Burning the grains

[Quyzi]

Has anyone tried burning a part of the mash grains before mashing to get a bit of a burnt flavor in the beer? I'm going to make a porter next weekend and was thinking about putting a quarter pound or so of the 2-row in the oven to toast it until its slightly burnt. I'm curious if anyone has tried something like this before and how it came out.

 

[JustLooking]

Not intentional. Scorched on my heating element once. Tossed the batch!

Toasting in an oven before mashing to darken is fine. Burning may not be.

 

[Hello]

Burning sounds like a horrible idea. Have you had burnt peanuts, for example? They're terrible. I made pistachio ice cream and burnt the nuts when I was trying to roast them, horrible again. I know nuts aren't grains but I foresee a similar horrible taste.

Roasting your own malt though, that is a good idea. I just saw a BDG recipe that called for .25 home roasted malt in a 5 gallon batch. Not sure what it really added but it sounded good.

 

[boydster]

i toasted a pound of Maris Otter recently and used it in a couple different brews. I liked it enough that I plan on toasting some more. Can't say that burning sounds appetizing, though. Check this out, or Google for more info about home toasting/roasting grain: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter20-4.html

 

[Quyzi]

Everyone says burning them is a really bad idea. I think I'll skip that. Great link about the toasting, going to give that a shot. Thanks