What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Soren]

I hope to be able to start a ferment this week with the US-05 I have been growing on the stirplate for a while...
one wet night at the Malthouse during Beervana I had a brewdog paradox smokehead, imperial stout aged in Islay scotch casks... now, it was quite a wet night but i recall this being really good. big malty chocolatey back one with a hint af whisky and peat smoke. i don't have an islay barrel available (yet!) but this is what I thought:

Gladfield Pale: 66.7%
Brown Malt: 9.5%
Roast: 5.7 %
Chocolate: 4%
CaraAroma: 4.8%
Medium Crystal: 4.8%
Oats: 04.8%
Peated distilling malt: ???%

67C mash, 120 min boil, bittering hop at 60 mins, no late hops. OG: 1.100+

The question is, how much peated? I'm thinking about 3%, I want it to be clearly there but not overpowering..

Depending how the ferment goes I might add some molasses or dark moscovado sugar towards the end to make sure it doesnt get too cloying, and then i will age it on bourbon or whisky chips for a couple of months. at bottling I might add some Islay singlemalt if needed.

[JR]

Jamel in his "other smoked beers" podcast recommended restraint with peat-smoked malt - probably worth a listen.

[Reviled]

I used 1% and it was strong to start with, but dropped off after a month or so and became quite subtle... If you want it to be clearly there maybe start with 2% and age it for a while, id say if you do use 2-3% for the first few months it will be quite smoky!

[Reviled]

Oh - Also, ive tried a 100% peat smoked beer and it tasted like medicine for the first year, but tried it again recently and it was absolutely awesome!! So I guess the more you use the more youll need to age it?

[Dale]

I did a 2.5% peat smoked beer and same as Reviled was amazed with the smoke flavour but after 6 weeks in the bottle it has really dropped down as well, you can still taste the smoked though.

[HerrSchnapps]

So it was initially like a Islay whisky beer? Yum!

[Soren]

I like Jamil, he has a lot of great info, but I don't agree with him on the peated malt though, I love it. I'll probalby go with 3%, this wont be drinking for another 6 months or so I think. And oh yeah, I was gonna brew one of those 100% peated beers as well, thanks for reminding me rev:) that must be so jam packed with peat that it can only be good!

[JoKing]

I had one a couple of years ago now. It was absolutely gnarley! I think at the time it was about 3 months in the bottle - and it was phenolic, medicinal... you get the idea.

Aparently, after 18 months - it was awesome. Stu said he stewarded in the 2008 SOBA NHC and had a sample of it: and it was to die for.

It was 9% abv and 100% medium peat smoked malt.

[Reviled]

Bump - I knew I wasnt imagining a 100% peat beer before!!

Scandal :P lol

[Christian]

Soren, how much peated malt goes in Stonecutter? This is about right for my tastes, though obviously your recipe is quite different.

[Simon David kelly]

I was looking at the following as a Dry Stout first effort for this weekend. However, I'm not sure if I've got the balance of flaked in there to give it that creaminess.

3.30 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 77.65 %
0.45 kg Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 10.59 %
0.35 kg Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 8.24 %
0.15 kg Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 3.53 %
26.30 gm Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 42.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast-Ale

[Stu McKinlay]

Depends what you are going for...

For a classic (within style) dry stout: I'd say to go with more flaked malt and to drop the black malt completely (10% roast will be good enough).

Suggest trying the Townshend Stout at The Malthouse if you can. That's 13% roast apparently. It's full on, very very good, and at the upper end of the spectrum I'd say. PKB (Remixed), if you tried it the other day, is 8% roast - the other end of the spectrum (I wouldn't go lower).

10% roast, 10% flaked might be a good place to start but I'm sure you could go a fair bit higher with the flaked barley. IBU's about 90% of OG.