Beer Forum

So here is my grain bill for a smoked barley wine

19 lbs Marris otter
3 lbs Rauchmalt
2 lbs Briess smoked malt (cherrywood)
10 oz caramunich
10 oz crystal 120

This is roughly 20% smoked malt. This beer is going to sit on oak cubes that have been soaked in brandy for about 3 months before being served. I know that the smokyness is relative to the freshness of the smoked grains but what do people think overall about the smokyness of this beer? I'm going for a mild to moderate smoke flavor.

Thanks in advance.
PB

It'll certainly be noticeable... not sure how that will change over time (assuming you are aging this BW out for a while). It would be interesting to do one with beechwood and one with the cherry smoked malt to see what differences there are...

I've played with that cherrywood malt quite a bit. It gets bacony very fast!

Sounds tasty. Let us know how it turns out. I may give it a try.

That cherry smoked malt is really intense, particularly compared to the Weyermann's rauchmalt.
You might not like it even after a couple years aging.

If this is your first try with it, I suggest you probably want to do a couple test batches on an Amber type base beer or
something quick but a bit smaller first to dial in how much smoke you'll like before you go full bore on it in your
barleywine. Then, add 10-15% more for the "real" one to account for aging.

HTH-

Thanks for all the feedback. Unfortunately I don't have time for test batches as I need this to get going for a contest in Jan. So I'm already pushing it as it is. Hopefully by fermenting it a little cooler I can keep the fusals to a min. Anyway I think I'll bump the rauchmalt up to 3.5 lbs and cut the briess to 0.5 lbs. Thanks again I'll post results in a couple months.

Prost!
PB

Remember to use chlorine free water when using smoked malts. Chlorine+smoke = band-aid phenols!

Thought I would update. This beer came out great. It was a little difficult for me to distinguish between the smoke and wood flavors so I think I ended up pulling out the oak cubes a little early. All in all though this came out really well, I had a lot of people who stated that they did not like smoked beers but found this very drinkable. People who like smoked beers absolutly loved it. I entered the unoaked version in a local contest and have yet to hear the results, but all in all I think a moderately smoked barley wine works really well. Thanks for all the advise.

PB