Home Distiller

Hi there, I'm going to be experimenting with smoking my own barely and I was wondering if anyone here could share their experience. I've found a lot of information regarding beer, but I make whiskey and whiskey is different. Things I'd like to hear are:

How do different types of wood effect the smoke flavor?
How long do you typically smoke the grain?
What percent of your mash bill is smoked?

I've seen people trying a lot of different things with beer, and I assume it's the same here. It would be great to here some recipe / tasting details about specific batches to help me come up with a starting point for my own vision.

Thanks,
Joey

Welcome Joey. search for woodshed. He is a mod here and smokes his own corn.

Welcome to HD. I'll give a quick answer to some of your questions.
Different woods create different flavor profiles than others. Experimentation is key here but you cannot go wrong with the standbys. Mesquite is to me an acquired taste. One I do not mind on meat but stay away from in my spirits. Mesquite is used by one or two distilleries with success. I prefer apple & pecan. With a side of hickory.

How long to smoke is also related to flavor profile. Like running a still it depends on how you run your smoker. The longer you smoke pushes you towards roasting as well. That also is related to how hot you run your smoker. Also related to flavor profile. I smoke 100lbs. at a time in trays 1 1/2 inch deep that hold 10 lbs. a piece. This is smoked hard and heavy for 3 hours then low and slow for 2 more.
My time used to be less but so was my grain bill. And my desired flavor profile changed.

My Smoke Shine is 30 % malted and smoked corn. The rest is just corn. I have a whiskey still on oak that is 40% smoked corn and barley/rye for the malt.

You ask about tasting details which I always find impossible to answer. Different strokes and all.

haahahahaha you will find your way to the woodshed or he will find you!

:crazy:Every once in a while they let me out

Thanks for the info woodshed. That will be extremely helpful. I'm surprised to see that you smoke your grain for 5 hours! Most of what I've been reading on the brewers forums suggest 20-30 minutes. I guess I'll have to do some experimenting.

last one i did was 6 hrs on hickory time was just because the smoker was going anyway doesnt take much smoked for a 5 gallon batch i kinda overdid it wth 2lbs smoked and 6 lbs regular cracked corn on a ujssm wash

Some of that time has to do with roasting. A whole other subject. Magical things happen to corn at the right temps. Barley will probably be much different.

I used to smoke grains years ago. Got lazy and started using liquid smoke. To make it I use one of those cylinder shaped smokers that looks like a can. They are pretty plentiful and folks always give them away or sell them cheap.

Get a little charcoal going on the outside edges, leaving the center open in the fire pan. Shut down the vents on the top and barely open the ones on the bottom so your temp stays low. Throw in your wood ( was soaking in water) to smoke around the edges on top of the coals. Put in the bottom rack with a pie plate full of water and a small SS bowl in it. Put on the top rack with a big SS bowl full of ice and put the top on. The smoke condenses on the bottom of the top bowl and drips to the bottom bowl. The pie plate of water is just there to keep the liquid smoke from evaporating off. Should be done in a few hours. Save a soy sauce or hot sauce bottle for your liquid smoke and mark the flavor on it. Just add the amount needed before you close up the still.

I'm going to smoke with mesquite for 100# of mixed unmalted grain in a few. Although I don't want to be up all night. I've got a 15 gallon barrel filled with about 9 gallons of post oak smoked corn and mesquite smoked corn. I'm bet interested to see how this plays out.

Been playing fast and loose with my all grain recipes. Each batch is different but the grains added are 100% smoked

This is how I smoke my malt. I can use different woods and it has the same effect. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=71863
Maybe the title wasn’t the best choice, but I got the peat from Ireland and the smoke box looks like it could be a leprechaun coffin. Yikes
JBC

I want to bump this thread and see if anyone has any feedback on my approach to smoking grain I'm going to try to tackle this weekend.

I have some organic spelt, 50% of it malted from a farm nearby and I want to do a single grain whiskey with a portion of the unmalted spelt smoked, leaning towards 30% which is mostly a logistical decision based on how much I can do at a time, which I will do on a two tier grate on my kamado cooker. Planning on using some whiskey barrel chunks in addition to charcoal for smoke.

In terms of time and temp, I'm searching for an anchor point but it seems like people are all over the place - cold smoking, hot smoking, 30 minutes, 3 hours, etc. The only pitfall I've really seen consistently is not letting your malt rest and let the smoke mellow a bit, which is noted. Perhaps there is no wrong way.

In the BBQ world it's generally understood that a piece of meat stops absorbing smoke once it hits around 150 degrees internal, have no idea the science behind that but if you cooked up a brisket and wrapped it at 150 to finish the cook it would be plenty smoky. So if that were to apply to my spelt as well it would imply a very short smoke time, it should be able to absorb smoke to saturation within minutes.

I also don't think I want to cold smoke unless someone can think of a reason not to. I think heating the grain will add some roasty complexity in the final product, so I'm leaning towards 250 degrees which I'm hoping gives me a roast level just above what a pale malt will be kilned to while not competing against the smoke.

Planning on laying out aluminum trays with pinholes in the bottom to let smoke through and adding a thin layer of spelt. I can do about 10lbs at a time so it will be 3 batches and I'm thinking of just letting them go for an hour or so.

If anybody has any thoughts or feedback I'd be grateful, otherwise I'll happily post how the process went.

Only reason I can think of to cold smoke is your starches would still be soluble and so could add to the gravity of the mash. Once you roast grain the starches are no longer soluble so they only contribute flavor, not sugar to the mash.

subbrew wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 12:53 pm Only reason I can think of to cold smoke is your starches would still be soluble and so could add to the gravity of the mash. Once you roast grain the starches are no longer soluble so they only contribute flavor, not sugar to the mash.

The starch can still be converted, but the enzymes are no longer viable. You'll have to use liquid enzymes to convert the starches.

Deplorable wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 4:18 pm

subbrew wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 12:53 pm Only reason I can think of to cold smoke is your starches would still be soluble and so could add to the gravity of the mash. Once you roast grain the starches are no longer soluble so they only contribute flavor, not sugar to the mash.

The starch can still be converted, but the enzymes are no longer viable. You'll have to use liquid enzymes to convert the starches.

+1

Deplorable wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 4:18 pm

subbrew wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 12:53 pm Only reason I can think of to cold smoke is your starches would still be soluble and so could add to the gravity of the mash. Once you roast grain the starches are no longer soluble so they only contribute flavor, not sugar to the mash.

The starch can still be converted, but the enzymes are no longer viable. You'll have to use liquid enzymes to convert the starches.

You are correct. Not sure where I had picked up the idea but I have never added potential gravity points for dark roasted malts in my beers. And although the potential is less than for just a pale malt there is still potential available even on dark roasted malt. Thanks for the correction, made me look it up and learn rather than going by the "tribal" knowledge I have incorrectly used for years.