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SpeedYellow said:
It's been a while (I stocked up!) but one place was Wannamakers, on Ogden just off I-88 / I-355. Call first cuz it's out of season now. They had both Weber and Budweiser brands of beech chips.

Amazon also has 3 lb bags of beech for $12 right now.
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I know where that is... I pass it on 88 you can see their name on the back of the building.

I may have to stop in there this weekend. I'm going to call them.

Thanks!!! :mug:
 
GaBrewZoo said:
When I saw that you had traded your Twitter name for five cases of beer, I knew I had to try some of it. Found a bottle, snatched it up, and wow, that's good. I eventually want to try and smoke some malt. I had heard that cold smoking malt was the way to go. Any thoughts?
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According to "Smoked Beers" Cooler is better. You definitely don't want the grains exposed directly to flame. The wood should be doing a very slow burn with wafts of smoke coming up. I posted how I cold smoked using a tin can to hold apple pellets.

If you do it cold the grain color won't change for the most part. If its done hot and long enough it will roast the grains like coffee beans.

Yesterday I did hot. The first hour was all smoking with the bottom pan filled with carbon filtered water and soaked maple chips in the wood cup.

My soaked pale malt never saw flame in the smoker cabinet. The drip/water pan is above the gas burner, with a middle cup filled with chips. It smoked for an hour below 200F. I'm guessing about 180F on low heat seeting. Then one hour on 50% medium heat setting it was at 200F. By this time the water pan is dry. So it transitions into roasting with some smoke. Then on 75% med-high it was about 300F for 2.5 hours before I took it off an started drying at 170. I can see that it browned on the husks.

While the smoker box is at 200F the grain was about 142F. With smoker box at 300F the grain was about 155F.

This will make what I guess will be like a smokey brown ale or a brown porter. The browning is not even. I'm ok with that.
 
Schlenkerla said:
The doppelbock is a Christmas Seasonal and is very rare from what I understand. Its a Oak Smoked beer.

eiche-200.gif



​
Its much more mellow than the beechwood smoked Weizen, Marzen and Urbock.

Interesting thing about the Helles. Its not smoked. It picks up smoke from the contact with all the plumbing.

Here's the Schlenkerla varieties. Click Me...
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Gonna pick up a few of the doppelbocks right now . . . :rocking:


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Just Dough'd in with this grist....

Hefe Weizen Mit Rauch


Edit :

I mashed for 90 minutes instead of the normal 60 minutes. I thought the diastatic power would be diminished from the smoke and the hotter temps. That was wrong.

Target 1.052 OG @ 5 gallons. Refractometer was 9.0 Brix; converted its at 1.034 @ 6.21 gallons off the sparge. So 81.21% Efficiency. I'm pretty f'ing happy. :rockin:
 
Schlenkerla said:
Anybody smoking today???
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Just fired up the 22WSM for the first time in 2 years. (I have a Fast Eddy120 and a Alkorn Kamado so the WSM tends to get neglected) and put the pernil on ( Puerto Rican-style pork shoulder injected with mojo criollo and rubbed with adobo).

I'll post a pic when that chicharron (skin) starts to crisp brown.

Normally, I prefer to make my own mojo criollo wth fresh lime, orange and grapefruit juice loaded with garlic and spices, but I was lazy today and got the bottled stuff from Goya. I also prefer to use a Boston Butt, but the shoulder is more traditional. Since the shoulder tends to dry out (less marbled than the butt), I put the shoulder in a roasting pan with the extra mojo. When you go to the bodegas, the stuff gets better as it sits in its juices in the steam tables.

I'll take into 185° halfway between well done and pull apart tender, although I am tempted to bring it to pull of the bone tender and let the meat fall apart and fresh in the juice. I'll make that call later as the adobo might make the juices too salty.
 
NSMikeD said:
Just fired up the 22WSM for the first time in 2 years. (I have a Fast Eddy120 and a Alkorn Kamado so the WSM tends to get neglected) and put the pernil on ( Puerto Rican-style pork shoulder injected with mojo criollo and rubbed with adobo).

I'll post a pic when that chicharron (skin) starts to crisp brown.

Normally, I prefer to make my own mojo criollo wth fresh lime, orange and grapefruit juice loaded with garlic and spices, but I was lazy today and got the bottled stuff from Goya. I also prefer to use a Boston Butt, but the shoulder is more traditional. Since the shoulder tends to dry out (less marbled than the butt), I put the shoulder in a roasting pan with the extra mojo. When you go to the bodegas, the stuff gets better as it sits in its juices in the steam tables.

I'll take into 185° halfway between well done and pull apart tender, although I am tempted to bring it to pull of the bone tender and let the meat fall apart and fresh in the juice. I'll make that call later as the adobo might make the juices too salty.
Click to expand...

Sounds delicious.

I love using goya mojo on skirt steak. Arrachera. I usually buy the bitter orange. Right now I have the adobo seasoning and mojo marinade on hand. Both are goya.

If you have a recipe for home made mojo please post it here.

Is a Puerto Rican-style pork shoulder a different cut of meat or is it just how you prepare it?

I like the idea of using a pan to collect the drippings.

Looking forward to pics.
 
IMG_0037.jpg

2+ hours in. 125° WSM temp @ 265°

Pernil is made with the shoulder. no special cut just the marinade and adobo.

Any mojo recipe will do - just use a mix of fresh squeezed lime juice, orange juice and grapefruit juice to replace the naraja (bitter orange) but since you have access to bitter orange, go with that.

This is the recipe from La Caja China that I tend to follow (I omit the pineapple)

1 cup sour orange juice **
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon bay leaves
1 garlic bulb
1 teaspoon cumin
4 teaspoon salt
4 oz. of water
4 oz. Pineapple juice (optional)




I used Royal Oak Charcoal a about 8 hickory chunks (normally I would use just the royal oak or just one or two hardwood chunks for a light smoke, but today I kicked up the hickory on a whim).


I may make a lime/sugar solution and spritz to kick up the skin
 
SpeedYellow said:
It's been a while (I stocked up!) but one place was Wannamakers, on Ogden just off I-88 / I-355. Call first cuz it's out of season now. They had both Weber and Budweiser brands of beech chips.

Amazon also has 3 lb bags of beech for $12 right now.
Click to expand...

Just left Wannamaker's....

I grabbed two bags of beech wood chips, plus one alder, and one oak.

They also have orange wood too. Was tempted to get it... resisted the temptation.

Thanks for the tip!!!
 
Smoking a big beef chuck pot roast with mesquite tonight. Just a couple hours to smoke and brown the outside.

It's slathered with horseradish and dusted with freshly crushed black pepper and some adobo seasoning.

Tomorrow this hunk of meat is dinner in a smoked pot roast. It's gonna slow cook all day with with potatoes, baby carrots, onion and celery.

I added a drip pan below the roast with a cup of water to add to the crock pot.

This is a first time to say that I'm smoking some water.
 
Since its smellin' smokey out here. Time for a Helles... to go with the smell of mesquite.
:D


HBT 0 spartical post 52.jpg
 

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Back at it... getting ready to rack smoked weizen and a smoked marzen to carboys so why not have the smoker going.

Cold smoking a block of cheddar, a diced up log of summer sausage, and why the hell not, a bowl of cooked penne pasta. :rockin:

Using apple pellets today. The pasta is a left over but it needs a warm-up before nuking, so why not have some 100F smoke help do the job.
 
Made black malt last night... My whole place smells like burnt popcorn. Barley smoked quite a bit. Now a can say it's self smoked.
:D
 
Schlenkerla said:
Just Dough'd in with this grist....

Hefe Weizen Mit Rauch


Edit :

I mashed for 90 minutes instead of the normal 60 minutes. I thought the diastatic power would be diminished from the smoke and the hotter temps. That was wrong.

Target 1.052 OG @ 5 gallons. Refractometer was 9.0 Brix; converted its at 1.034 @ 6.21 gallons off the sparge. So 81.21% Efficiency. I'm pretty f'ing happy. :rockin:
Click to expand...

Just tasted this beer. It's still carbonating, however it has a great smoke flavor and aroma
 
Wow what a fascinating thread! smoking+DIY+homebrewing, It's a hobby inside a hobby inside a hobby, A turducken of fun! man just when I thought I was about to hop off the spending treadmill, my plans for the next year have just now changed!
 
OK, why haven't I found this thread before? I'm a big fan of anything brewed by Schlenkerla, particularly the Eiche (oak) Doppelbock. Just picked up a bunch of bottles of that from Total Wine yesterday.

I brewed a rauch a while back, using almost 100% Weyermann malt. It was good, but still didn't turn out as smoky as I would've liked. Maybe the smokiness dissipates over time while it's shipped to the US.

Now I need to go back through this thread and pick up some ideas. Need to figure a way to oak-smoke a bunch of base malt without over-doing it.
 
MaxStout said:
OK, why haven't I found this thread before? I'm a big fan of anything brewed by Schlenkerla, particularly the Eiche (oak) Doppelbock. Just picked up a bunch of bottles of that from Total Wine yesterday.

I brewed a rauch a while back, using almost 100% Weyermann malt. It was good, but still didn't turn out as smoky as I would've liked. Maybe the smokiness dissipates over time while it's shipped to the US.

Now I need to go back through this thread and pick up some ideas. Need to figure a way to oak-smoke a bunch of base malt without over-doing it.
Click to expand...
Glad you found it. I'm surprised there hasnt more interest in this. Anyhow, read through this if you have questions ask me. I'm going to post more about roasting a variety of specialty grains shortly.

Often people make a batch of smoked malt. Then use about 20%. Then step it up down on taste. I'm at 40-50% and liking it. I could go higher. I need to run the gamut of smokes. Right now I've only done apple, maple and cherry. I have oak, pecan, alder and beach to try.

The most important points are to wet grain with distilled or filtered water (must be de-chlorinated water) and smoke without a wicking flame. Then dry it to flash off acetic acid.

What kind of smoker do you have to smoke malts?
 
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Yeah aged grain looses it's smoke but it needs about a year to be significant from what I've read.

Did you add black or roast malt to that beer? I've made a few smoked pale ales without roasted malts. They don't seem that smokey when roasted malt is left out of the grist.
 
Schlenkerla said:
Glad you found it. I'm surprised there hasnt more interest in this. Anyhow, read through this if you have questions ask me. I'm going to post more about roasting a variety grains shortly.

Often people make a batch of smoked malt. Then use about 20%. Then step it up down on taste. I'm at 40-50% and liking it. I could go higher. I need to run the gamut of smokes. Right now I've only done apple, maple and cherry. I have oak, pecan, alder and beach to try.

The most important points are to wet grain with distilled or filtered water (must be de-chlorinated water) and smoke without a wicking flame. Then dry it to flash off acetic acid.

What kind of smoker do you have to smoke malts?
Click to expand...

I don't have a smoker--yet. Something on the to-do list as I expand my brewing ideas. I might try to go ghetto on this, convert an old Weber or something of that sort.

I have lots of scrap cutoffs of various hardwoods (I do some woodworking). Lots of oak, maple and cherry around.

Pulled up my recipe in Beersmith. It was about 95% Weyermann smoked malt, and about 2.5% each of Carafa II and Melanoidin malts. Hallertau Mittelfrueh to about 25 IBU, and WY2308. It definitely was smoky, but the smoke wasn't as strong as I had hoped, kind of muted. I used to do very vigorous boils--maybe that drives off some of the flavor. I used the malt within a month or so of purchasing from Northern here in town. Not sure how quickly that malt rotates in stock--maybe it had been there a while. In any case, I think DIY smoking is the only way to go. Besides, I've never seen oak-smoked malt in stores, only the beech and some cherry-smoked. Never tried the cherry. I believe Schlenkerla smokes all their own.
 
MaxStout said:
I don't have a smoker--yet. Something on the to-do list as I expand my brewing ideas. I might try to go ghetto on this, convert an old Weber or something of that sort.

I have lots of scrap cutoffs of various hardwoods (I do some woodworking). Lots of oak, maple and cherry around.

Pulled up my recipe in Beersmith. It was about 95% Weyermann smoked malt, and about 2.5% each of Carafa II and Melanoidin malts. Hallertau Mittelfrueh to about 25 IBU, and WY2308. It definitely was smoky, but the smoke wasn't as strong as I had hoped, kind of muted. I used to do very vigorous boils--maybe that drives off some of the flavor. I used the malt within a month or so of purchasing from Northern here in town. Not sure how quickly that malt rotates in stock--maybe it had been there a while. In any case, I think DIY smoking is the only way to go. Besides, I've never seen oak-smoked malt in stores, only the beech and some cherry-smoked. Never tried the cherry. I believe Schlenkerla smokes all their own.
Click to expand...

You're right. The Schlenkerla malts all of their grain. Their kiln process of the malting is what gives it the smoke flavor. They have a fire box about the size of a foot locker that they jam full of wood. The adjacent heat and smoke of the fire does the job of killing the germinated grains. However the heat of kiln is not uniform as they don't add anything to grain bill to make their beers black. Some of the barley kernels just really get brown and some get black from the heat kiln. They use beech most of the year and oak just for the Doppelbock.

If you have a grill you can cold smoke with tin can, pellets and a torch. You just need a space big enough to spread out the grain and be able to contain the smoke. My first batch of smoked meats this year was done on the grill cold. Steaks and chops.

I've done grain both ways. Hot and cold on my new smoker. The cold smoke really amps up the volume of smoke. My work buddies have smokers but have adopted the cold smoking here and there for certain foods. Two of them cold smoked cheese and hard boiled eggs for thanksgiving.

Ah you said you've got oak you want to use. Soak it for a day, meanwhile buy a small hot plate and pie tin. Fill the tin with chips, set it on the hot plate and turn it on. Hot plate would just sit on the grill grates next to the grain. In ten minutes you'll be oak smoking.

Frys electronics has this one for $19.

shopping.jpeg


That would work for using whatever wood chips you have laying about.

The wood you have is not treated right? If it is, you should get wood chips. Oak is pretty common anywhere that sells smoking supplies should have some.
 
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I have noticed that my beers are the smokiest right after pouring a nice head. I think our palates adjust. After awhile I don't notice it as much. That's a pretty much the experience with drinking smoked beer. Both authors of the books I sited said the same thing.
 
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The cold-smoking on a grill idea sounds great. Perhaps spread the grain over a piece of screen inside the grill. I've heard of some people putting the wet wood chips in a can and dropping a couple lit charcoal briquets into the chips. I have lots of oak scraps, nothing treated. In fact, I might run some of the wood over my router table and collect the shavings.
 
MaxStout said:
The cold-smoking on a grill idea sounds great. Perhaps spread the grain over a piece of screen inside the grill. I've heard of some people putting the wet wood chips in a can and dropping a couple lit charcoal briquets into the chips. I have lots of oak scraps, nothing treated. In fact, I might run some of the wood over my router table and collect the shavings.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're ready to make yourself a set of baskets. I bought aluminum screen to make baskets. Then folded them and stapled the corners.

The mesh baskets are a bit flimsy but can be carried on a cookie sheet. Then just slip them onto the grill. Same with taking them off the grill.
 
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Schlenkerla said:
Sounds like you're ready to make yourself a set of baskets. I bought aluminum screen to make baskets. Then folded them and stapled the corners.

The mesh baskets are a bit flimsy but can be carried on a cookie sheet. Then just slip them onto the grill. Same with taking them off the grill.
Click to expand...

I like that basket idea. Quick n' dirty and gets the job done. How deep can the grains be in the basket and still get good smoke infusion? Do you stir the grain during the cold-smoking?
 
MaxStout said:
I like that basket idea. Quick n' dirty and gets the job done. How deep can the grains be in the basket and still get good smoke infusion? Do you stir the grain during the cold-smoking?
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Mine are usually about an inch deep with grain. I could take it up to an inch and half I wanted. I don't stir. You could if you wanted to do so. I don't think it's necessary if you don't have a hot spots beneath the grain. It would help expose more grains to smoke. You'd loose a lot smoke just to open and stir. I think the smoke nestles it's way through the grains.

The grains are a little soft after wetting them so I decided to not stir. It's like shove them in the smoker and then crack open a Schlenkerla, kick back and watch the smoke billow out for a bit.

I smoke my grain about two hours typically.
 
Schlenkerla said:
Mine are usually about an inch deep with grain. I could take it up to an inch and half I wanted. I don't stir. You could if you wanted to do so. I don't think it's necessary if you don't have a hot spots beneath the grain. It would help expose more grains to smoke. You'd loose a lot smoke just to open and stir. I think the smoke nestles it's way through the grains.

The grains are a little soft after wetting them so I decided to not stir. It's like shove them in the smoker and then crack open a Schlenkerla, kick back and watch the smoke billow out for a bit.
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That sounds like a good plan.

I'm already on the kick back with a Schlenkerla part right now. All this talk got me jonesin' for one.

20171215_201637.jpg
 
Schlenkerla said:
Nice glass. I like stem wear and glasses with wide opening to smell the smoke.
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I like 'em too. Have several similar Duvel glasses. I keep getting a gift of their boxed set with 4 bottles and a tulip glass.

Off topic, but curious about how you traded your Twitter handle for 5 cases of Rauchbier. Did the brewery send a cease-and-desist, or did they just reach out and offer the beer?
 
MaxStout said:
I like 'em too. Have several similar Duvel glasses. I keep getting a gift of their boxed set with 4 bottles and a tulip glass.

Off topic, but curious about how you traded your Twitter handle for 5 cases of Rauchbier. Did the brewery send a cease-and-desist, or did they just reach out and offer the beer?
Click to expand...
They offered beer and swag.

At first Wiehenstephaner's export manager asked for it belligerently and accused me of wanting to make money. I told them Matthias Trum needed to contact me. I asked why would I give it to another brewery not affiliated with Schlenkerla. Do you want to make money, Jackass?

Eventually two years later Matthias contacted me we talked and agreed to beer and glasses and a free tour when I visit Germany. I really didn't want much other than beer. I told him that from the start and let him be the first one to make an offer. He told me a bunch about his brewing practice without divulging centuries of family secrets. He seems like a genuinely nice guy.

BTW - You have too have a Schlenkerla glass to drink this beer. LOL
 
It's nice to be able to amicably settle differences like that without bringing in lawyers. And I'm an IP lawyer. :D Glad it worked out, win-win. Interesting that Wiehenstephaner wanted the handle. Probably wanted to use it as leverage against the competition. I've seen that happen with domain names, where a cybersqautter is a direct competitor to the trademark's owner.

If I ever get back to Gemany, Bamberg is on the hit list.

You're right, I do need a Schlenkerla glass. Maybe a couple. I'll look for their swag online.
 
This morning I soaked a bunch of beachwood. It's a nice light colored wood without any kind of defects and very smooth cut chips. Smoking grain tonight!

Gonna stock up on beech smoked grain for January brewing activities. Good thing with the weather, I'm not going to have to be all that concerned about the risk of high temperature during this session.
 
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Smoking the grain with beech now. Its my first time using beech.... Smells fricken good as hell. It's mild, steamy, and hard to describe, it's smells more like a fruit wood than hickory or maple.

20171218_185648.jpg
 
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