Smoty Ale with steeped crystal Malt?

[wilfw]

I am thinking of making the smoty ale recipe as given in the How to brew pages of the site. I made a dark ale previously and my wife loved it so I thought I'd have a go at the Smoty and leave it to mature for Christmas time. I have about 700g of crystal malt left over from a previous brew and I wondered about steeping some for 30 mins to add to the smoty ale recipe. Does this sound like overdoing the malt flavour and body of an ale made with two kits or do you think it would be a good addition and if so how much crystal malt should be steeped?

[PB2]

Some crystal might go quite nicely with this recipe - anything from 300g to 500g.

[wilfw]

Thanks for that, I'll probably try it with 300g rather than risk overdoing it. A couple of other questions come to mind from the recipe; firstly it says to use East Kent Golding hop pellets, I have normal hops, do I use the same quantities as given for pellets or are pellets more concentrated requiring a larger amount of dried hops to be used to be the equivalent of pellets?

Second, I note the yeast in the pale ale kit is a mix of ale and lager yeast. Would there be any advantage using all ale yeast in the recipe or would results be just the same using the yeast from both kits ?(I hope that's not a stupid question)

[PB2]

When using flowers you might like to increase by 50%. eg. 10g pellets equals about 15g flowers. This ratio seems to be about right for my taste, although some say it should be 10%.

 

I usually suggest to use the yeast supplied with the kit, providing it suits the style of beer, - you can use an ale yeast if you like.

[wilfw]

Many thanks for the benefit of your vast experience.

[StuartF2]

Hi everyone,

Apologies for jumping in on this post but I too am doing a SMOTY ale with crystal this week!! ( great minds Wilfw... [biggrin] ) I was thinking of steeping some chocolate malt too. Anyone know if this would be a bit excessive?

I am also racking to secondary for the first time and was wondering what hops would be good to dry hop with this beer, I use styrian goldings with the recipe, would they be ok to dry hop with?

Any & all help appreciated,

Thanks.

[PB2]

Sounds good, Stuart [biggrin]

[StuartF2]

Great, thanks [rightful]

One more question, if I rack to secondary for 2 weeks should I add the hops after about a week or the full two weeks, and is there a recommended amount to use when dry hopping? [innocent]

[Canadian Eh!L]

Hi Stuart,

 

I think I may be the only other guy that racks to a secondary around here.[alien] I usually rack after the high kausen dies back(three to seven days). I dry hop at this point. The brew gets bottled between day 14 and 21 depending if its ready to go and my schedule. As far as an amount to dry hop, I sometimes use as little as 10g but the rule of thumb is 1g/L.

 

Chad

[StuartF2]

Hey Chad,

Thanks for the info [biggrin] , great stuff. I put it down yesterday, not much crausen to speak of at 12 hours which is worrying me slightly [annoyed] but as long as the yeast do their job it'll be fine is suppose. Looking forward to trying something different.

Stu.

[wilfw]

Hi Stuart,

 

I think I may be the only other guy that racks to a secondary around here.[alien] I usually rack after the high kausen dies back(three to seven days). I dry hop at this point. The brew gets bottled between day 14 and 21 depending if its ready to go and my schedule. As far as an amount to dry hop, I sometimes use as little as 10g but the rule of thumb is 1g/L.

 

Chad

 

Do you find that when doing a secondary ferment, that the beer takes longer to carbonate owing to there being less yeast left in suspension. Also do you find less sediment in the final bottled product?

 

[Muddy Waters]

Chad (Canadian Eh!) is just trouble maker [biggrin]...don't encourage him [innocent]

 

You only need to crash chill your primary and you will dramatically reduce the sediment in your final product [rightful]...at the appropriate temps carbonation may be slightly slower but nothing dramatic.