1st DIY Grain Roast

I spent the last 2 days roasting/toasting my grains in preparation for brew day this weekend. Thought I'd share the process and results with you all.


Oats- Toasted at 350° F for about 30-40 minutes

Chocolate Malt-made from 2-row toasted for 90 minutes at 400° F
The instructions I found on line (Home Grain Roasting) said for up to an hour but I found I needed to go longer to get the chocolate color I was looking for. I would of roasted longer but I didn't want to over do it until I taste the first batch I brew with this.


I wanted to use up some specialty grains from my last brew. Here you have .25 lbs Melanoidin Malt,.5 lbs Carapils (bought for this purpose), .25 lbs Belgian. The color of these malts are all different (24,2,18 respectively) so I should end up with a multi color crystal malt.
Again I had to alter the on line instructions to get the desired color, I started out at 250° F for and hour and a half and then bumped up the temp to 275° F for a half hour and then 300° F for the last half hour. I'm pleased with the over all color and I feel I got a Medium color crystal to work with.

Just comparing the homemade chocolate malt to the crystal malt

Now the great debate that I've stumbled on to is: to let them sit or use right away. My schedule dictated getting them done in the beginning of the week, so I put them all in the old oatmeal container and put some wholes in the top to let the volatile compounds air out.

Any thoughts or comment are welcomed!

Randy Mosher provides some good information on roasting/toasting in his book, "Radical Brewing". Randy recommends waiting 2-3 weeks before brewing with home roasted malts. Otherwise, the effect is too harsh IIRC. OTOH, I've roasted my own malt in the past and I really did not know anything at all about it. I improvised my method without reading or otherwise knowing anything about how to do it. I brewed a Porter with the malt about one week after roasting the malt. I entered it in a competition and it won a BOS. That was just dumb luck on my part. I have not tried home roasting since, but it is something I do plan to try again. I have a drum type coffee roaster that I want to try with some malt. That should be interesting.

You want to wait a while after roasting. A few days should be fine. The last brew I did, I used them immediately and it really was a harsh, unpleasant roasted flavor. You could taste the biscuity potential in the background, but there was just some kind of off flavor associated with it.

Put it in a paper bag and let it offgass for a week or more. They do the same thing with home roasted coffee beans.

It's best to age the roasted malt for 2-3 weeks from what I've read about it. A few days won't be enough time to mellow it.

I disagree on the home roasted coffee. Roasted coffee is generally only considered to be at it's peak for about one week and it's a rapid decline from that point on. You do want to let the freshly roasted beans rest for about 24 hours in order to de-gas and for the full flavor potential to develop. OTOH, you can grind and brew freshly roasted coffee too, but the flavor will improve if given a little more time. I've been home roasting coffee going on four years. I am hooked on it for sure.

Catt22 said:

I disagree on the home roasted coffee. Roasted coffee is generally only considered to be at it's peak for about one week and it's a rapid decline from that point on. You do want to let the freshly roasted beans rest for about 24 hours in order to de-gas and for the full flavor potential to develop. OTOH, you can grind and brew freshly roasted coffee too, but the flavor will improve if given a little more time. I've been home roasting coffee going on four years. I am hooked on it for sure.

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i agree with ur disagreement. Roasted coffee is best fresh. The place i order from roasts the same day you place your order and its ready for pickup the folllowing afternoon. so good.

I concur, place the roasted grains in a paper bag and let them waft/offgas for 2 weeks. Also, maybe this doesn't happen with regular grains, but when roasting gluten-free grains the house smells bad for a day or so. Probably because they aren't malted...

I've thought about giving my grains a light toasting in a skillet instead of using an oven...anyone tried that?

Lcasanova said:

I concur, place the roasted grains in a paper bag and let them waft/offgas for 2 weeks. Also, maybe this doesn't happen with regular grains, but when roasting gluten-free grains the house smells bad for a day or so. Probably because they aren't malted...

I've thought about giving my grains a light toasting in a skillet instead of using an oven...anyone tried that?

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I used a cast iron griddle on my Weber charcoal grill. I wanted to do the roasting outside due to the smoke and the griddle provided fairly uniform heat. A large skillet would probably work as well. It's easier if you have only a thin layer of malt and keep raking it back and forth as it roasts. I was completely winging it when I did it that way, but surprisingly, it worked quite well.

Randy Mosher provides some good information on roasting/toasting in his book, "Radical Brewing".

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I've heard a lot about this book I better read it so I know what every one keeps talking about. Thanks for the tip.

As for as the letting sit for 2 weeks deal I kinda mentioned this in my original post. While there are some very respected sources saying to let your grain sit for 2-3 weeks there are still others who swear by using their grains the day after roasting. Which is while I'm gunna split the difference and use them after one week.

Maybe I'm way out there but I'm thinking that what ever I do with them is going to come out better than milled grains that sat in a box for who knows how long before I bought the kit and used them.