toasting malt

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

the_bird

10th-Level Beer Nerd
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
20,964
Reaction score
609
Location
Adams, MA
Simple question:

I'm developing a recipe for a toasty, smallish brown ale. I've got some Victory malt, have to figure out how much to use.

But, the question for now - I also want to toast some 2-row in the oven, probably a couple of pounds.

Is it better to toast the whole grain, then crush it, or to toast already-crushed grain?

Does it matter?
 
When it rains, it pours! I asked a similar question earlier. I think I got great results by roasting my malt at 350 F for a few hours. I was looking for a roasted barley-type product, so I let it go until it was a nice, deep brown (made the whole house smell roasted/slightly burned). I did a bit of reading about this in Papazian and via Google, also. For toasted malt, an hour or less at 350 F should probably be sufficient. I think you'd probably want to toast whole grain and mill it afterward.
 
Do you have the book "How to Brew"? On page 249, he talks about toasting your own malt and actually has a table on temps/time and wet/dry, based on the flavor you are trying for. As an example, he says to toast dry malt at 275 for 1 hour for light nutty taste and aroma, all the way up to 350 with wetted malt for 2 hours for a stong toast/roast flavor. He says that toasting wet malt will result in a slighter sweeter flavor due to paritial star conversion taking place from the heat. He also says to put the toasted malt in a paper bag for two weeks before using (but I didn't do that when I toasted some victory malt. ) He said that you can get some grainy flavors when you overtoast malt and don't age.

But, since I didn't have the Palmer book before, when I toasted victory malt, I toasted it in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes until it was brownish and smelling slightly like grape nuts. I tasted it and liked it, and used it like that. It was already crushed, as I don't own a crusher. It was fine, but I really have nothing to compare it to.

FWIW,
Lorena
 
Yuri_Rage said:
When it rains, it pours! I asked a similar question earlier. I think I got great results by roasting my malt at 350 F for a few hours. I was looking for a roasted barley-type product, so I let it go until it was a nice, deep brown (made the whole house smell roasted/slightly burned). I did a bit of reading about this in Papazian and via Google, also. For toasted malt, an hour or less at 350 F should probably be sufficient. I think you'd probably want to toast whole grain and mill it afterward.

So how did that come out? I know roasted barley isn't malted (at least, I';m pretty sure), so I'm curious how close you came.

You also may have subconsciously influenced me, as the plan *was* for some biscuit and some victory malts, but then I figured I'd experiment with some home toasting.

I actually don't have "How To Brew" yet - *shame* - I'm thinking of picking it up, I have some $$ to spend at both Barnes & Noble and at Amazon. I finally found my copy of Complete Joy, so I need to re-read and see if he discusses this at all.

Thanks, y'all!
 
Not sure how it came out as far as the brew goes (I'm brewing later this month). However, it came out nice and dark. Not quite as black as roasted barley (and not the same product, certainly, as you're correct in that roasted barley is not malted), but it smelled good, and I didn't have a problem adding it to my grains.
 
Ditto as above for toasting malts (wet/dry, temps, etc.); but I've always heard that you should toast whole grains and then crush/mill after toasting. I'm not quite sure why...perhaps you are primarily toasting the hull to get the flavor and avoid a lot of conversion/carmelization of the sugars in the seed?...
Marc.
 
Thought I'd revive this old thread. A few months ago I started milling so I have whole base malt laying around and would really like to try roasting some. I'm thinking of doing some at 275 for 45 mins to an hour as Yooper stated above. My question is how would I use it? Should it be treated the same way as biscuit or victory? How fermentable would the wort produced from it be? Hypothetically speaking, if I did a grain bill like this:

9 lbs Rahr
1 lb Roasted Rahr (275 for 45 mins)

Would it still be too light? Would you still use a bit of crystal or Munich along with it? Are melanoidins produced when roasting the malt?
 
My house pale ale is 9 pounds of 2 row, 2 pounds toasted at 350F for 20 minutes, 1/2 pound of carapils. Since I've never used Victory or biscuit I can't tell you how it will compare, but is it an excellent beer. When I've brewed it without toasting the malt my wife will complain that the beer isn't right.
 
At the end of last year, when I was getting ready for a move, I decided to make a beer using as little money as possible (we were buying a house, so I wanted to have any "necessary" funds on hand rather than spending on brew ingredients). I had hops and base malt on hand, so only bought the yeast.

I used the Palmer method, with the 1 hour wet-toasted malt, in the below recipe for a hoppy blond ale. I let it sit afterwards for 2 weeks before brewing.

I definitely think it added a nice layer to the beer that I wouldn't have gotten without toasting it, and followed up a different beer with some dry-toasted malt, although that was a more complex grain bill so I don't think its flavor contribution was as significant.

I mashed at 155, so it wasn't insanely fermentable, but it dried out nicely with the US-05. I don't think it needed any other malt additions, but a SMALL amount of a light crystal probably would have been tasty in there as well.

My recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 11.45 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 6.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 35.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
18.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 92.50 %
1.50 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 7.50 %
1.25 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 31.4 IBU
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
2 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale
 
What are typical OG and FG numbers for that beer? Also what temp do you mash at?
Usually it's around 1.052-1.054, and it will get to around 1.014-1.012. If you want it lower leave out the Carapils, and mash at 148, but my wife hates "thin" beer.
BTW, I grind my toasted malt while it's still hot, but then I don't have a really dark toast to mine
 
So I just did a toasted malt experiment and thought I'd share:

9 lbs American Rahr
1 lb American Rahr toasted at 275F for one hour dry
0.5 lb American Rahr toasted at 350F for 30 mins dry

mashed at 150F for one hour. I toasted the malts 2 days in advance and stored in a paper bag.

1 oz Willamette (4.7 AA) for 60 mins
0.5 oz Willamette (4.7 AA) for 5 mins
0.5 oz Willamette (4.7 AA) for 1 mins

~28 IBU

2x Safale 05
OG = 1.054

Just brewed this yesterday so when it's finished I'll provide pictures for color and provide as accurate of a taste description as possible. Cheers!
 
Hey JonK,
How did this beer turn out? I just toasted some 2-row tonight for an IPA I'm gonna brew. Followed the Palmer "soak for an hour, toast for an hour at 350" process as he made that sound like a reasonably "mellow" addition.

I'm contemplating the Clone Brews Harpoon IPA recipe but am hesitant about the full ounce or Roasted (not toasted) malt they call for. Seems like a lot of dark for such a light IPA.

Anyone have thoughts on that?
 
Back
Top