Smoking crushed grain

[Who is John Malt?]

I was wondering if it is advisable to smoke crushed grain (what kind of papers use or what do you do with the water, just kidding). I want to experiment with a smoked ported next week and I have all of my grain crushed at the LHBS. Have the alder standing by...

[BentwoodBlue]

Hmmm.. Just taking a guess, but I think that would be bad. I think you may run the risk of scorching the starches that are exposed.
With that said, I say experiment and find out. It may work out nicely. But you may want to have some back up grain if it doesn't go right.

[Thirsty Boy]

What if....... and I readily admit I have no damn idea what I'm talking about, you performed the "smoking" process on something that wasn't actually an ingredient, just a vehicle for the smoke flavour. For instance, the rice hulls that I know people often use to help lautering go smoothly. They might carry the smoke flavour into the wort, but save abusing fragile starch particles. Or maybe some uncracked barley? Sawdust? (ok maybe not sawdust)

Who knows, might work.

[Danno]

Smoking grain is not that high temp of a process so I doubt you would damage the starch. Everywhere I've read, they smoke the grain before crushing. Can't you buy the grain, smoke it and then return to the homebrew shop to mill it?

I have a brewing buddy that does great smoked beers. His smoked porter will be at the AHA this week along with a Rauchbier that we brewed together. He uses a Traeger BBQ and I think a temp of 250°F for a couple of hours.

[BentwoodBlue]

Smoking the rice hulls sounds like a great idea.. Expensive. But great.

[Who is John Malt?]

Smoking grain is not that high temp of a process so I doubt you would damage the starch. Everywhere I've read, they smoke the grain before crushing. Can't you buy the grain, smoke it and then return to the homebrew shop to mill it?

I have a brewing buddy that does great smoked beers. His smoked porter will be at the AHA this week along with a Rauchbier that we brewed together. He uses a Traeger BBQ and I think a temp of 250°F for a couple of hours.

I want to get close to Alaska Brewing's Smoked Porter. I've never seen alder-smoked malt in a LHBS so I have a smoker, I have malt. I'm going for it.

[Who is John Malt?]

What if....... and I readily admit I have no damn idea what I'm talking about, you performed the "smoking" process on something that wasn't actually an ingredient, just a vehicle for the smoke flavour. For instance, the rice hulls that I know people often use to help lautering go smoothly. They might carry the smoke flavour into the wort, but save abusing fragile starch particles. Or maybe some uncracked barley? Sawdust? (ok maybe not sawdust)

Who knows, might work.

WTH, I have about 30 lbs of rice hulls in the brewery. I will give it a try as well.