Surtr (from Old Norse mythology) and his flaming sword. (Picture in the public domain.)
Partial mashing is a great method for making beer. The biggest benefit is that you can add the aroma of base malts to your beer. (See my article, “Why Partial Mash?” for all the benefits of partial mashing.)
One beer style that you can’t make with the usual malt-extract-and-steeping-grains method is rauchbier, or smoked beer. (The word “rauch” means smoke in German.) Although some smoked malt extract is made, it is usually hard to find. Smoked malt — also called rauchmalz — on the other hand, is not hard to find. Partial mashing is a great way for a stovetop extract brewer to brew a smoked beer, and get the wonderful flavor and aroma from smoked malt in his or her beer.
Rauchmalz is a base malt and so it must be mashed, not simpley steeped. In this recipe — that is adapted from my all-grain rauchbier recipe — the smoke flavor is fairly mellow. In my all-grain recipe, I use nearly 100% rauchmalz, and it is intensely smoky — more smoky than most people like it.
You can also ferment this beer with ale yeast to make a smoked altbier (although no such beer exists commercially). And, to change the smoke character, you can also smoke your own malt with the hardwood of your choice.
The lager version requires a fairly large yeast starter. One option is make the starter in your fermenter. Once the starter is done fermenting, pour the starter beer out and rack the fresh wort onto the yeast.
As you might expect, this beer goes great with barbecue.
Surtur’s Sword
Rauchbier (or smoked alt)
by Chris Colby
Countertop partial mash; English units
DESCRIPTION
A smoky lager that goes great with barbecue.
INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)
Water
carbon-filtered tap water
Malt (for an OG of 1.052, at 65% extract efficiency, and 14 SRM)
3.5 lbs. Weyermann rauchmalz
6.0 oz. Weyermann CaraMunich II (~45 °L)
2.0 oz. aromatic malt (or melanoidin malt)
4.5 lbs. Munich liquid malt extract
Hops (for 27 IBU total)
Tettnang hops (26 IBU)
0.75 oz., at 4% alpha acids, boiled for 60 minutes
Tettnang hops (1 IBU)
0.25 oz., at 4% alpha acids, boiled for 5 minutes
Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 5.1 %ABV)
White Labs WLP20 (Octoberfest/Märzen Lager) or Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast
(6.0-qt. yeast starter)
Other
0.5 tsp. Irish moss
4.25 oz. corn sugar (for priming)
PROCEDURES
In your brewpot, heat 5.5 qts. of brewing liquor to 163 °F. Place crushed grains in a large steeping bag and submerge in brewpot water. Mash at 152 °F for 60 minutes, stirring and heating briefly every 10 minutes to maintain the mash temperature. In a separate pot, heat 5.0 qts. of water to 170 °F. When the mash is done, heat it to 170 °F for a mash out. Stir constantly. Lift bag and let drip into brewpot until you can move it over to the cooler without splattering too much wort. Scoop or pour the wort from the brewpot into the cooler. Recirculate the wort until it is clear, then run off. Sparge steadily over 60 minutes (collect about a cup of wort from the cooler every 90 seconds) to collect about 10 qts. Add about 2.0 qts. of water to the brewpot, and start heating it as you collect the wort. You should yield about 3.5 gallons of wort. When you’re done collecting the wort, stir in roughly half of the malt extract and bring the wort to a boil. Add the first dose of hops and boil wort for 60 minutes. Add other hops and Irish moss at times indicated. Stir in remaining malt extract in the last 10 minutes of the boil. (Tips on adding extract during the boil.) Chill wort to 55 °F, then rack to fermenter. Add water make 5.0 gallons, aerate wort thoroughly, and pitch yeast. Ferment at 55 °F. When fermentation slows greatly, let the temperature rise to 60 °F and hold there for three days. (Or, try kräusening.) After fermentation stops, condition the beer cold (around 40 °F) for 6 weeks. (If you’ve initially pitched enough yeast and ran a good fermentation, it shouldn’t take longer than that to lager.) Rack to keg or bottling bucket. Carbonate to 2.4 volumes of CO2.
Ale version:
Make a 2-qt. (2-L) yeast starter of the ale strain of your choice. Ferment near the low end of the strain’s fermentation range. Carbonate beer to 2.4 volumes of CO2. (Use the residual CO2 chart to figure out the appropriate amount of priming sugar.)
All-grain version:
Omit malt extract. Add rauchmalz to recipe so that your projected OG is 1.052 at your expected extract efficiency. (For 70% extract efficiency, the total amount is 9.5 pounds/4.3 kg.) Mash at 152 °F for 60 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes. This makes a very smoky rauchbier. You can lessen the smoke intensity by swapping Munich malt for some of the rauchmalz.
Surtur’s Sword
Rauchbier (or smoked alt)
by Chris Colby
Countertop partial mash; metric units
DESCRIPTION
A smoky lager that goes great with barbecue.
INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)
Water
carbon-filtered tap water
Malt (for an OG of 1.052, at 65% extract efficiency, and 14 SRM)
1.6 kg Weyermann rauchmalz
170 g Weyermann CaraMunich II (~45 °L)
57 g. aromatic malt (or melanoidin malt)
2.0 kg Munich liquid malt extract
Hops (for 27 IBU total)
Tettnang hops (26 IBU)
50 g, at 4% alpha acids, boiled for 60 minutes
Tettnang hops (1 IBU)
7.1 g, at 4% alpha acids, boiled for 5 minutes
Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 5.1 %ABV)
White Labs WLP820 (Octoberfest/Märzen Lager) or Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast
(6.0-L yeast starter)
Other
0.5 tsp. Irish moss
120 g corn sugar (for priming)
PROCEDURES
In your brewpot, heat 5.2 L of brewing liquor to 73 °C. Place crushed grains in a large steeping bag and submerge in brewpot water. Mash at 67 °C for 60 minutes, stirring and heating briefly every 10 minutes to maintain the mash temperature. In a separate pot, heat 4.7 L of water to 77 °C. When the mash is done, heat it to 77 °C for a mash out. Stir constantly. Lift bag and let drip into brewpot until you can move it over to the cooler without splattering too much wort. Scoop or pour the wort from the brewpot into the cooler. Recirculate the wort until it is clear, then run off. Sparge steadily over 60 minutes (collect about a cup of wort from the cooler every 90 seconds) to collect about 9.5 L. Add about 2 L of water to the brewpot, and start heating it as you collect the wort. You should yield about 13 L of wort. When you’re done collecting the wort, stir in roughly half of the malt extract and bring the wort to a boil. Add the first dose of hops and boil wort for 60 minutes. Add other hops and Irish moss at times indicated. Stir in remaining malt extract in the last 10 minutes of the boil. (Tips on adding extract during the boil.) Chill wort to 13 °C, then rack to fermenter. Add water make 19, aerate wort thoroughly, and pitch yeast. Ferment at 13 °C. When fermentation slows greatly, let the temperature rise to 16°C and hold there for three days. (Or, try kräusening.) After fermentation stops, condition the beer cold (around 4.5 °C) for 6 weeks. (If you’ve initially pitched enough yeast and ran a good fermentation, it shouldn’t take longer than that to lager.) Rack to keg or bottling bucket. Carbonate to 2.4 volumes of CO2.
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