Peat smoked malt

[cerevisia]

Hello all

 

I'm thinking of making another all grain, but using some peat smoked malt that I have lying around. It seems pretty strong stuff - one taste and my mouth feels like I just smoked a cigarette. I've got about 1KG of it. Normally when I do an all grain I do about 3Kg's pale malt and 1 Kg crystal malt. I'm guessing 1Kg of the smoked stuff would be too overpowering? I'd make it a dark ale if I was going to do this..

 

Anyone here used peat smoked malt, if so how was it?

[Paul Broome]

hey nice one Chad. The last time I bought glycerine was at BYO Hamilton, I would imagine they still sell it. Also I would think Mike at Brewers Coup sells it as well, its not hard to get. You need very little of it to use in freezing yeast.

I'm in Hamilton BTW.

PM me if you're wanting to follow up on the yeast thing at all.
Cheers.

[Chad Keven]

sweet yeah i'm gonna give it a nudge, ive got kolsch 2565 coming  let me know if you wanna swap any

[Paul Broome]

Just bottled my Rex Attitude (clone attempt) this morning.  I call it "Bad Attitude".  FG was 1.006, a bit lower than I wanted, I forgot to factor in that I had used very little crystal malt, only 50 gms so that will account for it. But there's plenty of malt in there.   Taste is clean enough I think.  Colour is about the same as I remember from the Rex Attitude I tried at House Bar, in Hamilton a couple of months ago.

Dry hopping (cold) my Epic Pale Ale tomorrow, that should be bottling in about another week.  Then a La Chouffe clone attempt next up.

 

[Stu McKinlay]

sweet jesus... three awesome beers at your house!

 

1.006 will be fine Paul... as I say below, my first Rex homebrew got down to 1.004 and it tasted like 1.012. i thought my hydrometer was screwed so got a couple of other homebrewers to check it. The concurred.

[Stu McKinlay]

Original homebrew fermented down to 1.004 (935 AA) but tasted like 1.012... something weird going on with that malt. I actually didn't believe my hydrometer so I got a few other homebrewers to check and they concurred. So that one actually ended up as 8% and 45ibu (I suspect my IBU at home at lower than calculations).

The commercial version is 7% and 34ibu (those IBU will be pretty bang on based on some analysis I saw done on Invercargill beers a few years back).

xeRRex is 10% and 50ibu... pretty much exactly the same recipe scaled up in a near linear fashion.

I prefer NZ Willamette in it, to be honest, but they are very hard to come by in the quantity we need so have gone with the US version.

Water profile seems quite important to me:

Calcium(Ca): 90 ppm

Magnesium(Mg): 37 ppm

Sodium(Na): 12 ppm

Sulfate(SO4): 110 ppm

Chloride(Cl): 50 ppm

biCarbonate(HCO3): 75 ppm

　

I vividly remember mashing in the first trial, I was a bit hungover and it had me really worried. I felt like i was going to be sick when I doughed in! On reflection, I realise why it fermented down so low, I actually mashed for 4hrs as I had a few jobs to do that day. I also remember my first taste. I'd kegged the beer after 10 days in the fermenter, then had left for 3 weeks in Australia the next day... I got home at midnight, put the kids to bed, and then ran down to the cellar to sample some... HEAVEN!!!

Glad you guys are inspired... that is the most exciting feedback I ever hear, when someone wants to make it themselves!

[Paul Broome]

Stu, thanks for the interest and response to my post.  Very encouraging.  I will post up in a few weeks once my "Rex" has been sampled.

Paul.