I have a fresh smack pack of Wyeast 2206 and was thinking of doing a 3 gallon batch of the Smoked Helles that won at the NHC this past summer. I usually make a smallish batch and then reuse the yeast to step up to a 5 gallon batch and then to a 10 gallon batch. Will the rauchmalz carry the smoke forward to the next batch, of, say, a bock?
Why not just oversize your starter by a pint and save the extra from the starter? No carryover of anything to the next batch.
Schlenkerla Helles is similar to what you want to brew. They say there is no Rauchmalt in the beer. It is said to pick up its smoky aroma and flavor from the stuff in the brewery. If they repitch the house yeast they will get some smoke. Some say the filter gives a little more. I just know I like this one a lot.
I have reused a smoked yeast again and not noticed any off flavors. Just make sure you pour off any excessive beer off top before transfer.
I always use my lager yeast for its final time on a smoked beer, doing the other styles first. Some good tasters will pick up smoke in beers fermented with yeast reused from a smoked beer.
If you’re washing the yeast before repitching then the volume of material in the subsequent beer that has been around the smoke is going to be so little that you shouldn’t get any smoke flavor carrying over.
I was thinking of making a small batch of smoked Helles - since the NHC champ recipe was for 3.35 gallons, but a really big starter is how I will roll - thanks for the input. I can still make a really big starter and do both a smoked line and a regular line of bock by splitting the starter.
That beer is excellent.
I’ve repitched from a smoked beer into a non-smoked beer and detected smoke character in the latter. I’ve also sampled beer from another homebrewer who has done the same and picked up smoke character in the non-smoked beer. Humans (especially beer judges 
have a very low threshold for smoke. I definitely wouldn’t repitch if you don’t want any smoke character in the resulting beer.
Yes it is!