Making Own Specialty Malt

[Jazzafish]

Hi guys,
Just made some light amber and chocolate styled malt from my standard base malt. Took a rough guide from designing great beers:
Going to put it all together with another 4KG of normal marris otter for a mild type of ale.

Here is the pics of the process:
Putting 1Kg Marris Otter in preheated oven at 180*C

After 20mins at 180*C. The Smell was great! Tasted like a toastier version of marris otter.

Taking a portion for extra oven time at 220*C

The portion after 10mins at 220*C.

Will post more as it is brewed.

 

[Ross]

Thought you were roasting hops for a moment looking at those pics...the malt looks a tad green

Well done though, hope it tastes great...

cheers Ross

 

[warrenlw63]

Sensational. I've just purchased the Dr. John Harrison's Durden Park Beer Circle book. Has some sections on making your own amber, mid amber and brown malts at home. Something I plan to look at over winter. B)

Warren -

 

[kevnlis]

I use the info from Graham Saunders article on home roasting. It works quite well for me! I use Galaxy for the normal malts and BB Caramalt when making the crystal malts etc.

http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/.../roasting.shtml

 

[devo]

I just got about 3kgs worth of un-malted barley from some farming friends of mine that I'm interested in having a go at malting myself.

...but i figure this is a different thing than whats going on here!?

 

[kevnlis]

I just got about 3kgs worth of un-malted barley from some farming friends of mine that I'm interested in having a go at malting myself.

...but i figure this is a different thing than whats going on here!?

Yeah mate! Raw barley must be germanated and the process is much more intensive!

 

[MHB]

This might be slightly OT but I always understood that Amber and Brown malt were modified versions of Mild Ale Malt.
Mild Ale Malt was traditionally a much higher protein malt than normal Ale Malt, or even Pilsner Malt. It was selected to give more body and substance to beers brewed from what would be considered a very small grain bills in more conventional beer like a Pale Ale.

Amber being a toasted Mild Ale malt and Brown being toasted and smoked Mild Ale malt.

The higher protein content would you would expect accelerate browning due to increased Milliard Reactions (the formation of protein-sugar complexes responsible for most of the colour formation in modified malt).
People have talked about successfully making their own Crystal and even Chocolate malt before; I am just a little suspicious that we can't get the right base malt to make really good versions of Amber and Brown malt.

Dont think for one moment that I am trying to discourage experimentation, I am not I'm just suggesting that the results might not be as close to the original as some other products like crystal and chocolate could be.
I suspect the result might be more like Biscuit than Amber - but it will be interesting to see the outcome, looking forward to hearing more.

MHB

 

[goatherder]

Amber being a toasted Mild Ale malt and Brown being toasted and smoked Mild Ale malt.

The brown malt I've used in the past doesn't seem smoked to me. Is there another brown malt I'm not aware of?

 

[Jazzafish]

Thought you were roasting hops for a moment looking at those pics...the malt looks a tad green

Well done though, hope it tastes great...

cheers Ross

Yeah, Camera in my phone... colour is a bit falsely represented.

This might be slightly OT but I always understood that Amber and Brown malt were modified versions of Mild Ale Malt.
Mild Ale Malt was traditionally a much higher protein malt than normal Ale Malt, or even Pilsner Malt. It was selected to give more body and substance to beers brewed from what would be considered a very small grain bills in more conventional beer like a Pale Ale.

Amber being a toasted Mild Ale malt and Brown being toasted and smoked Mild Ale malt.

The higher protein content would you would expect accelerate browning due to increased Milliard Reactions (the formation of protein-sugar complexes responsible for most of the colour formation in modified malt).
People have talked about successfully making their own Crystal and even Chocolate malt before; I am just a little suspicious that we can't get the right base malt to make really good versions of Amber and Brown malt.

Dont think for one moment that I am trying to discourage experimentation, I am not I'm just suggesting that the results might not be as close to the original as some other products like crystal and chocolate could be.
I suspect the result might be more like Biscuit than Amber - but it will be interesting to see the outcome, looking forward to hearing more.

MHB

Not off topic at all, if enything a valid point.

For all I know you may well be correct. I was just keen on experimenting with what I have on hand. If I should technically call what I have made something else then so be it and I stand corrected. But what should I call it???

I have some regular JW amber malt in stock and it is rather different in flavour when you chew on it.

Keen to brew it though!

 

[Jazzafish]

Sensational. I've just purchased the Dr. John Harrison's Durden Park Beer Circle book. Has some sections on making your own amber, mid amber and brown malts at home. Something I plan to look at over winter. B)

Warren -

Nice Link by the way

 

[bradsbrew]

Probably should have done my research before having a crack at toasting some malt but this is what I have achieved so far.

 

[Rocker1986]

That's interesting. I have been thinking about having a go at it myself in a similar way, roasting for different time periods to see what it does to the grain and flavours.

 

[bradsbrew]

That's interesting. I have been thinking about having a go at it myself in a similar way, roasting for different time periods to see what it does to the grain and flavours.

Yeah, went in bull headed with very limited research. The base malt was a couple of kilo's of Oakey malt, was the only base malt I have left in stock. I wanted some crystal to convert a cube to an IPA similar to the Argon method. I will turn the oven down next time. The 60 minute has a very mild toasty biscuit coffee flavour, probably should have used the 30 minute for this beer. The 120 minute has that ashy flavour you get from black patent but not the burnt roastiness.
Should be interesting.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Made what was basically biscuit malt using OP method a few years back. Was strong and almost overpowering. Used it to make a Kent Old/Brown clone. Took a few months in the bottle to smooth out. Was not like any commercial malt I had tried.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah, went in bull headed with very limited research. The base malt was a couple of kilo's of Oakey malt, was the only base malt I have left in stock. I wanted some crystal to convert a cube to an IPA similar to the Argon method. I will turn the oven down next time. The 60 minute has a very mild toasty biscuit coffee flavour, probably should have used the 30 minute for this beer. The 120 minute has that ashy flavour you get from black patent but not the burnt roastiness.
Should be interesting.

What temperature did you have the oven set to? I'm gonna have a muck about with some grains tomorrow but not sure what to have the oven set to.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Yeah, went in bull headed with very limited research. The base malt was a couple of kilo's of Oakey malt, was the only base malt I have left in stock. I wanted some crystal to convert a cube to an IPA similar to the Argon method. I will turn the oven down next time. The 60 minute has a very mild toasty biscuit coffee flavour, probably should have used the 30 minute for this beer. The 120 minute has that ashy flavour you get from black patent but not the burnt roastiness.
Should be interesting.

Brad, did you use the other malts yet? If so, what were they like?