I have made a SN Tumbler "clone" twice. Once as extract with grains 2 years ago and a all grain version that I tapped a few weeks ago. Both beers came out well, not exactly like Tumbler, but close enough to appreciate. Both beers ended up having a sourness to them in the back end that I only notice once the smoked malt starts to shine through. Is the sourness a attribute to the smoked malt or do you think there is another issue? Water perhaps (I use straight tap water)? Both beers share the same specialty malts %'s, just the difference between Ultra Light DME and American 2-Row. Here is the malt bill for the AG version: 11.5 # 2-Row 1# C-40 .75# Chocolate Malt .25# Smoked Malt 1 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 1 oz EKG @ 15 1 oz EKG @ 5 Mashed at 156 (overshot mash temp) yeast: US-05 Thanks for looking. Joe
Smoked malt does not not give a sour character. I recently made a Rauchbier with 65% smoked malt. There's no sourness to it. With the amount of smoked malt you have in there, even if it did have a sour flavor it wouldn't be noticeable; that much acidulated malt wouldn't give a noticable sourness.
What smoked malt did you use? Some of them (I'm looking at YOU, peat smoked!!!) can have a very distinct phenolic flavor. I did something similar, and in talking with people later, that's one you want to stay away from except for very specific circumstances. The "Band-Aid" flavor could be mistaken for sour, in some cases. Also, like others said, there could be other factors - temperature, infection, water and so on.
@inchrisin - I don't think its an infection. To have it on the same batch 2 years apart? I was thinking possibly the water too. @JrGtr - I do not the exact smoked malt or maltster. My LHBS does not list it on their bins. I had more today, the sourness is not as prevalent and the smokiness is more pronounced.
All smoked malt is phenolic...some more than others. I think the Tumbler recipe changed along the way...initially it did not have any smoked malt from what I remember. Where's @sierranevadabill ? when you really need him?
I got a recipe from him for the Tumbler last year when it was being discontinued. IIRC, it had 1% smoked malt in the bill. back of the envelope calcs show that as about a tenth of a lb smoked for a 15lb malt bill. He listed everything in percentages, but your recipe looks pretty close to his.
Tumbler has always had some smoked malt, but you're right, the recipe did tweak over time... Albeit in the other direction. The first year we released it, we were smoking malt in-house and frankly, it was a royal pain-in-the-ass. It was also more inconsistent than we liked. Some batches were much more smokey and bacon-like than others. In subsequent releases, we switched to commercial (Breiss) smoked malt and lowered the percentage slightly and it has been that way ever since. Also, you're correct about the phenols. By definition smoked malt is phenolic. Bill
I just looked at my tasting notes for Tumbler. I didn't note anything about smoke at the time. I'll have to see if I can detect it next time.
