I'm doing a Google search to try to find some recipes that use lots of smoked malt and lots of oak aging time. I'm not coming up with much. I'm getting inspired to home smoke some malt, (maybe rye malt), and throw some oak into a heavy brown or porter ale. Any thoughts on why there aren't more oak and smoke recipes out there? I don't see these flavors clashing, but maybe adding something really cool to a beer. Cherry smoked oak porter sounds pretty tasty this fall.
Isn't oak a little harsh for malt? I've got the pellets and I'm willing to try a few pounds. I just think that I'd shy away from it like I would mesquite or hickory.
“Isn't oak a little harsh for malt?” I recently brewed a Grodziskie using 100% Weyermann Oak Smoked Wheat Malt. There is zero harshness in that beer. Cheers!
If you think oak is too harsh, stay away from mesquite for sure. I'd suggest a fruit wood, like cherry, apple, even peach. Hickory is nice if you don't over do it. Or get some bourbon barrel staves/chips. Have a bourbon barrel smoked malt, and then use it and age on oak.
I made a smoked imperial stout a few years back. It included 5 oz of peated malt (a touch too much for some people), and was aged over heavy toasted oak chips. I thought it came out like the Lagavulin of beer. In the future, I am considering re-making it with a little less peated malt, and soaking the oak chips in a smokey scotch that isn't too expensive. Possibly Johnny Walker Double Black.
Try this as your beer, then age on straight new American Oak - Charred to Medium - then package... Adam from the Wood! Recently had Adam at the tap room last week, too much phenolics from the Peat. I used to really like that beer, just too much for me that day. But I did grab a bottle of the Cherry Adam from the Wood while I was there for the cellar.
The linked recipe calls for 2 lbs. of Peated Malt for a 10 gallon batch. That is a lot of Peated Malt!! Cheers!
