Oh to pine about Rauchmalt....
..... Do you have a few hours? LoL.
Rauch malt smoke preference is like hop bitterness. You either like it or hate it. Then once you to warm up to it chances are if you really like it you want more and more and it can't ever be enough. Thinking that's a good Rauchbier. Especially at the higher ABV.
However sticking with a touch in stout or a porter is another story. It pairs well with roasted malts if it's intended as an accent. You can egress into using smoke malt modestly 10-20% then up to much larger amounts. It pairs well with beers that have black malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, biscuit and special roast. Think Dark English, Scottish, Irish and German beers are prime candidates for such malts.
A long time ago all malts were smoke malts until the primary use of heating resorted to coal. Prior to that, most malting was done over hay or wood fired kilns. Hence the smoke character. Some very warm climates used solar methods and were smoke free. Like Egypt or North Africa. Then smoked malts nearly faded to extinction in the 19th century with the invention of black patent roaster. Think brown ales. At one time brown ale was made from lightly smoked malt that was brown from roasting and smoking.
Bamberg Germany is a place that hasn't let it fade from history. Be it Heller Trum Brewery (Schlenkerla) and Spezial.. Also a few others in that area. Their malt is malted with smoke and roasted such that it's a dark garnet red on it's own when mashed. It's basically a dark Munich Rauch.
I like making my own rauch malt. I typically use it to make marzen and dunkelweizen style beers frequently. Anything from 50-100% grist. More is better if you like bold flavors. I like it in any roasted malt beer that I like to drink frequently while smoking food. So far I have made beers smoked with apple, cherry, maple, hickory, beech, pecan, oak and mesquite. Also done Rauch malts from dried peanut and pistachio shells. Both of the latter are super mellow nutty smokes.
Roast malt mellows with time. It's like coffee beans strongest when used freshly after smoking. It's degrades with time as you let it air out. Closing it up tightly contains some of the aroma as it helps hold the moisture content. I like to use it from 3-6 months after smoking.
Pairs well with foods like BBQ, any grilled foods that gets grill marks, then include stir fry, and spicy foods. Thinking Mexican , Thai and any classic German/American pork cuts that sees a grill, smoker or roasting oven.
I like smoke malt in the extreme to the mildest touch in a beer. Marzen to English Mild.
Note the smoke effect is most obvious in the first pour. It's taste or ester like effect fades with time during the beer session. One's pallet loses its taste after a bit like a bitter IPA does. That is one reason people who like it want it heavy in the beer. Pellet cold smoking really packs the smoke flavor if you want it to punch you in the face. I like it that way in September. But kind of like it more mellow later in the fall.
Any questions about this subject I'd be more than happy to discuss.
Post here or see the post beerlow ... Or IM me...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/637254/
