Crystal Malt

[Rizzla]

Hi Have been brewing with goo and playing around a bit with additions, enjoying both process and product. Recently I boiled up about 150g crystal malt and hops and put that in with goo, dry malt, dextrose and a cup of corn syrup. Its finished fermenting (14 days) and will try in week or so (keg).

Question is can I boil the crystal malt for too long and begin to release tannins? I boiled this lot for around 30 mins.

 

[waggastew]

The usual process for spec malts and K&K is to STEEP the malt in hot (not boiling) water. If you boil the malt you tend to get alot of tannins and unwanted/harsh bitterness. Next time do this:

1. Mix 700mL of boiling water from the kettle with 300mL of tap water in a suitable vessel. I use a large Bodum French Coffee Press pot but any old stovetop pot/saucepan will do the job.

2. Tip the grain into the water and give it a good swirl with a spoon.

3. Put the lid on the pot and cover the pot with a towel and leave for 30min-1hr. DO NOT HEAT THE POT WHILE IT STEEPS

4. Strain the liquid through a fine strainer into another pot. Immediately pour through the grain another 1L of water made the same way (700mL boiling/300mL tap)

5. Boil the resulting liquid for at least 15mins (you can do some late hop additions) and then strain into your fermentor.

If using more grain up the volume of water.

Stew

 

[Rizzla]

Thanks for that Stew, I imagine your water volumes would be for about 150 g grain correct ?. I know the temp has to be between 65 and 72 0C. I got the boiling crystal malt tip from a Rogers-Wison book (Brewing Crafts basically one big expensive ad) but I had to start somewhere. In this book some recipies include boiling the crystal malt for 20 mins, I probably didn't put the glasses on or got the time mixed up with hops boiling. Anyway I boiled the grain for 30 mins and a bit concerned as I actually did three brews so Ive got 3 kegs of this waiting.

Thanks again and I will definitly try your suggestion next brew Cheers Tom

 

[Impy]

Yeah don't BOIL crystal malt grains, it will extract an astringent flavour which is quite unpleasant.

Crystal and Cara' malt grains have been mashed to convert the proteins into sugars.. then the process is halted and the grains are dried out in an oven. You buy these grains (containing crystalized sugar) and steep them to disolve and extract the sugars and grain flavour... nothing else. Actively boiling the grains is at far too high a temperature and rather than disloving out flavour, you're COOKING the grains and leeching out stuff you don't want.

My process goes..

1. Heat water I'm going to use for my hop schedule.
2. Turn off the stove heat when it's just about simmering.
3. Line pot with open weave material (something with a muslin cloth type texture)
4. Add steeping grains and put lid on pot
5. Let steep for 20min.
6. After 20min lift out the grains with the cloth and let it drain (sparge a LITTLE with some hot water if you want)
7. Bring water to boil & start hops schedule.

But yeah, main tip is you're not meant to boil it. You just want to dissolve out some sugars, not cook the hell out of it.

 

[Rizzla]

Thanks Impy thanks again Stew,

I have since tried the brews as described and yeah there is a sort of astringent after taste. Thankfully no bad enough to throw out but I have produced much better tasting beer from the same kits without the added boiled grain. Doesn't matter you live and learn. I havn't given up on the grain addition because Im having fun and like playing around so I will follow both your advice next time and steep the grain.

 

[Impy]

Thanks Impy thanks again Stew,

I have since tried the brews as described and yeah there is a sort of astringent after taste. Thankfully no bad enough to throw out but I have produced much better tasting beer from the same kits without the added boiled grain. Doesn't matter you live and learn. I havn't given up on the grain addition because Im having fun and like playing around so I will follow both your advice next time and steep the grain.

No worries Rizzla. Once you get into the swing of using steeps grains they really improve the complexity of flavour of extract homebrews. For a 23ish litre brew I use 200-300g of steeped grains. You don't have to follow this obviously, I just really like the flavour they impart.

Crystal grain gives you a caramely malt flavour and a fairly high amount of colour.

Cara Wheat (is meant for steeping rather than "plain" wheat which is used for actual mashing) Gives a good medium body to a beer which you'll find really lifts the flavour compared to extract beers with no steeping.

CaraPils - I loooove this for steeping. It adds a flavour somewhere in between wheat and crystal which gives beers great body. I've used this in pale ales and IPAs with great results.

Best of luck and happy brewing!