Grain Substitution question

I like making Brown Ales and Porters. So much so I bought #55 of Brown Malt. Actually that was a goof on my part. I see that many of the Porter and Brown Ale recipes call for Chocolate Malt. Naturally I want to substitute Brown Malt for the Chocolate. Can it be a direct substitute of the same quantity?

Chocolate malt and brown malt are not interchangeable pound for pound. Chocolate malt is a highly kilned malt, looking/smelling a lot like coffee when crushed. It offers no starch OR sugar, just intense flavor and color.

Brown malt is like toasted base grain.

One thing to be careful of is that brown malt has starch in it, but no enzymes to convert that starch to sugar. It will need to be mashed with 2-row to convert to sugar.

You can definately make beer with it, but swapping into a recipe in place of chocolate won't get the same results at all.

Walker said:

Chocolate malt and brown malt are not interchangeable pound for pound. Chocolate malt is a highly kilned malt, looking/smelling a lot like coffee when crushed. It offers no starch OR sugar, just intense flavor and color.

Brown malt is like toasted base grain.

One thing to be careful of is that brown malt has starch in it, but no enzymes to convert that starch to sugar. It will need to be mashed with 2-row to convert to sugar.

You can definately make beer with it, but swapping into a recipe in place of chocolate won't get the same results at all.

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do you think the addition of brown malt wound conflict with the chocolate malt? If I were to add it in addition to chocolate malt in a recipe? I am not planning on using the brown malt as a base malt but as a specialty malt

I thought brown malt was totally usable as a base malt, and the chocolate only came about to color the brew once the breweries figured out there are more fermentables in the lighter malts - pound for pound.

-OCD

beerocd said:

I thought brown malt was totally usable as a base malt, and the chocolate only came about to color the brew once the breweries figured out there are more fermentables in the lighter malts - pound for pound.

-OCD

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I thought so too and bought #55 of brown malt. It is not a base malt...DOH

Black patent is the grain that changed the way porters were made, not chocolate.

As for brown malt having diastatic power... I think the brown malt that they used way back in the day was OK for a base grain (not great, but OK). When black patent came along, they abandoned brown malt and started using pale+patent. It was cheaper to make the beer that way.

Brown malt pretty much disappeared after that. It seems to have made a comeback recently (I couldn't find the stuff a few years ago, but its everywhere now) and I believe the brown malt we get now is a character malt only. It gives color and flavor like old fashioned brown malt, but can't convert itself in the modren form.

I went looking for information on brown malt on the web a few weeks ago, and every source I found claimed it has NO enzymes.

Granted, I am just quoting what I read, but I saw the same info on four different websites.

zman said:

I thought so too and bought #55 of brown malt. It is not a base malt...DOH

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Where did you get the malt from? You should be able to get some info for that malt. Now I'm pretty curious. Not enough to lose sleep over, but curious none the less.

-OCD

Commercially produced brown malt is dried for a short period at about 180C, giving it a dark color (50 to 100L) and a deep toasty flavor. Brown Ale

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I don't see any problem in adding brown malt to any dark beer. It is more of a substitute for the low-L caramels, but won't have the sweetness. The flavor is more like Biscuit or Munch.

beerocd said:

Where did you get the malt from? You should be able to get some info for that malt. Now I'm pretty curious. Not enough to lose sleep over, but curious none the less.

-OCD

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It was part of a Bulk grain buy. It is from Thomas Fawcett

david_42 said:

I don't see any problem in adding brown malt to any dark beer. It is more of a substitute for the low-L caramels, but won't have the sweetness. The flavor is more like Biscuit or Munch.

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Cool. Thanks. I am going to try adding some to porters and browns and see what happens.