I am interested in trying out cherry wood smoked malt available from Briess. I have two recipes in mind and can use some opinions on them. Rye and smoked malt sounds good together, so I will throw that in too. Briess calls for roughly 30% smoked malt in porters, stouts, and dark beers for a noticable character. Find Your Perfect Malt - Brewing With Briess
First, smoked rye porter. This is based on Stone’s recipe for their smoked (brown) porter. The base recipe calls for peat smoked. It is a solid recipe and a good base to play with.
3 lbs 2 row
3 lbs rye
5 lbs cherry smoked malt
18 oz English dark crystal (~80l)
10 oz chocolate rye.
Mash at 152 for 1 hour
.75oz CTZ for 90 minute boil.
Ferment with English ale yeast.
Thoughts?
The other recipe I was thinking about with roughly the same malt bill is a rauchbier.
3.5 lbs Munich
3.5 lbs Rye malt
3.5 lbs Cherry wood smoked malt
8oz CaraMunich
5oz Carafa III (or other colour malt)
Decoction mash 30 minutes at 146, 15 minute decoction, and then a 30 minute rest at 152.
My only experience with smoked malt was with Briess Cherrywood smoked. LHBS owned here in Cincinnati area owned by an old time inventive home brewer has an extract kit they sell for a smoked ported, when I translated it into AG in Dec 2013, it went something like this: 12.5# 2 row, 1# smoked and 1# Chocolate, with the smoked and chocolate each running about 6.7% of grist. The smoke was distinct and wonderful at that level and I cant imagine using it at almost 5x that level if Briess really suggests 30%. Take that for what its worth, I did the extract version as m second batch a couple months before the AG version and like that as well, really only subbing appropriate amount of 2 row for the extract: essentially the same recipe.
I find the cherry wood smoked malt to be sharp and somewhat phenolic. At ~30 it will be assertive. Your beer, your decision. Let us know how it turns out.
The thing about Bries Cherrywood Smoked malt is that you can never rely on the intensity of the smoke. I’ve had some beers that used over 20% and the smoke was barely perceptible and some with much less that were pretty smokey. I guess it depends on the age and the way it was stored after the original package was opened. I know that they do a lot of testing and package it pretty well, but after it gets to the store, who knows…
You are relatively new here. He smokes malt for a brewery that medaled @GABF. His smoked beers are outstanding. He can do a bag of malt in his cold smoker. I call him Senior Smoke!
Thanks for the advice. I will play it by ear and possibly keep it closer to 20%, depending on what I experience at the store’s stash. Worst case scenario, I will let it age for a while so the smoke subsides a bit.
I agree that the cherrywood smoked malt has a very sharp flavor. It’s my least favorite non-peat smoked malt. I would use a deft hand adding it. I like the way Stone adds to the smoked porter but I’m not a huge fan of the smoked porter on its own.
Cherry wood smoked malt is to sharp and intense for my palate.
I recently made a smoked maerzen with the Weyermann beechwood smoked malt at 40% of the grist and that’s about the limit of what I like. I find the beechwood smoked malt to be much more predictable and smoother.
