Beer Style: Smoked Beer
Smoked Maple Amber Ale
An American-style Amber Ale, with maple sap and syrup. Maple sap is the clear liquid that maple syrup is made from. In this recipe, maple sap replaces your brewing liquor. Maple sap contains 2.5% sugar on average. (In contrast, maple syrup contains around 66% sugar.) If you don’t have access to maple sap, use water and add an extra 1.66 pints of maple syrup during the boil. The amount of German smoked malt called for will only yield the faintest whiff of smoke. For a stronger smoked flavor, try replacing it with some home-smoked malt (we’d try hickory smoke.
Brewing Smoked Beers: Tips from the Pros
Expert advice on brewing smoked beers and smoking your malt at home.
Classic Rauchbier
This is a Bamberg-style reddish lager, sweet and substantial like a Marzen, with the distinctive smokiness of a beechwood fire.
Peat Smoked Wee Heavy
This is a big, rich, malty and strong brew – the smoke, although present, seems restrained compared to all the other flavors.
Vermont Pub and Brewery’s Smoked Porter clone
Vermont Pub & Brewery smokes their own malts over apple, maple, and hickory woodchips to recreate this 17th century style robust ale. You can smoke your own malts, or buy rauchmalt as an alternative.
Hot Tips for Making Great Smoked Beers
From using extract to smoking your own malt, here’s how to do it.
Smoked Wee Heavy
Long, slow, and cool fermentation is a crucial element for this beer, which otherwise gets too fruity and bitter; the smoked malt can develop fusel and/or sulfury notes if overdone or if fermented too warm. Hop levels are deliberately low; this beer is all about malt.
Rauchbier
I have had some memorable experiences with beer, and some of the best have been with my wife, Elizabeth: drinking bitter and playing gin rummy at Spinnaker’s (she cheats!); smuggling bottles of
