All base malt - five types

Hi, everyone!

I am a Norwegian brewer and I have a (crazy) idea as I in addition to brewing like to play with numbers. Here it goes:

An idea to an American Pale Ale containing five Equal parts of well known base malts (for a 5 gal batch):
-Munich
-vienna
-maris otter (or another pale ale malt)
-wheat
-rye

in addition to this i am thinking about using simcoe and cascade for bitterin, flavor and aroma, using first wort hopping, and maybe some late boil additions. I am thinking about maybe adding som chinook or another american hop variety.

I am also playing With the idea of using a typical yeast strain for this type of beer.

Does anyone have any ideas on this matter? Looking forward to any response!!

Happy Brewing, and best regards

NorwegianAle

Wheat and rye become sticky in the mash. If you are using very much of either or both, add rice hulls or something similar to help with that issue and the fact that neither wheat nor rye have hulls to help form the filter bed. Their kernels are smaller and harder than barley so they will be harder to crush as small as barley. You may need to adjust a mill with a smaller gap to deal with that issue and keep the efficiency up.

I think I might enjoy a beer like that. It should lend itself well to trying different combination of hops too so you can do multiple batches to see how the hop choice affects the flavor of the beer.

Thanks for the quick response!

I am relatively new to both the art of brewing and this forum, so it seems I forgot to mention a couple of key elements;

I use a BIAB system - so a sticky mash has not been a problem for me. (I have made both wheat and rye beer in the past and it has not yet given me any headache). I also use a Corona mill and though it is not considered optimal I still think it crushes quite well for my setup. My efficiency is usually around 72% for most batches.

Furthermore i am thinking of making it true to the style (considering ABV, IBU, Color and OG) and the grist should be 1kg of each type (think this is something like 2.2lbs, or a total of around 11lbs for the 5gallons)

Any thought on what yeast strain(s) I should try?

Interesting idea. Maybe I'll try a batch that uses 1 pound of 10 different base malts for 5 gallons, see how that turns out. Kinda the opposite of a SMaSH.

Hmm while this could turn out ok I would suggest you try doing 5 - 1 gallon batches each with only one malt type. While your idea sounds interesting I don't think you'll learn much about each malts characteristics.

NorwegianAle said:

Thanks for the quick response!

I am relatively new to both the art of brewing and this forum, so it seems I forgot to mention a couple of key elements;

I use a BIAB system - so a sticky mash has not been a problem for me. (I have made both wheat and rye beer in the past and it has not yet given me any headache). I also use a Corona mill and though it is not considered optimal I still think it crushes quite well for my setup. My efficiency is usually around 72% for most batches.

Furthermore i am thinking of making it true to the style (considering ABV, IBU, Color and OG) and the grist should be 1kg of each type (think this is something like 2.2lbs, or a total of around 11lbs for the 5gallons)

Any thought on what yeast strain(s) I should try?

Click to expand...

That does change things. Forget the rice hulls, you don't need them at all. When you get to 50% or more rye, you'll have to squeeze the bag a little harder to get all the wort out. Tighten down your Corona so your crush/grind is finer and you should get higher efficiency. I sparge with a couple quarts and can expect about 85% efficiency.

I did a blend of english malts in my last barleywine. Smells really interesting in a good way. Can't wait to try it next week.

masonsjax said:

Interesting idea. Maybe I'll try a batch that uses 1 pound of 10 different base malts for 5 gallons, see how that turns out. Kinda the opposite of a SMaSH.

Click to expand...

I started out with the idea of 10 different types also. But when I scrolled through the different base malts I couldn't find 10 different ones - not THAT different anyways Figured I would just limit myself to 5, and make sure that they were quite different i caracter.

There are plenty to choose from. Off the top of my head:

Munich (light/dark)
Vienna
Pilsener
Wheat (red/white)
Rye
US 2-row
US 6-row
Pale Ale malt
Optic
Golden Promise
Maris Otter
Pearl
Halcyon

They're not all wildly different, but we're talking about base malt. Would be an interesting experiment.

RM-MN said:

That does change things. Forget the rice hulls, you don't need them at all. When you get to 50% or more rye, you'll have to squeeze the bag a little harder to get all the wort out. Tighten down your Corona so your crush/grind is finer and you should get higher efficiency. I sparge with a couple quarts and can expect about 85% efficiency.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll try tweeking the grain mill a bit for my next batch! I do however usually drain the mash and add hot water to the BIAB to acchieve a mashout 76celcius/168Fahrenheit (washing out the grains in the bag). Do you still think I could acchieve a better yield with a finer crush?

masonsjax said:

There are plenty to choose from. Off the top of my head:

Munich (light/dark)
Vienna
Pilsener
Wheat (red/white)
Rye
US 2-row
US 6-row
Pale Ale malt
Optic
Golden Promise
Maris Otter
Pearl
Halcyon

They're not all wildly different, but we're talking about base malt. Would be an interesting experiment.

Click to expand...

I see that I still have a lot to learn. Thanks. Either way I think the best thing to do is to stick with my plan, and then of course - BREW MORE (With all the different advices from the thread)

NorwegianAle said:

Thanks! I'll try tweeking the grain mill a bit for my next batch! I do however usually drain the mash and add hot water to the BIAB to acchieve a mashout 76celcius/168Fahrenheit (washing out the grains in the bag). Do you still think I could acchieve a better yield with a finer crush?

Click to expand...

I don't know that you can get better yield but I get my efficiency even when I sparge with cold water. That cold water also makes it so I can squeeze even more wort from the bag of grains too because while I use a pot lid for the initial squeezing, I use my hands for the final squeeze and try to make the grains holler.

On my Corona style mill, the grinding plates are rubbing when it is empty. It sounds bad but I don't turn it much when it is empty and since it is cast iron I expect it won't wear out before I do.

RM-MN said:

I don't know that you can get better yield but I get my efficiency even when I sparge with cold water. That cold water also makes it so I can squeeze even more wort from the bag of grains too because while I use a pot lid for the initial squeezing, I use my hands for the final squeeze and try to make the grains holler.

On my Corona style mill, the grinding plates are rubbing when it is empty. It sounds bad but I don't turn it much when it is empty and since it is cast iron I expect it won't wear out before I do.

Click to expand...

Ok, so i guess i will sparge with cold water next time to give it a try I suppose it in any case takes some effort off heating more water, though it will take longer to reach boiling temperature... always fun to learn some new and neat tricks. You dont suppose the sugars will be less soluble at this cold temperature?

masonsjax said:

There are plenty to choose from. Off the top of my head:

Optic
Golden Promise
Maris Otter
Pearl
Halcyon

They're not all wildly different, but we're talking about base malt. Would be an interesting experiment.

Click to expand...

This is what I used for my english barleywine. Almost ready.

NorwegianAle said:

Ok, so i guess i will sparge with cold water next time to give it a try I suppose it in any case takes some effort off heating more water, though it will take longer to reach boiling temperature... always fun to learn some new and neat tricks. You dont suppose the sugars will be less soluble at this cold temperature?

Click to expand...

It's a common misunderstanding. When mashing, the sugar is created in solution, it's not granulated sugar that needs to dissolve, and it's not so thick a syrup that you need to heat it to pour. Cold Kool-Aid pours just fine and that's loaded with sugar that actually was granular to begin with

masonsjax said:

It's a common misunderstanding. When mashing, the sugar is created in solution, it's not granulated sugar that needs to dissolve, and it's not so thick a syrup that you need to heat it to pour. Cold Kool-Aid pours just fine and that's loaded with sugar that actually was granular to begin with

Click to expand...

If you're sparging with only a small amount of water as I am, the hot grains warm the water pretty well too which increases the amount of sugars you can get into solution. The bag of grains will still be pretty hot to squeeze the wort out.:rockin:

Tested the cold water sparge and squezed the bag twice. Ended up with 1% lower efficiency and more stuff to clean. I suppose i'll go back to sparging with hot water and let the bag drain itself in a bucket...