Steely (undermodified) Carapils - problem?

[kevmoron]

Here's the grain bill for the smoked porter I'm doing today. I just stared my single-step infusion mash. Currently at 155. Will hold here for an hour and mash out at 167 for 10 min.

3 lbs Durst Munich Malt
4 lbs Maris Otter
4 lbs Weyermann Smoked Malt
1 lb Breiss Organic Carapils
0.75 lb Roasted Barley
1 lb Brown Malt

The Carapils appears to be a bit steely. In other words, instead of the endosperm being starchy, white, and crumbly, it is very hard and brown, almost a bit transluscent. Also, the grains were much narrower than all the others, so that I had to set my mill to an extremely close setting to grind them down.

I've read this can happen when either the barley is undermalted, or something happens to the crop itself (such as a drought), causing starch formation to stop before the grain is mature. I'm thinking the latter might be the cause, since my grains seem so underdeveloped with the endosperm being so diminutive.

This is my first time using Carapils in anything, so forgive me if it is supposed to be like this. Does anyone have a guess as to what effect this flaw, if it is a flaw, might have on the beer? I'm thinking I probably will not get much out of the Carapils, and the sparge might be slowed by this. I'll throw in some rice hulls to help.

 

[boo boo]

It's because carapils is sort of a crystal malt and the conversion has been done prior to the malt being roasted to its Lovibond rating. It isn't excatly the same as base malt would be.

 

[kevmoron]

True, it would not look like the base malt, but I still wouldn't think it would be so steely. I've used a lot of crystal malts before, and it has never been this hard and transluscent.

 

[Chupacabras]

That's the way it looks. The endosperm is clear as glass.

 

[Edcculus]

The term maltsters use is glassy, not steely FYI.

Make sure you taste it. If it tastes fine, use it. Although it is preferable for malt to be more mealy than glassy, it won't really make a difference on a homebrew level. I'm not sure of the biological reasons, but your explanation sound like it makes sense.