Has anyone smoked their own malt?

You'll do well with wood pellets and an amazin tube/maze if you're willing to put the money into it. Otherwise, just try to keep the smoke as COLD as possible. A small fire using a chimney would do well. You are using a chimney and not lighter fluid, right?. Maybe 18 briquets and some wood chips.

I did mine low and slow 225F and I think I was too hot. I just assumed I destroyed the diastatic power of the already low Munich malt that I smoked.

Make sure you make enough for several batches so that you can get a base for what you're working with.
use aluminum foil and trays with holes in them. poke pin holes in the aluminum foil and start you smoker.

Soak your grains for about 5 minutes in a bucket of water. No cholorides or chloramines. NONE. They are very unforgiving in smoked beers. Campden up!

Strain the grains out with a sieve or spoon and get them on the grill. I smoked mine for about 20 minutes, turned, and another 20 minutes.

Let them air out in a kettle or a brown paper bag for about a month before you use them. The smoke is acrid at first and needs time to dicipate.

Take notes, the same as you should when you brew. It will help you make this malt again.

Soft smoke flavors are great for beers: Apple, cherry, pear, or even pecan. I'm not sure what an oak or a hickory would do, but a little would go a long way.

Good luck.

 

Also, if you know how to smoke bacon or something on the colder side, I've yet to try it and I would like more info there on a PM, maybe.

 

Mist the malt with a spray bottle filled with RO or distilled, the enzymes will do better with heat if not wet. It Can help to rest the malt for a week when done smoking. Avoid flames. I soak the wood overnight so that it smolders. Edit - lower heat is better, so try and cold smoke as best you can, small fire and limit the intake air.

Done some beers with alder, pear, apple, beechwood, oak, and crabapple. The crabapple was just not good. You can try just about any nut or fruit wood.

 

How does oak do? I'm curious to know how it would differ from actually oaking a beer.

 

I smoked wheat malt to make a Graetzer. Oak is a little sharper than fruit tree wood, or beechwood. It made a good beer, but I think the wheat flavor helps neutralize the oak. Never tried it in a smoked Porter.

I have had one of the Schlenkerla Eich beers, but it was old, and was getting a little "meaty".

 

I think most of those are pretty old by the time we pick them off the shelves in the US. Geoff Larson (Alaska Brew Co.) did an interview and said he did some verticals with his smoked porter and the beer just keeps changing. It's fun to tuck these away for a few years if you can help it.

 

I have a 2009 and 2012 AK Smoked Porter in the basement. I have tasted some fairly old ones that were very good.

I have not had luck with old Schlenkerla Beers.

 

Jeff, you might be interested in knowing that Schlenkerla utilize a best by timeframe of 4 months for the Märzen for domestic (Germany) sales. Below is something I received in correspondence:

“I actually e-mailed Schlenkerla once about their Best Before dates. He responded that the standard dating for the Märzen was 4 months from bottling for German sales.”

Cheers!

 

Probably the same for Spezial. Herr Merz said shipping to America results in beers that are at the end of their span.

Edit. Last trip to Germany, I brought back several Rauchbiers to share with local friends who had poor impressions of Rauchbier. It really opened their eyes to how the style should taste. I knew it was a gamble on the Schlenkerla Eich, but never having it I had to roll the dice.

 

I had Schlenkerla Fastenbier at a Yards Brewing Smoked beer event. It was fresh and very, very tasty.

Cheers!

Jack

 

I have had the Maertzen on tap at the Map Room in Chicago, that was about 90% of what it was in Bamberg on a trip weeks before that.

 

I would recommend wood only, no briquets or any form of charcoal. I cut long sticks of apple or pecan, get them started in a chimney and just let them smolder slowly. This limits heat

 

I've done both cherry and peach in the smoker. Both are good but peach is milder and supports the flavors I prefer- low bbq flavors and a cleaner non meaty smoked flavor transfer into the beer, IME. I usually rest the malt for a few weeks prior to using as well.

 

Jeff, @jlpred55 made mention of “cleaner non meaty smoked flavor”. You seem to have a lot of experience smoking malts with a variety of different wood types. In your opinion, would smoking with fruit tree wood generally result in a non meaty smoked flavor?

Cheers!

Jack

 

Using a grill generally used for cooking meat will probably contribute meaty flavors just from burning grease.
I brewed the same recipe once with malt smoked with apple, and malt smoked with pecan wood. The overwhelming majority of my friends thought the pecan-smoked malt beer was smoother than the apple wood version. We all know it's impossible to create controllable, repeatable experiments like that but I did everything reasonably possible to get an honest, valid comparison.

 

I think it has much to do with how you smoke and the phenolic level you start with, and the base beer's reduction potential. Think about AK Smoked Porter, lasts a long time, and I see that alder has edible catkins.

One thing I just realized, Schlenkerla uses split beechwood logs that have been aged for 3 years. Those are burned in the firebox of the kiln, so there is a fire as they are using heat to kiln dry the welt malt. Fire will produce compounds different from a smolder if I remember what is Daniel's Smoked Beer book. I am away from that book for a while, so I can't reference.

 

W

When AK Brewing was using the Taku Salmon Smokehouse, they would scrub it all down before they smoked the grain. I scrub my little smoker down and have not had problems.

 

Larson has a book titled Smoked Beers. That suggests 3 different ways to go through the process. Lots of good stuff in here too. It's not too late to get it under the Christmas Tree.