Sorry for not being more clear. I’m wanting to brew a beer that tastes like Scotch. Preferably Laphroaig, which literally tastes like licking a leather armchair. For some strange reason I like it. So peat smoked malt and either from MoreBeer or Austin Homebrew Supply.
Initially I had wondered if a 1/4 lb for a 5.25 gal batch would be good.
What of soaking wood cubes in Scotch? How much would it take to give it more than just a subtle hint? Figuring I’d try to replicate the color with minimal crystal and give it maybe 20 IBUs of just bittering with Mt Hood or some such so as to allow the Scotch flavor to be more upfront.
im no expert with smoked malt at all, but i think the "beer that tastes like whiskey" is something that people have considered.
i made an amber ale where i would use oak, that i really didn't intend to taste like whiskey, so i purposely did not use any spirits or addition of whiskey even for soaking the wood.
i made a pretty basic amber ale - Maris Otter/Light DME Base with 1/2lb crystal 60, 1/2lb amber malt, and ~1% black malt for colour with irish ale yeast. ~30 IBU. what was very interesting was this was only a 5.9% ABV beer, i really didn't intend for the whiskey impression.
i toasted about 3oz of medium oak cubes wrapped in tinfoil in a ~400F oven for 40 minutes and added them directly to the beer in primary for 3 weeks before bottling.
This beer literally tastes something like canadian club in beer format. i said i would cut back on the oak big time if i ever used it again. this oak was really in your face, but it really reminded me of whiskey every time i have been drinkign it over the past 4 months.
so yeah, that is a definite information point and starting point there.
for scotch, i'd probably go with lighter oak (?), toast it anyway, give it less time in primary and add 1oz peat malt to the above recipe, maybe cutting out the black malt to reduce the colour (scotch is generally paler than whiskey? right?)