A Ton of in-depth Malt Questions.

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First of all let me start out by saying "thank God, i finally have a decent understanding of malts".

Secondly I want to thank you all in advance for (hopefully) answering my long-winded, somewhat amateur, very specific questions!

Give it a shot:]

If any of you have the book, How to Brew, which i'm sure most of you do, i'm referring to pages 123 - 126, or Chapter 12 if you have a different version.

1) How To Brew says that there are 4 types of malts: Base, Kilned, Roasted, and Roasted/Kilned. It also says that Base Malts and Kilned need to be mashed, while the other two are fine either steeping / mashing. How important is it that the former two get mashed instead of steeped. Will there be a significant difference in the characteristics of the final product?

2) WHAT does the damn [degree sign]L mean? I understand the qualities that change as the number rises, but what does it mean? And how is it pronounced? For example, how is "Lager malt 2 (degree)L" spoken?

3) Is there a difference between the 'mash' and the 'grain bill'? For example, this says use Rye Malt 3 (degree)L for 5-10% of your grain bill to achieve a 'spicy' note. I know what the grain bill is, but does it differ from a 'mash'?

4) Under the topic of "Caramel malts", a bunch of them are listed:
Caramel 10 10 (degree)L
Caramel 40 40 (degree)L
Caramel 60 60 (degree)L
What's the first number supposed to mean compared to the second one? I never see them differ, is it redundant or am i missing something?

5) So the difference between using LME/DME instead of doing all-grain is basically in fine tuning, right? A pale LME might be good for the beer you're brewing, but using 3 different types of malt in it's place would yield a wider variety of flavors, complexity, and (hopefully) a more accurate target for the beer you're trying to brew, yes?

6) What about a partial mash-type set up? Say I don't want to use extract, and want to go all-grain BUT i dont have the equipment, only enough to do a partial mash. Can I use all grains in place of any extract, and just use a partial mash method?

7) How do you add malts toward the 'end of a mash'? Just a quick explanation is all i need on this one.

8) Also, how many of these am I going to find at a local LHBS? i'm trying to write my first recipe, and i want to know if there's going to be a severe limitation on availability that I should take into account?

My absolute sincere thanks to anyone who takes the time to give me a hand:]

-Kelly

 

[RCCOLA]

OK,here we go
1.Base malts contain enzymes which need to be converted in a mash.W/O conversion you risk starches in your beer which can affect the quality/shelf life of it.And it may be hazy.Although some extract brewers may disagree and I defer to them if they have better advise on this one.
2.L means Lovibond and is the last name of a man who came up w/ a scale for measuring color in brewing.The higher the # the darker the color.
3.The mash is where you put your grains in a measured amt. of water at a specific temperature for a certain amt. of time to convert the starches in them to fermentable sugars.
The grain bill is which grains you have chosen for the recipe,or your shopping list.
4.refer to #2
5.Yes
6.Yes.In a PM you can use grains that need to be converted that shouldn't be steeped ie: base malts refer to #1
7.If you want to darken the color of a beer w/o adding the dark roasted flavor of dark malts,then you can do your mash w/o them and add them just before you runoff the mash water and sparge w/ them in there.This way they aren't steeping for 1 hr. adding roasted flavors to the beer.
8.All LHBSs have different ingredients on hand.If they have an online site you can look before going or when you get there request a catalog or list of grains they keep on hand.
Hope this helps.Post back if I've been too vague.

 

[scinerd3000]

1) Steeping vs needing a mash refers to the % enzymes in the mash needed to convert itself. Highly roasted malts dont contain enough enzymes and need either 2 or 6 row base malts to convert using enzymes left over after they convert themselves.
2) L stands for lovibond and is a standard for color of the wort.
4)The carmel malts have slightly differing flavors. 10L tends to have a sweeter honey like flavor vs the darker which have more of a rasiny flavor. crystl usualy goes up to 120. Special b which is i believe 150 or higher is what gives some dubbel styles there flavor.
5)DME is dry maly extract and LME is liquid. For small amounts needed such as for a starter (2 oz) its much easier to use powder. For a full batch the liquid is easier because you need pounds. The dry is slightly more expensive. And your correct, the color is used to emulate the beer style. Pale vs extra dark for example, where the extra dark would be for maybe a stout and the pale for a pale ale or inda pale ale...
6)If you use all grains instead of extact then your talking about all grain brewing. With partial mash, you more carfully controll the temperature and also have more grain than a straight extract batch.
7)im not quite sure what you mean by that however when i did my black ipa, i needed a dark beer with no flavor of darker malt. Before i sparged i sprinkeled a pound of dark carafa malt over the top of the grainbed which gave me a darker beer with no or little contributuon of flavor
8)I use either austinhomebrew.com or northernbrewer.com. They have many of the types of malts you are going to need. heres a list of whats outthere along with a guide http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...-moc8P&usg=AFQjCNEE4BLDl-C7pH3CaO-xmHNrsUHLiA
Usually LHBS have the main selection. You can (atleast at mine) make due with what they have

 

[bad coffee]

what they said, plus I thought to add this:
5: You don't know what kind of grain(s) the maltster used to make the extract. Not a big deal when you're using Extra lite ME, but if you're using 'dark' ME, how is it going to taste? What grains did they use to get the color? By using Light ME and adding your own grains you have more control over the final product.

B

 

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Much appreciated guys, those answers were fantastic. But I still AM curious, in question #4, I was wondering what the 2ND number was. i understand the measurement is in lovibonds, but why do they state it twice?

is there a caramel 10 20 L?
or a caramel 20 10 L?

 

[Brewmasters Warehouse]

Caramel 10 is the name of the grain. The name comes from the Lovibond color, so you would not see something like caramel 10 20 L or anything else. When you see the number listed as Caramel 10 10 L it is really saying the grain is Caramel 10, and the color is 10 L which is kind of repetitive with Caramel malts.

Ed

 

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ha, that answers that. thanks a bunch guys.

stay tuned for my "A Ton of in-depth Yeast Questions." topic in a few hours!

 

[BigEd]

Much appreciated guys, those answers were fantastic. But I still AM curious, in question #4, I was wondering what the 2ND number was. i understand the measurement is in lovibonds, but why do they state it twice?

is there a caramel 10 20 L?
or a caramel 20 10 L?

I think the previous post answered the question although I'm not 100% sure what the question refers to. Perhaps I have just not seen the products labeled that way. To add to the answer some caramel/crystal malts are labeled to a color range rather than a specific color number. i.e. the old standby medium British crystal malt, often referred to as "Crystal 55L" may also carry a tag saying "Crystal 48-60L" or something similar. This is just a truer way of describing the product since when it is manufactured the color will vary from batch to batch.

 

[Donner]

6) What about a partial mash-type set up? Say I don't want to use extract, and want to go all-grain BUT i dont have the equipment, only enough to do a partial mash. Can I use all grains in place of any extract, and just use a partial mash method?

When people talk about "mashing" it's just a term used to describe the way you extract the sugars you need to ferment. Remember, yeasts eat sugar so the sugars have to come from somewhere. There is more to mashing than just that, but for the sake of this post we'll keep it at that.

To get these sugars, you have two options. You can mash, which all grain brewers do or you can use extract, which is the same process only done for you beforehand.

Partial Mashing is just that, a combination of the two. Partial mashing is done to collect a portion of your sugars from the grains. The rest is made up using the extract.

The difference between steeping and mashing is 1) the types of grain used, and 2) steeping generally contributes flavor and color, not fermentable sugars. (You could probably leave most of your steeping grains out of an all-grain beer and still hit your gravity.)

Most partial mashes will have several pounds of a base malt (2-rows etc.) that will contribute the sugars you need for gravity points (yeast food) and then specialty malts like crystal malts and such.

People who use 2-gallon coolers will usually mash ~3-4 lbs of pale malt and a couple pounds of specialty malt. Mash those together, collect the wort, start your boil, add hops and then eventually add the extract to make up the difference between the gravity of the wort you collected from the mash and what your final gravity should be.

To be a partial mash you need to have grains that will must be mashed (and will contribute the sugars needed), if you don't have these then you really are just steeping grains.