Hi!
Im going to try a brew this weekend which involved a little black malt. I'm doing 10liter (2.6gal), so its very little, I think I need around 20 grams, for a grain bill of total 2.6 kg (5.7lbs), and I wont have time to buy actual black malt before my brewing day (also I dont want to buy a whole kilo for just 20 grams. So I read somewehere that it wasnt that hard to roast it yourself in the frying pan, so I tried!
My problem was I only had crushed malt at home, but I thought it was worth a shot anyway. Maybe it wasnt, it got reeeeeally smokey in my appartment, and I didnt really get that even black color, more something dark brown mixed with charcoal.
So, if I just want color, do you think I can use any of this? should I pick out the black stuff that looks like charcoal, or is that the things that actually going to give me color?
Should I try putting it in after the mash, or is there some other secret technique?
Thanks!
Edit: just wanted to say what I did, in case somebody wants to know a way to get a red beer. I poured half of it in a french coffee press, filled with water and let it soak over night. The next day, the water was black as coffee, but smelled and tasted way to smokey for my taste, so i poured it out. Then I took the other half of the grains, poured it in the press again, filled with water, pressed down, and looked at the color. Pretty light brown. So I pulled the press up, and then down again. Thats where the magic happened. It got really dark, but didnt have much flavour or smell at all. I knew that I was going to have a little boil off, so I poured this in, a little less than a liter, in the fermenter right before I pitched. The beer is on bottles now, and got a reaally nice red almost glowing color!
Im going to try a brew this weekend which involved a little black malt. I'm doing 10liter (2.6gal), so its very little, I think I need around 20 grams, for a grain bill of total 2.6 kg (5.7lbs), and I wont have time to buy actual black malt before my brewing day (also I dont want to buy a whole kilo for just 20 grams. So I read somewehere that it wasnt that hard to roast it yourself in the frying pan, so I tried!
My problem was I only had crushed malt at home, but I thought it was worth a shot anyway. Maybe it wasnt, it got reeeeeally smokey in my appartment, and I didnt really get that even black color, more something dark brown mixed with charcoal.
So, if I just want color, do you think I can use any of this? should I pick out the black stuff that looks like charcoal, or is that the things that actually going to give me color?
Should I try putting it in after the mash, or is there some other secret technique?
Thanks!
Edit: just wanted to say what I did, in case somebody wants to know a way to get a red beer. I poured half of it in a french coffee press, filled with water and let it soak over night. The next day, the water was black as coffee, but smelled and tasted way to smokey for my taste, so i poured it out. Then I took the other half of the grains, poured it in the press again, filled with water, pressed down, and looked at the color. Pretty light brown. So I pulled the press up, and then down again. Thats where the magic happened. It got really dark, but didnt have much flavour or smell at all. I knew that I was going to have a little boil off, so I poured this in, a little less than a liter, in the fermenter right before I pitched. The beer is on bottles now, and got a reaally nice red almost glowing color!
