Smoked Chocolate Ale Opinons and advice please

[vance71975]

3 lbs Pils Malt extract
1lb amber malt extract
1lb wheat malt extract

3 lbs chocolate malt
1 lb Briess crystal malt 120L
1 lb Special B malt
2 lb Briess Cherry wood smoked malt

1 oz saaz (60 min boil)
1 oz saaz (45 min boil)
1 oz saaz (30 min boil)
1 oz saaz (15 min boil)
1 oz saaz (Flame out)
1 oz Saaz (dry hop at racking)

Im kinda stuck on what yeast i want to use, i am thinking maybe Nottingham.Any advice?

[BrewDog]

Don't. Seriously.

[vance71975]

Don't. Seriously.

any reason you say don't?or just doesn't sound good to you?

[markaberrant]

In my opinion, 3lbs of chocolate malt will taste disgusting, especially with all that saaz. I also wouldn't mix tons of hops with smoked malt.

[Beer Martin]

Chocolate malt isn't really the same thing as chocolate. If you added that much chocolate malt to the beer it would taste like charcoal not chocolate.

Most imperial porters and stouts don't use that much dark grain. If you want to make a chocolate beer add the powdered chocolate not chocolate malt.

Chocolate malt as described by Ray Daniels in Designing Great Beers, "Malted barley that has been kilned at high temperature to a rich brown color. Flavors are sometimes described as sharp and acrid, while others find it imparts a nutty, toasted quality in both aroma and flavor. It is found in porters and some stouts, brown ales, and dunkels."

The amount you have is way too much for any beer. I would not go above 0.25 lb in anything that wasn't a porter or stout.

Same goes for the smoked malt. You want a little bit of smoked malt. A little goes a long way. I'd also scale that back to 0.25 lb. Better to start too low than too high with those malts. If you find you wanted more then you'll know to use a little more next time, but I can't imagine you needing more than 0.25 lb.
________
MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL (http://www.mercedes-wiki.com/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_300SL)

[markaberrant]

I think the smoked malt is an ok amount, it is peat smoked malt that you need to be very careful with. I just got some samples in the mail of that new Briess cherry wood malt and it smells fantastic!

[markaberrant]

This is what I would do:

6 lbs Pils Malt extract

1 lb chocolate malt
.5 lb Briess crystal malt 120L
.5 lb Special B malt
2 lb Briess Cherry wood smoked malt

1.5 oz goldings (60 min boil)
1 oz goldings (15 min boil)

Nottingham

[Beer Martin]

I think the smoked malt is an ok amount, it is peat smoked malt that you need to be very careful with. I just got some samples in the mail of that new Briess cherry wood malt and it smells fantastic!

You may be right. The only experience I've had with smoked malt was home smoked malt. That stuff could put hair on your chest.
________
Masturbation Videos (http://www.fucktube.com/categories/27/masturbation/videos/1)

[vance71975]

This is what I would do:

6 lbs Pils Malt extract

1 lb chocolate malt
.5 lb Briess crystal malt 120L
.5 lb Special B malt
2 lb Briess Cherry wood smoked malt

1.5 oz goldings (60 min boil)
1 oz goldings (15 min boil)

Nottingham

ok ill give it a try!

[beerking]

MarkA is right about smoked malt. Peat smoked, .25# is too much in 5 gallons! Other smoke and you have a different story entirely.
I used 78% Rauchmalz (German Beechwood smoked malt from Weyermann) in the Rauch-Hellerbock I made for ProAm. That was just right.
I would not use as much of the cherrywood smoked malt. I am planning a cherrywood smoked porter, and plan on using 25%, although you may want to start with 20%. (I love smoked beer!).

[markaberrant]

Good tips King. I think I was reading on the BN forums that Briess recommends using the cherry wood malt for as much as 70% of the grain bill. But I think I'd wait to hear of others' experiences before I would go that high with the cherry. With the german rauch malt, many have gone as high as 100%.

I got 4oz of the cherry wood malt in the mail, but I've got mostly hoppy beers planned in the forseeable future, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

[vance71975]

Good tips King. I think I was reading on the BN forums that Briess recommends using the cherry wood malt for as much as 70% of the grain bill. But I think I'd wait to hear of others' experiences before I would go that high with the cherry. With the german rauch malt, many have gone as high as 100%.

I got 4oz of the cherry wood malt in the mail, but I've got mostly hoppy beers planned in the forseeable future, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

Hey how do i go about getting free grain in the mail?????

[markaberrant]

Hey how do i go about getting free grain in the mail?????

Enter and win homebrew competitions! At another competition earlier this year, I was sent 3 lbs of honey malt and a 1lb of columbus hops.

[Beer Martin]

Enter and win homebrew competitions! At another competition earlier this year, I was sent 3 lbs of honey malt and a 1lb of columbus hops.

I got about 1 lb of cascade hops as well as some shits and beer at one this year. It was a competition in Tampa and the Yuengling brew master donated about 5 pounds of hops for prizes. It was pretty awesome. He said on their side they pay like a few dollars a pound. Great guy.

The gold medal mead winners all got a gallon of honey.

Some competitions have some pretty good swag.
________
Honda cb360 (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_CB360)

[beerking]

Last year I took a BOS in a mead comp. I won a 5 gallon bucket of honey.
I also won a set of DeClerk Brewing Texts (2 books, value ~$110) for a beer BOS I won.
That is all in addition to hops, malt, and so many t-shirts I am giving them away at club events.
(Not to mention that the great folks at Briess gave me 150# of Pils malt for the GABF ProAm Silver!)

[markaberrant]

Yeah, I raffle off most of my swag at our club meetings, with the money going to the club.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I won a plate chiller this year too.

And then there are comps that have no prizes. I don't enter comps specifically for the prizes, but I have won some really cool stuff, so it's always kinda neat to see what you get. Prizes are always donated by sponsors, so if the comp organizers can't be bothered, it just comes across as lazy to me. I won BOS at one comp this year, and runner up BOS at another, and got squat, aside from a medal. Which is another sticking point with me: I think medals for the most part are childish (I say for the most part, because I am quite proud of my NHC gold medal I received last week, but otherwise they all get tossed in a box), and a waste of money (a set of engraved medals for a full sized BJCP competition costs around $1,000 in Canada). I have been pushing for our club to drop the medals from our competition, but I haven't had much success. Anyone have any other thoughts or opinions?

And yes, this has become a huge thread hijack. Deal with it.

[vance71975]

Yeah, I raffle off most of my swag at our club meetings, with the money going to the club.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I won a plate chiller this year too.

And then there are comps that have no prizes. I don't enter comps specifically for the prizes, but I have won some really cool stuff, so it's always kinda neat to see what you get. Prizes are always donated by sponsors, so if the comp organizers can't be bothered, it just comes across as lazy to me. I won BOS at one comp this year, and runner up BOS at another, and got squat, aside from a medal. Which is another sticking point with me: I think medals for the most part are childish (I say for the most part, because I am quite proud of my NHC gold medal I received last week, but otherwise they all get tossed in a box), and a waste of money (a set of engraved medals for a full sized BJCP competition costs around $1,000 in Canada). I have been pushing for our club to drop the medals from our competition, but I haven't had much success. Anyone have any other thoughts or opinions?

And yes, this has become a huge thread hijack. Deal with it.nah no worries Hijack away man lol

[chazwicke]

(I love smoked beer!).


I hear ya brother! Jim Dorsch has arranged a meeting with the brewer at Schlenkerla when Jeff Evans and I are in Bamberg in September. :)

[beerking]

I hear ya brother! Jim Dorsch has arranged a meeting with the brewer at Schlenkerla when Jeff Evans and I are in Bamberg in September. :)

VERY COOL!!

[beerking]

I think medals for the most part are childish (I say for the most part, because I am quite proud of my NHC gold medal I received last week, but otherwise they all get tossed in a box), and a waste of money (a set of engraved medals for a full sized BJCP competition costs around $1,000 in Canada). I have been pushing for our club to drop the medals from our competition, but I haven't had much success. Anyone have any other thoughts or opinions?

I can't say that I agree with homebrew medals being childish, but I do prefer ribbons to medals. The ribbons probably cost a lot less than engraved medals, and are easier to display.
Gotta admit, I am quite proud of the GABF medal, which is professionally mounted and on display in my front entry way!

[markaberrant]

I can't say that I agree with homebrew medals being childish, but I do prefer ribbons to medals. The ribbons probably cost a lot less than engraved medals, and are easier to display.
Gotta admit, I am quite proud of the GABF medal, which is professionally mounted and on display in my front entry way!

Some people in our club say they would rather have the medal than a prize. I guess a medal has different meaning to everyone.

Ribbons are a good idea though. We've still got another year's supply of medals, but after that I'm pushing for ribbons.

[beerking]

I agree with you about the prizes. They are easy to come by (a great many homebrew retailers and wholesalers donate regularly), and more useful.
I would not get rid of some sort of "momento." The ribbons are easier than medals (cheaper, and I don't know where to put the medals I have gotten), but I would stick with one of the two. The biggest beneficiary of medals or ribbons is that guy who is winning his first ever gold, or BOS medal. That will probably be cherished for a LONG time. I have most of my earliest ribbons on the wall, and it is really nice to look at my first NHC ribbon (1987) and remember what that felt like back then.

[beerking]

One other point about actual prizes: I know several homebrewers who look for competitions with good prizes to enter. If they know a specific competition is giving malt, hops, etc as prizes, they are more likely to enter.
The end result is that the competition gets more entries, better quality entries, and grows much faster. Assuming the sponsoring club is interested in both the increased publicity, and the increase income from those extra entries, putting in the effort to find donors is WELL worth it.
When the competition organizer is getting preliminary setup going, he should form a prize committee, say 3-4 people, and have them call the local and national suppliers, as well as wholesalers, Brewing Network, White Labs, Wyeast, even AHA. If they split the contact list and all make phone calls, it is not hard at all.