Can I roast pale malt to make a porter?

TimothyTaylorslLandlady · 12-07-2008, 09:08 PM

I want to make something like a chocolately porter but I only have pale and crystal malts, raw oats, raw barley and raw wheat.

Can I make something porter/stout like with these ingredients or do I have to buy some chocolate malt?

I thought maybe I could roast the barley to give it the porter tastes?

**Yuri_Rage** · 12-07-2008, 09:13 PM

You could give it a try, but you're probably far better off brewing a simple bitter for now.

Bob · 12-07-2008, 09:32 PM

You can toast some of the pale malt in your oven, but it won't get you the color-producing stuff you need to make a brownish-black porter. Not even treacle will give you that, unless you use far too much of it (it'll overwhelm the flavor).

To make palatable robust porter, you need pale, crystal, chocolate and black patent malts. Back to the shops for you, my lad!

Bob

TimothyTaylorslLandlady · 12-07-2008, 10:00 PM

My lass in fact.

Ok but its 10pm in UK and the shops are shut and I want to brew tomorrow in the mornign ASAP...... I'm sulking now.

I made a bitter last week and I made a hoppy golden ale the week before and I need to make a porter now as the primary will be free soon and this beer making is obsessive. what if a roast some barley until its black? the fact that black and chocolate malt started life as malt should matter should it? they give nothing to the ABV? they are just flavours and how different can it be if you blacken the stuff?

sulking!

Bob · 12-08-2008, 12:00 AM

Whoopsie! Can you ever forgive me, my lass?

I think you can certainly make the attempt. Brown malt can be made by toasting the malt in your oven at 175-180C for an hour. Spread the malt on a cookie/biscuit sheet to a depth of approximately 1cm. Every ten minutes or so, pull out the rack and gently rake the grain bed to turn the corns over and ensure even toasting.

This still won't make black malt; that'll make a hell of a stink in your kitchen, which I presume you don't want.

May I suggest you make brown ale instead?

0.5 kg Brown Malt
2.5 kg Pale Malt (2-row)
0.5 kg Crystal 55L
454 g Treacle

That'll put you at about 1.050 OG. I'd bitter to 25-30 IBU and add your favorite flavoring/aroma hops at flameout. Darker than the beers you've already brewed, which is kinda the point, innit?

Does that make up for my erroneous gender assumption?

Bob

chillHayze · 12-08-2008, 12:49 AM

You can roast following the procedure above. Different temps, times, and moisture content give different malts. The show stopper for you is that after roasting, the grains should be left out for about 2 weeks to "mellow" and de-bitter a bit.

TimothyTaylorslLandlady · 12-08-2008, 08:27 AM

thanks for info. (BOBNQ3X gender assumption no problem but you have had some funny Landladys.) so its brown ale then today...

I will roast some malt and some grains and be patient and wait 2 weeks for them to mellow and then have another go with mellowed grains too. I have limitless raw barley as my partner is a Maris Otter farmer. I think I have learnt that roasting your own malt makes a lot of smoke (I dont mind that) and roasting malt is for porters but you can use roasted unmalted barley for dry stouts (Guiness like).

thanks again

z987k · 12-08-2008, 11:42 AM

yes you can roast some of your own grains

here's some reading:
Home Grain Roasting
All About Grains 101