I don't like Roasted Malts....realization.

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Jayhem

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Recently I have come to the conclusion that I really don't care for roasted malts of any kind.

I would always drink a stout if offered one but I would never want a second. I thought it was just because they are "heavier flavor" but after trying to drink 4-5 Irish Stouts (only 4.5% abv) in a row on St. Paddy's Day...I felt like I was going to puke! Even smelling it made me sick.

I believe the reason is that the burnt flavors of roasted malt reminds me of 2 things I detest: 1. Cigarette smoke 2. Coffee



Anyone else not care for roasted malts?


I'm going to concentrate on my Pale Ale and blonde recipes for awhile and maybe I'll come back to stouts/porters next winter.
 
Recently I have come to the conclusion that I really don't care for roasted malts of any kind.

I would always drink a stout if offered one but I would never want a second. I thought it was just because they are "heavier flavor" but after trying to drink 4-5 Irish Stouts (only 4.5% abv) in a row on St. Paddy's Day...I felt like I was going to puke! Even smelling it made me sick.

I believe the reason is that the burnt flavors of roasted malt reminds me of 2 things I detest: 1. Cigarette smoke 2. Coffee



Anyone else not care for roasted malts?


I'm going to concentrate on my Pale Ale and blonde recipes for awhile and maybe I'll come back to stouts/porters next winter.

I like them but they can be over done...

Brew a MILD and put to much of a Chocolate Malt I had never used in it and it is more like a porter...

I am starting to cut way back on them.... so when the recipe calls for 6 oz I will not be adding a pound!!!!!

DPB
 
Being a big lager fan, I can understand your feelings about roasted malts.
There are not a lot of fully roasted malts that I can point to and say that I crave them.
I find that you just have to have a roasted flavor that works in the right combination in order for it to be appealing.

Examples...

4th Dementia - Kuhnhenn
Good Humans - Shorts Brewery
 
Brew a MILD and put to much of a Chocolate Malt I had never used in it and it is more like a porter...

DPB

Thanks. I actually have a Mild planned for this spring using Pale Chocolate Malt and Crystal malts. I enjoy low ABV malty English brown ales so I'm sure a mild would be to my liking.
 
Just some random thoughts, feel free to ignore me:

1.) Generally stouts and porters aren't lawnmower type beers where you can just have 4 - 5 of 'em (though some people can!).
2.) Heavy use of roasted malt in a beer is generally not to style.
3.) What stout were you drinking? Was it commercial?
4.) Great tasting stouts and porters usually don't have overwhelming roasted flavors and don't make heavy use of roasted malts. Take Snowdrift vanilla porter, for example, a very smooth beer.
5.) Perhaps the maltster can "burn" or scorch a batch (i.e. screw it up)... and mix it with other batches of good roasted malt...
 
Just some random thoughts, feel free to ignore me:

1.) Generally stouts and porters aren't lawnmower type beers where you can just have 4 - 5 of 'em (though some people can!).
2.) Heavy use of roasted malt in a beer is generally not to style.
3.) What stout were you drinking? Was it commercial?
4.) Great tasting stouts and porters usually don't have overwhelming roasted flavors and don't make heavy use of roasted malts. Take Snowdrift vanilla porter, for example, a very smooth beer.
5.) Perhaps the maltster can "burn" or scorch a batch (i.e. screw it up)... and mix it with other batches of good roasted malt...

It was 2 homebrews; 1 was a black IPA that has aged to a point where the hops have faded and the darker malts are predominant, the other was my own dry stout which only used 0.75 lb of roasted barley in a 5.5 gallon batch and 2 oz of caraffa III. Even that was way to roasty for me to handle more than 1 of. Perhaps I just need to cut back even further on my use of roasted barley?
 
Perhaps I just need to cut back even further on my use of roasted barley?

IMHO, I would agree. .75lb in 5.5 g batch is a lot especially on top of another roasted malt like Carafa III.

Try limiting it to 1 - 2 oz. and go from there.
 
I admit that after this year's St. Paddy's Day festivities, I experienced a little "palate fatigue" with respect to roasted malt. Between the stouts, Irish Reds, and a couple specialty craft beers (a growler of Irish Red IPA and a 6-pack of Black IPA), I'd like to take a break from the dark malts for a while.
 
Thats because everybody knows that dark beers are super alcoholic and cause you to add an inch to your belt line everytime you drink one. They are SOOOOOOOO heavy!

</sarcasm>

Everybody has their own preferences. I for one, enjoy dark colored and heavier beers. Extra malty beers without a balance do not seem to fly as well for me anymore. I just can't take all the sweet. Reds and Brown Ales seem to be slow drinkers at my house. Stick to what you enjoy, venture out on occasion to make sure your tastes have not changed, then make what does it for you.
 
For me it's the coffee...certain malts seem to be overwhelmingly coffee to me, even in small quantities. One such malt is TF&S Brown Malt. Ever had water from an old coffee pot? That's why small quantities of brown malt in a batch taste like to me.

The jury is still out on Pale Chocolate - I initially went for it b/c it's much more mellow than normal Chocolate malt, but I'm thinking it's more coffee leaning than it's higher-roasted friends.

I also don't like Midnight Wheat - I thought that would be a mellow option. It is mellow, but it's a weird roasty flavor, almost like stale, hollow roast....it lacks the sharp fresh zing of most roasted malts.
 
For me it's the coffee...certain malts seem to be overwhelmingly coffee to me, even in small quantities. One such malt is TF&S Brown Malt. Ever had water from an old coffee pot? That's why small quantities of brown malt in a batch taste like to me.

Full agreement on coffee tastes. I don't like coffee anyway. Someone brought an imperial espresso stout to our St. Paddy's party and one sip of it and I thought I was going to lose my corned beef and potatoes! Disgusting! :eek:
 
I just brewed a vanilla porter with a fairly low ABV, (4.5%) Well, I guess that's low for me... At any rate it's very smooth but there is definitely a coffee/chocolate finish to it and I can't imagine anybody would drink more than one or two in a sitting because it's just too rich.

Now a nice pale ale or fruit ale... That's a whole different critter there.
 
Full agreement on coffee tastes. I don't like coffee anyway. Someone brought an imperial espresso stout to our St. Paddy's party and one sip of it and I thought I was going to lose my corned beef and potatoes! Disgusting! :eek:

Yup, agreed. I have enjoyed some imperial stouts/porters with fresh, sharp roasty (but not overpowering) character that don't taste like day-old stale coffee, but I think there's also enough body & sweetness to keep away that old-thin-coffee taste. Either that or enough chocolate comes through.

Thanks for posting this, I'm glad I'm not the only one :) :mug:
 
I made this realization just a couple weeks ago...A while back, I made NB's Dry Irish Stout extract recipe, and thought I screwed up, because it was very harsh and bitter. Then a guy in our homebrew club made the all-grain kit. I tried that, and it was pretty much the same. I couldn't believe how highly rated the kit was, because I thought it was just about undrinkable. About a month ago, I brewed the Irish Ale from 'Brewing Classic Styles', which called for 6 oz of roasted barley. When I kegged it, I sampled it, and all I smelled and tasted was roasted barley. Now that it's carbed up, and a few weeks older, it's much better, but it still seems like the roasted flavor is a bit much. I think I'm a bit oversensitive to it now. When I have commercial stouts with roasted barley, I can tell it's in there, but it's much smoother...maybe I need to give my beers more time to mellow out...

Pat
 
For the all grain brewers, instead of mashing your roasted grains, throw them in at the sparge or make a separate steeped liquid with them. This will REALLY round off the edges if you are trying to get rid of the harshness from roasted grains.
 
For me it's the coffee...certain malts seem to be overwhelmingly coffee to me, even in small quantities. One such malt is TF&S Brown Malt. Ever had water from an old coffee pot? That's why small quantities of brown malt in a batch taste like to me.

The jury is still out on Pale Chocolate - I initially went for it b/c it's much more mellow than normal Chocolate malt, but I'm thinking it's more coffee leaning than it's higher-roasted friends.

I also don't like Midnight Wheat - I thought that would be a mellow option. It is mellow, but it's a weird roasty flavor, almost like stale, hollow roast....it lacks the sharp fresh zing of most roasted malts.

I agree about the brown and Midnight. I recently put 6oz brown malt in an APA for some reason, really just to see what it would do. It's still fresh and others can't taste it, but I can. I also put 8oz TF amber in, which is what DFH uses I think. I think in my head that brown and amber's only difference is about 10 min in the oven, although its about twice the Lovibond. The difference between done and burnt toast.
 
I agree about the brown and Midnight. I recently put 6oz brown malt in an APA for some reason, really just to see what it would do. It's still fresh and others can't taste it, but I can. I also put 8oz TF amber in, which is what DFH uses I think. I think in my head that brown and amber's only difference is about 10 min in the oven, although its about twice the Lovibond. The difference between done and burnt toast.

Yeah, that's interesting. I love amber malt. I guess it hints at coffee, but it's so much warmer and richer...I like your description, difference between done and burnt toast.
 
Just the thought of drinking a stout makes me sick right now. Have you ever got a bad taste for something and just the thought of it makes you want to vomit? Kinda like waking up with a bad tequila hangover and just the thought of tequila is enough to make you sick.
 
mccullpl said:
PJoyce85,

would you recommend steeping only the roasted malts separately, or all the specialty grains?

I throw my other specialty grains in the mash with no noticeable difference. You don't have to mash them, but I'm lazy.

There is definitely a noticeable difference when you take the roasted grains out if the mash.
 
I made the Milk Stout recipe from Brewing Classic Styles and that used a large portion of Black Patent malt. When it was fresh, it earned a bronze in competition, but the roast flavor and aroma where overwhelming and unpleasant IMO. Judges notes used words like "ashtray" and one suggesting reducing the Black Patent. Fast forward 6 months and the harsh roast flavor and aroma have faded to a smooth, pleasant beer that I can still only drink one of at a time. I too will be wary of recipes using large amounts of highly roasted grains and am anxious to try tossing them in the sparge instead of mashing like suggested. To the OP, I suggest you steer clear of any recipe using Black Patent becuase it is has a definite coffee quality and while I do enjoy some roasted grains, that one is one I will never personally use again.
 
My second batch of all grain was a stout. I'm a chef and hate recipes, relying more on ratios and technique. I read a little and built a Rims system and dove in. I refer to that batch as my "lucky stout" I mashed really thin (memory...I took no notes) probably 2qt/#. I used 2 row, munich, honey, caramel 40 and chocolate. My ex sister in law (sommelier, cicerone, hater) tasted as she was picking up her kid and described it as flawless, offering that homebrews almost always are not. Quite a compliment coming from her.

The beer was smooth, drinkable, and had no dirty ashtray, thin coffee or even toasted notes. To my taste it was almost flat because of the low hop dose (Columbia 60 min) 2z/10 gal. I have wondered if the thin mash had something to do with it. That seems like the only difference between that batch and later, less successful attempts.
 
I'm with you on the roastiness. I know people say the line is blurred, but basically I make porters instead of stouts for this reason. To me a porter is about a luscious layering of malts--English 2-row, crystal malts, English chocolate, Special B--but I just can't get down with roastiness.

On the other hand, I love me some coffee flavors! Guess it's each to his own.
 
I'm with the OP. I go out of my way to avoid porters, stouts, and any style with a lot of "roastiness". More for everyone else.
 
I love me some stouts!! But it hurts my GI tract, more so as I get older. I'm brewing a stout with 2/10th dark roast and cara 60. I mashed at 148F (90min) and mashed out at 170F. I'd like this one to be dry.
 
Thanks. I actually have a Mild planned for this spring using Pale Chocolate Malt and Crystal malts. I enjoy low ABV malty English brown ales so I'm sure a mild would be to my liking.

I am a big fan of Low ABV beers... I can drink more and don't get "toasted"...

Brewing a 3.5 ABV Berliner Weisse soon, a couple Summer Ales that should come in not low but I am shooting for 4.5 ABV, and I have a low ABV Kolsch Recipe I like.

"Big" beers seem all the rage.... and it is the one "beef" I ahve with so many Brewpubs abd Breweries that I can't go and have four (4) pints and drive...

DPB
 

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