesn't need blending. A strongly smoked, malty beer that is a good sipper.

In hindsight I would use 1.5Kg of smoked malt & 2.5Kg of pale malt to reduce the smokiness a little & beef up the body a touch. The rather random use of quantities & hop varieties is due to me using up the store cupboard a little.

[lancsSteve]

Ooh sounds interesting - have you ever tried adelscott? That's awesome if you;re a whisky lover (IMHO) http://www.bov.ch/beer/bovarticle2.html though some hate it as it's VERy weet.

I made a smoked wheat beer with half smoked malt and half wheat malt - and it's nice but I'm disappointed by the level of smokiness having been to bamberg and fallen in love with beers from spezial and aecht shenkerla... So going heavy with the weyermann/brupaks smoked malt is fine but not so sure on the peat smoked.

[CJBrew]

I made a smoked wheat beer with half smoked malt and half wheat malt - and it's nice but I'm disappointed by the level of smokiness having been to bamberg and fallen in love with beers from spezial and aecht shenkerla... So going heavy with the weyermann/brupaks smoked malt is fine but not so sure on the peat smoked.

I was going to say the same! I've done a few beers using Bamberg style malt and while they've all been good I've generally wished that I used more. Next time I'm splashing out for 6kg of smoked malt and doing a 100% smoked malt beer.

Peated malt is (as the last poster said) a different kettle of fish and I can't advise you on amounts to use

[simple one]

There is an article in a back issue of the brewers contact on brewing with peat malt on the CBA website. Its very interesting.

http://www.craftbrewing.org.uk/bc/bcpdf/BC2006-Jun.pdf

[Trefoyl]

Thanks for that article Simple One! I never knew there was such a variance in peat smoked malt.
To me, beer made with peat smoked malt has a blue stilton flavor. While I like it and those I've offered it to like it, it is ... different. I recently bought a pound and kept the amount to 2 percent of a 12 lb grain bill for a 5 gallon batch and the smokiness was sublime before carbonation, but after carbonation the smoke was less obvious with just a hint of the phenolic character left behind. Strange what a few bubbles will do. To me the phenols are not medicinal like an infection would be, but like a woody ripeness.
A pound is a lot of peat smoked malt -- 2.2 lbs is too much. Split a Kg. with a friend.
Does Belhaven Wee Heavy use a touch of peat?
Stone's Smoked Porter uses peat, but it is very subtle. I read on Home Brew Talk that the brewer recommends 2 percent or less.
Tomorrow I will be bottling an oatmeal stout with just a hint of peat, about 1.25 percent. I can't wait to taste it.

[leedsbrew]

Thanks Simple one, very interesting. I'm still working on my recipe but after reading as much as I can I will definitely not going anywhere over 2-2.5% of the grain bill.

[Zver]

Sorry for necroposting, but I've found few info regarding peated malt. First of all, we can check "peatiness" from malt datasheet - check phenol level and you'll see. Then you should decide, which style you are going to brew and take in mind OG of beer - higher OG assumes more peated malt in grainbill. As a starting point I choose recipe of RIS which gave me leathery notes and added peated malt and, to boost a bit gravity - home made candi syrup.

I brewed it last year and was very satisfied - it turned out great, and (surprisingly) - with moderate peatiness, if you are a peathead of course))
Next time I'll increase peated malt or add some wood smoked.

Grainbill for 25 l, brewhouse efficiency 72%

5,00 kg Pale Ale, Finest Maris Otter (Simpsons) (5,0 EBC) Зерно 1 43,0 %
2,00 kg Pale Ale (Ireks) (6,0 EBC) Зерно 2 17,2 %
1,00 kg CHÂTEAU WHISKY (3,3 EBC) Зерно 3 8,6 %
0,70 kg Oats, Golden Naked®™ (Simpsons) (18,0 EBC) Зерно 4 6,0 %
0,57 kg Crystal, T50™ (Simpsons) (133,0 EBC) Зерно 5 4,9 %
0,45 kg CHÂTEAU ROASTED BARLEY (1200,9 EBC) Зерно 6 3,9 %
0,34 kg Black Malt (Simpsons) (1666,5 EBC) Зерно 7 2,9 %
0,34 kg Chocolate Malt (Ireks) (900,0 EBC) Зерно 8 2,9 %
0,23 kg Crystal, DRC® (Simpsons) (300,0 EBC) Зерно 9 2,0 %
1,00 kg Candi Syrup, D-100 home made (200,0 EBC) Экстракт (сироп) 10 8,6 %
200,00 g Target [4,80 %] - На кипячение 60,0 min Хмель 11 68,0 IBUs
1,0 pkg London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028) [124,21 ml] Дрожжи 12 -

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 24,0 Plato
Est Final Gravity: 6,3
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10,3 %
Bitterness: 68,0 IBUs
Est Color: 147,7 EBC

Please note, CHÂTEAU WHISKY has 35 ppm of phenols.