New cold smoke generator designed in the UK

[wheels]

Mmm...

Looks good so far.

Phil

[danw]

Has anyone used the ProQ to smoke grain to be used in making beer? I may give this a try in the future and if there is a problem with this I'd rather avoid it.

A very late reply to this one....

When I worked as a smoker a local brewer brought in a sack of malted barley to try smoking. I found it very difficult to get the malt to take the smoke. From what I recall, leaving it for 12 hours had little impact on the flavour. We got there in the end but it was hard work, not least because we couldn't find anything to spread the malt out on!

I suspect that doing small amounts in a small smoker may work better than doing large amounts in a full size kiln.

Traditionally, rauchbeers (sp?) get their smoky taste from when the malted barley is dried. It is dried using a smoky fire and my assumption is that the moisture takes on some of the smoke flavour and that in turn is left when the moisture evaporates. Smoking it when it is dry means that there is little for the smoke to adhere too.

[wheels]

Off Topic. Dan, did you use to write a blog about smoking? A smoker in the Cambridge area?

phil

[danw]

Off Topic. Dan, did you use to write a blog about smoking? A smoker in the Cambridge area?

hi Phil, yes I did: http://www.saltandwoodsmoke.com/

that was me!

[wheels]

Wow, welcome. I'll no doubt be along to pick your brains in due course!

Phil

[onewheeler]

Traditionally, rauchbeers (sp?) get their smoky taste from when the malted barley is dried. It is dried using a smoky fire and my assumption is that the moisture takes on some of the smoke flavour and that in turn is left when the moisture evaporates. Smoking it when it is dry means that there is little for the smoke to adhere too.

For home brewing, one might get a better uptake by smoking crushed malt due to the greater surface area. I assume you were using whole grain malt in your attempts?

Cheers!

[danw]

Wow, welcome. I'll no doubt be along to pick your brains in due course!

Phil

Phil, feel free to pick my brains though, from what I have read on here so far, there appear to be a lot of people better informed than I am!

dan

[danw]

For home brewing, one might get a better uptake by smoking crushed malt due to the greater surface area. I assume you were using whole grain malt in your attempts?

Yeah, we used whole grain. I think crushed may well work better or possibly, dare I say it, smoking the hops.

dan

[vagreys]

Has anyone used the ProQ to smoke grain to be used in making beer? I may give this a try in the future and if there is a problem with this I'd rather avoid it.

A very late reply to this one....

I suspect that doing small amounts in a small smoker may work better than doing large amounts in a full size kiln.

Traditionally, rauchbeers (sp?) get their smoky taste from when the malted barley is dried. It is dried using a smoky fire and my assumption is that the moisture takes on some of the smoke flavour and that in turn is left when the moisture evaporates. Smoking it when it is dry means that there is little for the smoke to adhere too.

Some off my brew buddies tried to smoke their own malt using beech sawdust, without much success because the malt was dry. One guy got his malt too hot and got the runaway carbonization that maltsters sometimes experienced before the development of the patent roaster.

Malt houses were often two-storey buildings, with the malting occurring on the second floor, where the floorboards were spaced just far enough apart to allow a draft. Gervaise Markham describes his own malt house in detail. The goal was to keep the barley moist enough for sprouting without becoming so wet that it started to mold. A low fire on the ground floor helped strike that balance during the malting, when the grain was being raked. The goal of most maltsters was to keep the fire as smokeless as possible (straw with thin smoke and coals from very dry wood), but rauchmalt and peaty Scotch malt were made (whether by choice or necessity) by allowing the fire fuel to smoke through the several days of malting. Before development of the patent roaster, the damp malt was spread on the outside of large kilns to dry and stop the malting, and then roast to the desired degree. If they weren't careful a slow combustion of the starch would start and the malt would carbonize from the inside out, turning to charcoal. Once this carbonization started, it couldn't be stopped and the entire batch of malt might be lost. Still, the malt wasn't exposed to smoke during the kilning.

All that said, we did have one brewer in the club who was fairly successful at making a rauchmalt. He was a retired master brewer from Anheuser-Busch, and he did it by malting his own barley and smoking it the old way. It was a small batch, so he didn't have to get too elaborate, but I thought it was still far more dedicated than I could ever be...

[danw]

I actually own a book on this subject: http://goo.gl/oZeyQ

But have never really enjoyed the taste of rauchbeers.

[Vindii]

I posted in this thread a few pages back about having problems keeping the CSG lit. Turns out the dust that the US supplier sells with the CSG doesn't burn right. Not sure if its too fine or too course but it wont burn right. I ordered some new dust from another manufacture and Im all good to go now.

[Ruralidle]

Good luck, Vindii. Let us know how you get on.

[smorris]

I posted in this thread a few pages back about having problems keeping the CSG lit. Turns out the dust that the US supplier sells with the CSG doesn't burn right. Not sure if its too fine or too course but it wont burn right. I ordered some new dust from another manufacture and Im all good to go now.

I tried to keep the CSG lit on the weekend when I wanted to have a BBQ with some friends of mine... unfortunately it did not work out and as it seemed my generator broke down which was tremendously great having 10 kg of meat in a garden full of hungry men and women.^^ since a couple of days I am trying out generator rental until my old one comes back from the reparation. We'll see if it'll work then.

[vagreys]

Why, yes! I'm sure posting a link to a generator rental will improve the way your sawdust burns!

[welsh wizard]

OOI

I have found it difficult to acquire bulk dust for my pro Q smoker other than buy lot and lots of small 200g bags which give you two and a bit smokes. However I have now found this site www.hotsmoked.co.uk their 5kg sack is £30 which is c£75+ for the same volume from ProQ, which represents excellent value IF you use that sort of volume. I just decant it from the plastic sack into a air tight bucket - so simple.They also sent me a 3 pack of different flavour woods with my order foc, but I dont know if this is usual practice so please dont quote me on that. Their service is excellent, and the lady at the end of the phone is extremely helpful and really knows her stuff.

Anyway give it a try,

Cheers WW