This from a well known British brewer ... even well known in the US of A
As it’s been some time since we got our overalls dusty, that probably means we’re about due for another trip into the depths of the Malt Vault! Each edition in this series spotlights a very particular grain, and reveals why we covet its use here at BrewDog. Last time out, we looked at roasted and chocolate malts, and in this latest instalment we focus our attention on those potent piledrivers of sweetness – Caramel malts.
Talk of the Tun
This large and welcoming family has been around for some time; their creation being attributed to the change in taste amongst British beer drinkers of the mid to late 19th Century. As the public voted with their palates and the market for pale ales increased (at the expense of porter), brewers needed a grain that could yield body at lower gravities instead of black malt. Enter – Crystal Malt.
As the name suggests, the malting process was adjusted to result in an end product that was glazed and harder, via a method known as ‘stewing’. All malts are dried in kilns to arrest germination, but before they are dried in this way, these particular malts are also heated whilst still moist. The humidity converts starches into sugars inside each individual husk, in a process known as saccharification.
In essence, the malt releases its sugars far, far earlier than intended (in contrast, pale malts retain their sweet goodness right up until the brewer arrives and mashes in with hot water). As the malt is then kilned or roasted, this further heating process caramelises the exposed sugars, and the grains become harder, darker, and sweeter.
So how are Caramel malts best used in combination with other grains in the mash? And just what do they bring to the beer-making party? Here’s Angelos to shed some light:
“Most of their enzymes have been burned off [during the kilning or roasting process]
, so they cannot convert their remaining starch content into fermentable sugars when mashing. That’s why we always use them with a base malt. In a nutshell if our pale malt (or pilsner or wheat) is the canvas we draw on, then our caramalt is definitely one of the essential colours you throw in. It provides an intense caramel, malty, nutty flavour.”
