Dr Maillard or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the red.

[Not For Horses]

It occurred to me the other week that most of my beers, particularly the darker ones, seem to share a similar trait: A beautiful deep red hue.
Now I know that some beer styles are supposed to have this red colour. Hold a pint of Guinness to the light and marvel at its rosy cheeks.
Stand in awe of some of the Dunkels with their mahogany glow so rich that Ron Burgundy would use it to polish his office furniture.
Let’s not forget Irish Red. It’s right there in the name.
But what about an amber ale? Ok maybe that can have a tinge of the ginge but a Northern English Brown? That’s just not cricket.
So what is it then? What do all my beers share? Simple. My malts. That must be the key.
But why so red?
The answer is both simple and complex at the same time.
Just over 100 years ago a man by the name of Louis-Camille Maillard described a series of chemical reactions that you and I use make use of every day. We use them to make toast or cook a hamburger. ‘Would you like fries with that?’ ‘Cause you’ll need Maillard there too. They’re in your espresso or your Milo. How about a biscuit to go with your cuppa? Or maybe a piece of chocolate? Yep, they’re there. But most importantly, they are used to make some of the flavour and colour compounds present in many of our beloved beer styles. They are responsible for the toasty and nutty flavours in biscuit malts as well as the rich ‘malty’ flavours in Munich and Vienna malts. They are also responsible for the dark colours and associated flavours in chocolate and black malts.
Maillard had discovered a non-enzymatic browning process for a huge variety of foods. A reaction we now call the Maillard reaction. I guess it was fate really that he should discover it.
Very simply, the Maillard reaction occurs between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, both of which can be found in barley so we’re off to a good start.
The products that we are most interested in from a beer making/drinking perspective are aroma compounds (that give the ‘toasty’ smells) and melanoidins. Melanoidins are also partly responsible for the red colours. Now we’re getting somewhere.
The amino acids important to us come from the protein in the barley. The reducing sugars come from the starch.
Here’s where it starts affecting my malts.
I don’t have access to the very best of the malting grade barley (yet). I come close, but not quite. So my barley inevitably has a higher protein content than others. This higher protein content, as well as giving my base malt a slightly lower yield, leads to more amino acids being produced and hence a greater number of reactants for the Maillard reactions. More reactants mean more products. More melanoidins meaning more red colourants.
Simple, right?

 

[mr_wibble]

I like the red colour, a pale red ale would be awesome.

My Munich Dunkels are a beautilful brown-red when held up to the sun.

 

[verysupple]

I'm with Mr Wibble. I love the red. I'm actually chasing more red. That's some good info that I'll put to use in my quest for red.

 

[Byran]

So if we wanted to add a more red colour to say , a light lager we could use poor quality malt with a higher protein level?

 

[Liam_snorkel]

..such as a pinch of roast barley

 

[Picobrew]

Or to increase Maillard reaction you could raise the pH of the mash, about a pH 6 should increase the reaction. Unfortunatly this would also decrease the efficiency as the beta amylase likes a lower pH.

 

[verysupple]

Or to increase Maillard reaction you could raise the pH of the mash, about a pH 6 should increase the reaction. Unfortunatly this would also decrease the efficiency as the beta amylase likes a lower pH.

Wait, don't most of the Maillard reactions happen during the boil, not the mash (yes, I'm aware the mash pH determins the boil pH but you can just as easily control the boil pH after the mash)? Either way, a mash (or boil) pH that high is not a good idea for more reasons than just beta-amylase activity.

 

[NewtownClown]

..such as a pinch of roast barley

...also helps with clarity...

I love Castle Special B and melanoiden for redness

 

[Not For Horses]

So if we wanted to add a more red colour to say , a light lager we could use poor quality malt with a higher protein level?

Well not quite. Most of the common Maillard reactions that produce melanoidins happen at temperatures over 110c.
Your pils malt is cured at 75-80c and your ale malt at 80-85c.
Also, the Maillard reaction is quite low yielding, meaning you need the reaction to go on for a long time to produce more products.
But holding grain at temperatures above 110c for a long time results in a much darker colour.

Also Liam, you're quite right. Raw barley has more protein than malted barley so it stands to reason that roasted barley at say 350L will give you more red than a chocolate malt at 350L.

 

[bmarshall]

Those commie rooskies are a bit red!

Great movie.

 

[Phoney]

6 - 10% caraaroma and 1% roast barley will give you a red beer. That's all you really need to know.

 

[Not For Horses]

Why thank you for that all encompassing analysis phoney...
*brrng brrng*, hello Newton? Stuff falls down when you drop it. That's all you really need to know. *click*

 

[mje1980]

10% cara aroma Jesus that'd hardly be a subtle flavour contribution

 

[yankinoz]

Has anyone here at AHB tried boiling part of the wort down to a dark syrup? In theory temperatures should reach a favourable range for Maillard reactions. I'm thinking of doing that I've heard rumours that some English breweries do this in bitters; if true it might explain why colours are sometimes darker than the reported malt bill should produce, say in London Pride and TT Landlord.

 

[Phoney]

10% cara aroma Jesus that'd hardly be a subtle flavour contribution

Sorry more like 5 - 8%

 

[Not For Horses]

Has anyone here at AHB tried boiling part of the wort down to a dark syrup? In theory temperatures should reach a favourable range for Maillard reactions. I'm thinking of doing that I've heard rumours that some English breweries do this in bitters; if true it might explain why colours are sometimes darker than the reported malt bill should produce, say in London Pride and TT Landlord.

I have done this on a smaller scale. ~1L of 1030 down to about ~100ml. It was crazy stuff. Intense malt and caramel flavours as well as kind of spicy and oaky type aromas and a deep dark red-brown colour.

There are two parts to the darkening of wort during the boil: Maillard and caramelisation. I suspect that most of the colour contribution would come from caramelisation rather than Maillard reactions. But I'm not entirely sure...
See, the Maillard reactions that occur during the boil can take 2 hours or more. So it seems unlikely that so much colour change could result from a 1 hour boil. On the other hand, malt sugars caramelise at 180c, much higher than boiling wort. So not necessarily so straight forward there either.
I know that extract brewers can have issues with kettle caramelisation when un-diluted extract sits on the bottom of the kettle and is able to reach the required temp. Perhaps localised scorching could account for caramelisation in lower gravity boils?

In my experiment with the heavily reduced wort syrup, caramelisation was definitely key. When you intensify sugars that much in a high moisture situation, caramelisation will take preference over the Maillard reactions. By the end it was a thick sugar syrup which was visibly bubbling and caramelising.
I'd recommend you try it. I haven't brewed with mine yet but I'll probably chuck it in a Belgian some time.

 

[technobabble66]

Has anyone here at AHB tried boiling part of the wort down to a dark syrup? In theory temperatures should reach a favourable range for Maillard reactions. I'm thinking of doing that I've heard rumours that some English breweries do this in bitters; if true it might explain why colours are sometimes darker than the reported malt bill should produce, say in London Pride and TT Landlord.

+1
Interested in this also - is this a kind of accelerated decoction or long (regular) boil technique?
Would it be a better or more efficient way to achieve what some might try to do with a 2-3 hr full volume boil.
Or would adding Melanoiden Malt do basically the same thing (as either this or a long boil)?

Edit: NFH beat me to it by a matter of seconds!

Edit 2: "It was crazy stuff. Intense malt and caramel flavours as well as kind of spicy and oaky type aromas and a deep dark red-brown colour." Sold!!

Hey, NFH, do you think this would work better with wort from Crystal/Vienna/Munich/Biscuit/Victory/Melanoiden rather than the full grain bill?

 

[yankinoz]

I should have been more specific. What I'm referring to takes place after the mash. Part of the wort is then boiled down. Because of sugar concentration, the temperature becomes higher than in decoctiion mashes or long boils. The method could also produce a lot of caramel, but might have to go to even thicker syrup.

I know of only one commercial beer that ever said they used the method, and the beer was one of the best for malt flavours. Otherwise, there's rumours.

I'll try it within the next two months and post the results, but maybe some members already have. Since I know of no specific name for the technique, it's hard to search the archives.

Here's my rough plan for an English Best Bitter, BIAB, with light batch sparge in bag: grist 95% Simpson MO, 5% Simpson (medium) crystal. If necessary to reach a target OG of about 1.045, I'll add a little DME late in the boil. I'll separately boil down about 20% of the wort until a colour change starts, and then try to hold it at temp without further reduction in volume, until the colout looks right, including red tones. Based on hops in stock, I'll use EKG and Willamette, nothing fruity and assertive, and keep the IBUs on the low side for style, so I can taste the malts. Yeast West Yorkshire.

Or that's the draught plan, no pun intended. Thoughts?

 

[technobabble66]

I should have been more specific. What I'm referring to takes place after the mash. Part of the wort is then boiled down. Because of sugar concentration, the temperature becomes higher than in decoctiion mashes or long boils. You could also produce a lot of caramel, but might have to go to even thicker syrup.

I assume you're referring to my post (given i think NFH has generally answered your initial question)?
Apologies if i seemed a bit jumbled in my thoughts - what i was attempting to ask was whether the process you proposed (boiling down part of the wort from the full grain bill, after mashing is completed) would provide the same results as other techniques that increase the proportion of melanoidens (& caramels) in the wort, such as decoctions during the mash, longer boil times of the full volume in the kettle, or adding Melanoiden Malt (eg: from Weyemann).

I've read a small scale comparison between decoctions and just throwing some Melanoiden malt into the grain bill that suggested the 2 techniques resulted in identical malt flavours in the final beers. So i'd prefer to just throw in a bit of Melanoiden rather than go to the hassle of decocting the mash.

I was wondering if anyone had done what you were suggesting (great query, btw!) & whether they thought the end result was different to more simple techniques (eg: again, throwing in some Melanoiden malt). And hence, whether it was worthwhile pursuing what seems like a potentially awesome way to enhance the malty goodness of beer, but rather time consuming.
NFH has tried the technique with promising initial results, but hasn't brewed a finished beer with it yet, so it seems the jury's still out.

***********
Either way, it seems conditions are not ideal for either Maillard (not enough time) or caramelising (not high enough temp) reactions, but something seems to occur.
If you can, do a temp check on the boiled-down wort to see if it's going over 180°C.
Looking forward to hearing your resuts!
***
Edit: just saw your added edit, re: you draught plan. I doubt you'll get the temp above 100°C as it looks like you'll have too much water in your boiled-down wort solution - depend how much water is gone by the time the colour change occurs. I'm just guessing though!

 

[manticle]

I should have been more specific. What I'm referring to takes place after the mash. Part of the wort is then boiled down. Because of sugar concentration, the temperature becomes higher than in decoctiion mashes or long boils. The method could also produce a lot of caramel, but might have to go to even thicker syrup.

I know of only one commercial beer that ever said they used the method, and the beer was one of the best for malt flavours. Otherwise, there's rumours.

I'll try it within the next two months and post the results, but maybe some members already have. Since I know of no specific name for the technique, it's hard to search the archives.

Here's my rough plan for an English Best Bitter, BIAB, with light batch sparge in bag: grist 95% Simpson MO, 5% Simpson (medium) crystal. If necessary to reach a target OG of about 1.045, I'll add a little DME late in the boil. I'll separately boil down about 20% of the wort until a colour change starts, and then try to hold it at temp without further reduction in volume, until the colout looks right, including red tones. Based on hops in stock, I'll use EKG and Willamette, nothing fruity and assertive, and keep the IBUs on the low side for style, so I can taste the malts. Yeast West Yorkshire.

Or that's the draught plan, no pun intended. Thoughts?

There's a thread on this somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.