On Sunday I tried my hand at my first smoked beer. I wanted to go for something that had a large smoke component, but with enough support from other malt flavors to not be over-powering or one-dimensional. Here’s the rec
6# 2-Row Pilsner Malt (1.0 SRM)
6# Smoked Malt (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM)
8oz. Melanoidin Malt (Weyermann) (30 SRM)
1.5# Honey Malt (25 SRM)
1oz. Northern Brewer pellet hops (8.9% AA) –Boil 75 Min.
1oz. Willamette pellet hops (4.6% AA) –Boil 75 Min.
1/2 gallon starter of Wyeast American Ale (1056) yeast
Mashed in with 17.4 qts. of water at 170 Degrees to bring the mash to 156. Let sit for one hour, then sparged with 4.5 gallons at 170 degrees. I ended up drawing a little too much wort into the kettle, and I also wanted to adjust the recipe to get a little more bitterness out of my hops, so I boiled for 75 mins. My measured gravity was 1.070, which puts me at about 68% efficiency–slightly better then my typical 65%. Cooled and pitched my starter. It’s been fermenting strong for the past few days, but I’m a little concerned because Monday got into the 80s here, and since I don’t have A/C or fermentation temp control (hence “Primitive Brewing”), I know it will develop some off flavors. I’ll post a review of it when it’s ready, but for now, here’s some pictures from the brew day:
Glorious glorious wort
Some deliciously smokey inspiration
All done and in the basement.
Primitive Brewing 