Lil Smokey (Smoked 70/-)

[Arrheinous]

I've got this recipe in my head about trying to use aromatic and smoked malts to create big flavors in a sessionable Scottish ale. It's not going for any BJCP guidelines and uses chocolate malt in place of roasted barley for a less dry finish.

5.25# Maris Otter (75%)
0.75# Cherrywood Smoked Malt (10.7%)
8 oz Aromatic Malt (7.1%)
8 oz Chocolate Rye Malt (7.1%)

Mash at 150F with 1qt/lb for 90 min, reduce first runnings to 1/8 volume (until it sticks to spoon)
1.040 OG, 15 IBU of Goldings

Edit: Not certain about the aromatic/chocolate balance so I've prepared a series of little grain teas to test it. 8 oz Aromatic, 4 oz C120, and 4 oz Choc Rye sounds promising.

 

[Calder]

Biggest issue I have with this, is that 0.75 lbs of Cherrywood Smoked will not give you "big flavors".

Why are you boiling down the first runnings?

90 min mash is probably not necessary. You can get away with half that.

8 ozs dark crystal will help add some sweetness.

 

[Arrheinous]

I don't know a lot about smoked grains. 10% seems like a lot but that 10% comes down to 0.75#.

Boiling down the wort is done for things like wee heavies - it's just base malt, a few oz of roasted barley, and then boiling the first runnings down. I wanted to use a bit of that for more of the sweetness than actual crystal malt. This worked really well on a tripel I did.

 

[Calder]

0.75 lbs would be a lot if it was peat smoked malt, but not for cherrywood.

 

[Arrheinous]

In terms of smokiness it seems go to: Peated Malt >> Cherrywood > Beechwood. I know you can make rauchbiers with 100% beechwood.

 

[Arrheinous]

I did a second take on this beer, following up on the aromatic part I was shooting for:

7.25# Dingeman Aromatic (as a base malt, it's been done before)
2# Crystal 60
0.25# Dingeman Chocolate

Mash 156F, 30 min
16 IBU Nugget
US-05

Should come out to 4ish%. With the last recipe I reduced the first runnings to 1/2 volume but for this I'm attempting to get more sweetness via more crystal malt. My southern english brown ale used about that much dark crystal and was fine.

It smells great so far!

 

[Calder]

5.25# Maris Otter (75%)
0.75# Cherrywood Smoked Malt (10.7%)
8 oz Aromatic Malt (7.1%)
8 oz Chocolate Rye Malt (7.1%)

Mash at 150

How did it go from this to this?

7.25# Dingeman Aromatic (as a base malt, it's been done before)
2# Crystal 60
0.25# Dingeman Chocolate

Mash at 156

Completely different beers. I think i would like the first one. I don't think I would want to try the second one - it would be too sweet for me.

 

[Arrheinous]

I'm not sure. It is a leap but maybe it's going more toward the bigger flavor in a smaller beer that I was looking for? We'll see.

Update: About a week into fermentation, I opened the bucket and this beer smells like a brewery.