Smoked Porter Advice

For a typical smoked beer the smoke portion is roughly 30 percent. If you made your own, the grist should go down. 20%, Maybe? The most important thing about making smoked malt is to make enough for multiple batches, so that you know what you're working with and that you can adjust. That, and making sure you have enough diastatic power in the grist to convert all of your mash are key.

Chico will be fine for a yeast choice. As for the malt bill, I'd leave it pretty standard for a porter. I wouldn't use Special B. Too much going on there to play nice with smoke. I'd pick my hops carefully. I've never read of anyone using C hops on a smoked beer, so maybe others can chime in here. I'd think it would work if you smoked with apple wood, or maybe cherry wood. I'd be more leery if it were oak, pecan, or alder. Just a hunch. Willamette is the best of the list that I see above. Maybe a 1.060 porter with 30 IBUs? If you are worried about it, Hallertau or Tettnanger are great hops for any smoked beer. Basically, anything that the Germans would use in their beers.


7# 2 row
2# smoked malt
2# Munich malt
1# crystal (mix 35 and 75) 1/3 75 2/3 35 (I know this is heavy, but the sweetness will work well with the smoke)
3/4# chocolate malt
1/2# black patent
3/4# carapils (if you want a chewy mouthfeel)

Wilamette hops to 30-40 IBU

Mash 154F 60 min

Ferment in the mid 60s for 2 weeks.

 

Never done a smoked porter, but I think the obvious hops are the Willamette, can't imagine Cascade or Columbus in a smoked porter.

For malt, the brown, pale chocolate and chocolate seem obvious as well. Are you looking for a dryish porter or a little sweetness? I would think keeping it on the dry side would accentuate the smoked part, so little to none of the crystal malts.

 

There are many smoked porter clone recipes on the net. For my own I use 2 to 4 lbs smoked malt for 10 gallons, depending on how smokey the malt is.

 

I recently bottled a Northern English Brown Ale that within the grain bill had 3 lbs. of Weyermann Smoked Malt and 2 lbs. of Weyermann Rye Malt. The smoke profile of this beer is: smoke being very noticeable but not overwhelming.

Given the description of "I have 2 pounds of the smoked malt, which is highly smoked" I am tempted to state that you should not exceed 20% of the grain bill. There is a strong part of me that wants to state: use 15%.

Please report back.

Cheers!

 

If you want subtle, I would say keep the percentage way down - like 5% tops.
Smoked flavor can cut through very quickly... and can be very phenolic.
Maybe make a super - mini test mash... take a couple ounces of grains, in roughly the same percentages, "mash" as you normally would in a small amount of water, and sample. Obviously it's not the same as a full on brew and boil and so forth, but it will give you an idea of the strength of the smoke.

 

I brewed a porter using about 19% smoked malt and the smoke flavor was very strong. My chili recipe calls for a beer, and so I used that porter - and the smoke flavor in the chili was a bit too strong for my taste. I agree with @JrGtr that if you are going for subtle you should probably aim for something like 5% smoked malt.

 

My experience with smoked porters is to error on the side of too much smoke . . . it will definitely fade over time but too little and you've wasted two hours of your smoker's life.

Evidence of subtle smoke starts around 10% of the bill (my experience with commercial malts). I tend to bump this to 12-18% for the reason stated above. Add 10% chocolate malt, 5% of a dark crystal, and enough black patent/CIII to get the color right. Chico should work well.

More contrary opinion, but I like Simcoe in my smoked beers. To me the piney'ness enhances the smoki'ness. I would not hesitate to use your Columbus for the same reason. Willamette is a definite winner here. Stone uses Mt. Hood in their smoked porter and it comes out great, but I haven't tried that.

Your biggest question mark is how smokey is your homemade malt and you really won't know until you brew/condition. I have found that my smoked robust porters morph into plain-ole robust porters over time (which isn't a bad thing). Disclosure: I really like smoked beer and if forced to be the sole drinker of a batch I unselfishly accept the burden.

 

What ever you decide, make sure you let the smoked malt rest for a couple weeks before brewing.

 

There is a lot of great advice in this thread already, so I'll just add these tidbits:
1. A blend of dark malts will give a more full roasted character, but make black patent the driving force. The ashy character will accentuate the smoke.
2. I like to use a darker crystal if using crystal malts. 75L or higher. Again the burnt sugar character will accentuate the smoke.
3. Don't bother too much with flavor/aroma hops. A small amount late will add an interesting note to the beer, but you don't really want it to stand out. You're looking for the smoke and roast to take center stage, right? With what you have listed, either go willamette all the way, or bitter with columbus and add 1/2oz willamette at 10.