Smoking Malt

[conorm]

Anybody ever smoked their own malted barley? I have a smoker and fire it up this time of year for smoking meat, but was thinking I'll do some grains while I'm at it.

Any idea of how heavily smoked it should be? Thinking of smoking about 3kg of pale/ lager malt with aim to use 0.5-1kg for a smoked Belgian ale (20litre batch).

This is all I've found really:

http://byo.com/belgian-and-french-ale/i ... m-the-pros

Will use a blend of beech and oak.

 

[Farmbrew]

I have cold smoked mostly diastatic amber malt in my homemade smoker.

First thing to do is soak the grain for a few hours, in a grain bag or equiv, in distilled or at least mineral water. Tap water has too much chlorine in it and will add a tcp taste to any beer.

After a couple of hours remove the grain and drip dry. Spread the grain on mesh (in grain bag is better) and smoke for a couple of hours.

I cold smoke at less than 40c not sure what hot smoking would do over 6hrs maybe need to cut the time back. Make sure the malt is dry before finishing. Weighing before soaking will give you a point of reference. The smoked grain should weigh the same or less.

Leave for a couple of weeks to rest then use

I use around 1kg in 5kg for the grist.

 

[beermaker]

looks interesting, been thinking about making a cold smoker to smoke fish, cheese and meat. I only brew British ales but would be interested in experimenting with smoked malt in stouts, porters and dark bitters. Good description of your process Farmbrew, thank you! :) definitely on the project to-do list for next year!

 

[conorm]

Thanks very much farmbrew. Sounds about right to me, will do it next weekend and let you know how it turns out.

Would guess warm or hot smoking would drastically darken the grain. Luckily I've modded my Bradley smoker so I can smoke at just above ambient temperatures.

beermaker, smokers are great. Off the shelf are expensive but that's what I went for. But if i was gonig larger I'd be making my own. If you can get your hands on an old fridge and some aluminium ventilation pipe, and some sort of tin box and heat source, sorted!

 

[orlando]

Search out Fuggledog on the other forum, he has a lot of experience doing it and I've brewed with his malt, highly recommended.

 

[Farmbrew]

Just checked my notes re:last smoking. 1kg malt soaked in ~300ml water...so more like a sprinkle. Smoked at 40-49C for 6hrs over soaked alder chips.

My smoker is an old garden incinerator with the holes covered over with aluminium tape. I use a cheap hot plate with a zinc plated plant pot on top - it looks lije a miniature bucket. Smoking material in the bucket. At the top of the smoker I have a garden sieve suspended where I put my grain bag. Between blocking holes in the bottom and by covering the flue I can control the draw and the amount of heat.

One lesson I gave learnt is keep the lid on or you lose all your smoke!

The longer you keep the grain at high temps the more the diastatic power of the grain is lowered. The later is probably more of an issue with temps > 90C.

 

[beermaker]

be careful with zinc - it can release zinc fumes when heated which can be highly toxic! Will have to check my facts about the specific temps and at lower temps you might be ok but when I'm welding or forging I avoid the stuff like the plague!

 

[Farmbrew]

Got me worried there...went to check and its Aluminium! Cheers for the heads-up.

 

[beermaker]

I'm probably worrying over nothing but it's better to be too safe than not! I did a large welding job once on a friends boat trailer a while back in a shed and the trailer was galvanised and I was quite ill for a week after. There's a chap on a blacksmithing forum I'm on who died as a result of zinc fume fever after burning the zinc off a load of metal on his forge. I try not to touch the stuff now, it's just not worth it.

On a more positive topic - I was going to build a wooden smoker using shiplap and 1x1 with something like this

http://www.gardenxl.com/proq-cold-smoke ... tAodUiwAjg

in the bottom, although was going to try to make the smoke generator myself from what I have lying about and a little ingenuity. Have tried with a baked bean tin on a meths burner but the results were not ideal. Maybe an electric hotplate might be the answer.

 

[Farmbrew]

I got my hot plate off ebay...I think it was around the £10 mark or less from ebay...will post some piccies tomorrow and confirm the hot plate type. Now added!

 

[calumscott]

Anybody ever smoked their own malted barley

Nah...

...it's a bugger to roll and it just falls out the end...

 

[beermaker]

Anybody ever smoked their own malted barley

Nah...

...it's a bugger to roll and it just falls out the end...

lmao!!! :lol: