Normally I wouldn’t report on a finished beer, but because smoked ale is not a standard beer I think it’s worth saying something.
The beer was brewed on the 1st, today’s the 30th and it’s all gone, several days ago actually. So it’s certainly a beer you can drink. On the first smell and taste it’s decidedly smokey in a smooth way, not at all acrid. Any thoughts about a schooner of bushfire are way off the mark. By the second or third mouthfeel you don’t notice that it’s smokey except on the aftertaste which while subdued, is still quite distinct.
Of course we’ve been drank this beer quite young. Young beer is just a fact of life in this house. But after drinking it for a week it started to come into its own - should I be surprised? Equally I don’t think that it’s a style for a keeping beer, the smoke flavour was beginning to lessen. I will definitely brew another smoked ale but with close to 100% smoked malt. I can also see possibilities for using smaller amounts if you wanted to recreate older style beers such as porters.
Well more than a week late. Anyway, this one is a favourite: a pale, moderately bittered lager beer with lots of hop character.
Several years ago I brewed fairly well nothing else but this type of beer for about a year. Of course there were small variations in a basic grain bill, mash regime, hopping and yeast. Essentially it was the same beer brewed over and over again. Get a pale and delicate lager right, and you can brew anything else dead easy.
This one was:
3.85 kg Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner malt
0.15 kg Weyermann Carapils
(4.00 kg)
Mashed at 66 deg C for 90 mins
Hops - Hallertau to about 25 IBU
About 24 of those IBU were from a 45 minute addition, and another 20 grams at 2 minutes. Yes I should have written it down at the time.
The yeast was recycled Wyeast Danish lager. I’ve enjoyed using this yeast. I’m wondering how it will do for both Vienna and black lagers. I’m due to brew some. For the last round of Vienna and blacks I was using the Mexican lager yeast.
Please don’t be put off by the date - well it can’t be a joke as I’m a few days behind. Anyway, for this brew I was not at all sure what to do. I was thinking about a lager style, but I can’t ferment a lager and an ale simultaneously in the same fridge. I had some smoked malt and have been thinking about doing a smoked beer for a while. I had not done one before so I let a friend brew one first and see how he went.
The only problem was yeast. I had a choice of four yeasts in the fridge but didn’t think any of them would be appropriate. The yeasts were: Danish/Copenhagen lager, Weinstephan wheat, US-56 and Thames Valley-Wyeast 1275.
Anyway I solved the problem, but more of that later. The grain bill was:
3 kg smoked malt, Weyermann I think - it was part of a job lot
1 kg Joe White Vienna
150 g JW caramalt
The reason for this grain bill was firstly I only had 3 kg smoked malt, my friend had gone 50% and said that it should have been more, maybe even 100% smoked malt. For a standard gravity and volume I still needed anothr kilo of base malt. I opted for the Vienna because it is a similar colour and I thought the flavour would go well with the smoked malt. Munich would have been a bit much, and pilsener not enough. Lastly a touch of caramalt for some caramel flavour to set off the smoked flavour and keep thing smooth.
Mashed at 66 degrees C for 90 minutes. Generally I mash with about 3 liters per kg plus another litre, so for this beer it was about 13 litres. Sparged with about another 18 litres. I usually stop sparging before the mash tun runs dry.
I start the boil before I collect the full volume, and then once I’ve collected the full volume generally boil for 30 minutes before adding hops. You want to see hot break forming before adding hops.
Hopping was 46 grams of 5.7% EK Goldings at 45 minutes, and another 6 grams at 5 mins - the shop scales weigh in increments of 2 grams.
While cooling the wort I pitched the yeast. Now the yeast dilemma was that I didn’t think that any of the yeasts were really appropriate to the style. Forget the lager and wheat yeasts, that left either the US-56 or the 1275 Thames Valley. Youshould be able to see what’s coming. The US-56 is a clean fermenting yeast that tends to accentuate hop flavours - this is not a hop driven beer. The 1275 is probably a bit to “English” for the style, the answer was of course to blend the two and that is exactly what I did.
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