Kilning Pils malt into Munich in your oven?

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thebigwilk

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Just pondering the thought of doing a bit of home kilning in the oven. Was thinking about buying a 25kg bag of pils for lager and pilsner brews then instead of ordering small amounts of Munich or darker malts I was thinking about using an oven tray and giving it a go myself. I was just reading a bit of info on the topic and I know you aren't going to get the exact same colour as the munich from a store, but I think it would be a bit of fun to have have a crack, anybody else try this method before ? Here's some info on the topic

Malt can be kilned at temperatures between 220–400 °F (104–204 °C) for various periods of time to produce darker or more aromatic malts. For example, try 220 °F (105 °C) for 4 hours for a Munich-style malt. Any malt kilned at temperatures over 194 °F (90 °C) will develop melanoidins, the “malty” flavor found in Munich and other dark malts. During the kilning process, occasional stirring will result in a more uniform final product. More highly kilned malts will have little or no enzymatic power.
 
There is a section in the book radical brewing about it, if I get pipped while writing this post the post above me will be 99% chance referring you to radical brewing as well.

That said i followed his instructions for pre soaking my grain for a few hours and it took ages to dry out, was sweet and I'm fairly sure i made 500g of light crystal rather than munich.
 
Kilning of Munich is different to other malts. Likely you will make crystal, chocolate, roast malt, but not Munich.
 
Crystal malt is produced by “stewing,” rather than kilning, green malt. This approach is simply mashing within the kernel, by heating the green malt to mashing temperatures without letting it dry. Crystal malt can be produced by putting green malt in a covered dish and holding it between 150–170 °F (66–77 °C) for a couple hours then spreading it out on an open pan at 250 °F (121 °C) until it achieves the desired color. The longer it kilns, the darker and more caramelized the sugars will become.
I wasn't planning on stewing the malt I was just going to put it in the oven.
 
You're kind of right wilk. But you don't have green malt. You'll need to soak the malt for a couple of hours and then do your rest at 72c for 2 hours.
I'd suggest drying around 90 to 100 degrees for a few hours to get your moisture content back down. Try and get it halfway between chewy and crunchy.
However, as a rough guide, malt sugars caramelise at 180c so you will need to do your final kilning at that temp. Try 30 minutes for 60L but this will depend on the level of moisture remaining after the drying phase.

If you want something like US biscuit malt, try 180c for 15 minutes.

95c for 3 hours will get you somewhere near (but not that near) Vienna malt.

You won't be able to get chocolate from base malt but 220c for an hour will get you around 350L and nice espresso notes.

220c for 2 hours will get you black malt.

You won't be able to get Munich from base malt either but 110 for 3 hours will get you somewhere within the ball park. Or at least the carpark.
 
I oven bake some of my malt when I do a Sam Smith India Ale clone, about 15% of the base malt(GP off the to of my head) at 168c for 15 minutes.
It gets awful smoky and fills the house with a wicked burnt toffee smell, wouldn't dare do it with the wife home, but it adds a flavour I haven't found in any other rmalt,
Have been thinking to play around a little with future brews, so may options and things one can try, only one drinking in the house, one liver getting punished hard.....
 
thebigwilk said:
Just pondering the thought of doing a bit of home kilning in the oven. Was thinking about buying a 25kg bag of pils for lager and pilsner brews then instead of ordering small amounts of Munich or darker malts I was thinking about using an oven tray and giving it a go myself. I was just reading a bit of info on the topic and I know you aren't going to get the exact same colour as the munich from a store, but I think it would be a bit of fun to have have a crack, anybody else try this method before ? Here's some info on the topic

Malt can be kilned at temperatures between 220–400 °F (104–204 °C) for various periods of time to produce darker or more aromatic malts. For example, try 220 °F (105 °C) for 4 hours for a Munich-style malt. Any malt kilned at temperatures over 194 °F (90 °C) will develop melanoidins, the “malty” flavor found in Munich and other dark malts. During the kilning process, occasional stirring will result in a more uniform final product. More highly kilned malts will have little or no enzymatic power.
Have a look at Barleypopmaker .com.
 
Interesting, this may come in handy as I forgot to order Crystal.
 

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