how much peat malt

[bmxfrank]

The issue Ive had with Peat is its not consistant. Its either a faint smoke or it smells like the farm before the bag is even in the malt room, let alone being open.

Anyone have a rule of thumb for how much they use based on how strong/fresh the bag is?

[dwollner]

Frank, I've used at little as 3% to as much as 18% depending on the aroma and taste of the malt and desired effects. It really is a personal taste, aroma goes a long way, but taste won't go away.

[bmxfrank]

This baag smells strong. I didnt think to look at percentages. Current formulation has me at only 1.7%. I would think to increase it at least 3% but as it stands I dont want to go over 10 pounds. I think there is enough sweet malts to balance and a touch of roasted too. Next time your near by ask for sample of the fermenter.

[Sauce]

My personal rule of thumb is....don't use it;-)


Just seems waaaay too medicinal of a phenolic, If I had to use it seems like >2%.......if I want a hint of smoke I use wood smoked malts in the 3-5% range....Weyerman, Best (probably the same source) or even the cherry stuff the Briess had out awhile back. Or better yet smoke it your self if you have the means.

JackK

[rudge75]

Peated malt comes in vastly different smoke finishes, some at a lower ppm by over half than the others.

Which finish do you have?

http://www.muntons.com/muntons_malt/typical_analysis/peatedmalt.asp

[alesu]

Hi Frank,
I would use less than 2%. We use peated malt in a brown we make and it is around 1.5% and is quite subtle. Peated malt can take over the taste in your beer but smoked malt can be used in much larger percentages without problems.

[MatthewS]

When designing mayflower porter, I decided to use Thomas Fawcetts Peated Malt over rauch malt. No real reason besides I like the TF malt. The level was right about 1.5% and batch to batch there were some variations in the malt itself, but the finished beer maintained a nice 'barely there' smokiness that worked well.

Good luck with it and GO EASY!

[gdebisschop]

Like Matthew I've used the TF peat malt, for me it was a scotch ale way back. For an 8%abv scotch ale 1% or so peat malt gave me the "just barely there" note Matthew is talking about. My experience with smoked malt in general (we use a rauch malt currently in one of our core brands) is that the smoke character is variable, I think it has a lot to do with how long the malt has been sitting around- these are very volatile flavors/aromas. Especially with peat smoke, too little is waaaay better than too much. Good luck!

cheer
geoff