I have a soft spot in my heart for the rauch bier. I have only brewed one smoked beer and it was great, a maple flavored smoked amber ale. It was not the loveliness that is a straight up rauchbier though.
I had not had much rauch bier for a while until my local package store got in some Schlenkerla Marzen. I have been eagerly consuming it and it got me wishing I had my own stash.
Here is the idea. I am not too big on lagers and certainly not really equipped enough to “do it right” in the lager department. However, I do make a mean California common and a lovely malty Scottish ale. Both fermented in the mid to high 50’s F. Let me state right here before anyone gets a wrong idea. I do NOT believe Scottish ales should have any reak (smoke) to them. That is just an incorrect urban legend! So do not go there!
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Okay, got that off my chest… What I am thinking is my Scottish shilling ale recipe would be a good malty base line to use for a smooth rauch ALE as opposed to a lager. It is a pretty simple recipe. Mainly Marris Otter, a bit of aromatic malt to approximate older amber malts and a touch of roast barley. A thick mash and some caramelization of the first runnings. I would then use either wyeast 1728 which is my Scottish ale yeast of choice, or WLP810 San fran. lager which I also have on hand, and ferment in the high 50’s F to keep it smooth and lager like, not too fruity.
Probably hop with mild noble hops. Maybe hallertau?
I’m kinda following your enthusiasm for the reaky Scottish Ale, but think you should go with a rauchbier using the SF Lager yeast. I did a split batch of rauchbier a season or two ago & didn’t have room in the lagering fridge for both carboys, so I pitched some WY2575-Kölsch II to the second carboy. It honestly turned out better than the “real deal” after lagering and I even passed it off in a few comps with none of the judges any the wiser. ;D
I think smoked beers are generally misunderstood… especially Rauchbier! Rauchbier is a table/social beer best enjoyed with good company & slow food. Just sayin’! 8)
I believe that is what I was saying. ??? Lager like and not fruity.
I realized later that it might be misconstrued that I was giving my planned recipe. I was not, I was describing my Scottish ale recipe that I would use as the basis.
I figured on subbing in at least 50% rauchmalt for the base malt and then keeping the rest the same, i.e. the rest made up with MO and then 8% aromatic (I love the maltiness it adds) and then about 1% roast barley for color. Had not considered using 100% Rauch though. Would that be too phenolic?
When I ferment at about 55F wit the wyeast 1728 it is super smooth and malty and not at all fruity. I have never used the White Labs Edinburgh because it is not rated to ferment below 62F.
The San Fran would also be good with more lager like character.
I would not use MO in there.
It is surprising that with almost 100% smoked malt it is pretty good (it is not too smoky).
I thought it tasted close to the original beer.
If you need to substitute portion of Rauch Malt with other malt I would go for Pilsner Malt.
Yes I did brew it this way.
Next time I will use a CaraMunich III (Instead of CaraMunich II) and only about 5% of it.
If you want this recipe I could post it.
Let me know.
I typically use either the WLP833 or WLP838 depending on what I’ve got lagering. I did try the WLP820 once and was less than impressed. I may have to give the WLP830 a green light on my next batch… probably March or April?
