I brewed a smoked porter a month ago. I am trying the second bottle of it today. It is quite good, but VERY smokey! I make small batches, so with 2oz (2% of the grist) it gives an intense smoke flavor. I had never used it before, so perhaps next time I will halve that. How much Peated malt do you guys typically use in your recipes? Has anyone done anything crazy like add half a pound or anything?
I used 4 oz of peated malt in a wee heavy that had a 1.094 OG and it doesn't seem excessively smokey. But that beer is a real beast. It's over a year old now, and I still have nearly 1/2 of it. I also used 4 oz of a cherry wood smoked malt in a 1.071 OG version, and was very happy with the result. It's a kinder, gentler smoked malt by comparison, in my opinion. By wild coincidence, I brewed a Scottish Export 80 today with 4 oz of peated malt. I hit about 1.055 OG, but won't have a report on the smokiness for a month or so. I am reporting my OG, as I believe that your total grain bill impacts the relative strength of the smoked aroma and flavor. The beer I made today may end up more smokey than I like, but the shop was out of that cherry wood smoked malt that I really wanted.
yeah, just about what Jeff said. I use 0.3 oz uncrushed peated malt added at vorlauf to my 70/-. I'm just looking for a hint of a surface flavor rinsed from it. I don't use it anywhere else. A little goes a long way, and quickly turns ashtray-ish.
i have never used peated malt. For smoked beers i always have used smoked base malt. Neither have I ever tasted it, but interested now to taste it vs. smoked base malt.
My smoked porter had 4 ounces (1.9%) of peated malt for a 5 gallon batch. For good measure I bittered with Simcoe. It's very smokey (pleasantly so to me) but I could see how increasing the amount could easily ruin a batch. How smokey is it? If you were to discreetly pass a glass of this under the nose of a blind person, they would instinctively inquire about the fire exits.
I brewed a smoked dark ipa last fall, using one pound of pleated in a 14 lb total grist. I didn't mind the level of smoke, just not the character at the time. It also was more than I was shooting for in the brew. As of now, the medicinal taste has faded out. (Unfortunately, so has most of the hop flavor - oh well.) next time I'm planning on using a different type of smoked malt, and less of it. In your case, I would let what's left sit for a few months. It'll fade out over time, and I think that style would be great to sip while waiting for trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
I overdid it once as a new homebrewer... never again, though the worst of it will sediment out in a year or 2. I'll occasionally use a trace (less than 1oz per 5 gallons) for complexity but not a fan of big peat flavor.
Also, if you keg, it would be easy to blend it with another beer that doesn't have peated malt to thin the harsh flavor.
Bottling a smoked ale this weekend that had 2oz of peated and 8oz of smoked. Extract recipe, but I want the "sucking on a christmas ham" beer!
Step up to all grain and try this (warning: I've never done this, purely conjecture.) OG 1.070 60% Weyermann Oak smoked wheat 40% Weyermann rauchmalt Triple decoction mash Whatever low alpha hop @ 60min to reach around 15IBUs white labs 380 fermented @ 62*F.
I brewed the Hair of the Dog 'Adam' clone and used a half lb of peated malt. The recipe, when scaled down for a 5 gallon batch called for 1lb of peated malt. An employee at the lhbs wisely talked me out of using 1lb of peated malt. The beer turned out well and has a nice peaty character to it, but it's not overboard or offensive. http://www.homebrewchef.com/HOTDAdamBeer.html
