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

[manticle]

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/21386-caramelising-first-runnings/

 

[Not For Horses]

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

I found that the malt character from the original wort was still very much present in the final product.
I would say start with something that tastes/smells good and go from there.
There are going to be a lot of different flavour/aroma combinations possible.

 

[jyo]

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.

Yep, it works nicely to add some deeper colour and caramel flavours to your beer. Start off with 3-4 litres of first runnings and reduce over an hour or so. Some have reported issues with head retention, but I can't say it's affected that when I've done it.

 

[yankinoz]

Thanks for the tips, which are encouraging. Depending on the degree of reductioin, I'll try the methid on an English bitter and maybe in a Belgian as LWH suggests.