Buckwheat: malting vs roasting

i recently picked up about 4 pounds of buckwheat groats to play around with (i've also got about the same amount of quinoa). i've seen a few threads about both malting and roasting and am trying to figure out whats best. ideally i'd like to limit the amount of sorghum used, though, i know some will most likely still be required. so i thought i'd reel you all in to a little debate as to what makes the most sense. please share your experiences.

FYI, i really dont have a beer in mind for the time being, though i generally stick with pale ales and IPAs when it comes to non-GF brewing. with sorghum, i've been doing 'wheat'-type beers (LCas's great Blood Orange Wheat, my own take on McMennamins RUBY, and a gingered IPA all have been very well received). i'm just trying to figure out what has the best return on my investment ('investment' being mostly time and space, though money plays a minor part) and obviously whats going to give me the best tasting results.

so, lay your results-based opinions on me! thanks in advance.

I'm basically wrestling with this same question. I think we are all kind of blazing our own trails here. I'm thinking of moving forward with 50% malted and 50% roasted GF grains and then take it from there based on results. I also believe that brown rice syrup is invaluable as an insurance policy against poor conversion and/or other disasters.

If you don't malt the buckwheat, you aren't going to get a significant amount of fermentable sugars from it. Just roasted, it will contribute flavor and color...

If you want to minimize the use of other fermentables, you'll want to malt it...and probably roast it some afterwards...

If you truely want to limit the sorghum you have to malt it. It isnt hard, just takes time and space. I do both actually roast and malt. If I am feeling lazy or not much time on my hands and I want to brew, I just roast the grains and seep in warm water before the boil (you can also do this in the final stages of the boil as well if you are worried about a burnt taste). But if I actually plan, I malt 4-5 lbs of buckwheat and or quinoa, and then use 3 or so lbs of soghum syrup and lb of rice syrup solids.

thanks for your reply. i've now roasted about 1.5 pounds of unmalted buckwheat as well as malted and roasted about 3 pounds. the difference in tastes between the two is amazing. the malted stuff is so much sweeter then the unmalted.

i'm now in the wafting stage with the malted stuff and am hoping to brew a macro-esque adjunct lager (malted buckwheat, instant rice, flaked corn, amylase, and small amount of sorhum) with it next week.

What do you mean by small amount of sorghum? I still leave at least 2-3 lbs of sorghum extract in the recipe or you will need 7-8 lbs of your own malted buckwheat (for a 5 gallon batch).

What is your intent for the instant rice? From what I have seen it doesnt do much. I like using roasted gluten free oats maybe a lb or so- gives the beer some more head retention and a silky smooth taste. I think it pairs well with the roasted buckwheat. Corn syrup leaves an aftertaste in the beer so I usually stay away from corn.

Sweet, you bet! I malted some quinoa a while back and the different between the malted and unmlated grain was incredible. Unmalted quinoa is bitter, but malt that and it becomes sweet.

i plan on using 2lbs of sorghum in a 3.5-4gal batch since i dont have enough malted buckwheat right now. maybe in the future.

as for the rice, my intent is to craft a very light adjunct lager, as thats what my wife craves the most, so i'm using that to add a little alcohol but no flavor. i'm just playing around right now and figured i'd take advantage of the cool temps i can hold in my garage for lagering.

I am on the same quest. Im trying to limit the sorgum as much as possible and my goal is eliminating it. The sorgum malt leaves a very sweet citrusy finish to the beer and I would like to get to 100% buckwheat.

I did read a post that recommended not going 100% buckwheat.

Any suggestions?

scrap the sorghum and use tapioca syrup. the sorghum will overwhelm just about everything.

I've done a 100% buckwheat malt beer and had some problems with sediment. This could be due to my BIAB set up. It did have good flavor though, so if I could perfect the brewing, I'd see no reason not to pursue an all buckwheat beer.

I'm about to brew up a GF with 6lbs brown rice syrup and steeping 1lb of toasted buckwheat for that nice nutty toasty flavor. We will see how it goes.

Another question. Instead of malting hulled buckwheat. How about using varying levels of roasted unhulled buckwheat and do a full grain mash. Will this work? Will I be able to get a good enough conversion so I will get a full fermentation? The last batch was my fifth experiment with gluten free and it still gets the sweet citrus finish. Its ok if you go with a hoppy IPA using some simcoe hops to battle the citrus with pine. It still ages out with the sweet lemon finish and a little pungent note similar to a Belgian finish. Not bad but I need to step up my game so the batches can be described as " wow that's good" and not described as "not bad...its drinkable".

DirtbagHB said:

scrap the sorghum and use tapioca syrup. the sorghum will overwhelm just about everything.

Click to expand...

where do you get it?

Yeah id like to know where to get that

http://www.briess.com/food/Products/nsts.php

i used to be able to get 7lb pails from the local brew shop, special order. but now its only available it 60lb (5gal) pails, special order. its also round the webs