Extreme newbie question about grains

[Muskogeee]

So my question is, when you see a recipe list that includes specialty grains like:
Chocolate Malt
Caramel 90L
Special Roast
Carafa I

Are those all barley?? If so what are the differences? What does the 90L mean? I've seen other Caramel with a different number I think...

Can I assume unless they say wheat, rye, oat, rice, etc that it's some variation of barley?

Does it just take experience to learn what the different grains offer to the final product? Can anyone recommend any good resources to learn more about them.

 

[SnakeRidge]

First, yes those are all barley. Second, read 'How To Brew' by John Palmer. That book is a great resource.

Grains fall into a few categories; Base Malt, Crystal/Caramel Malt, Roast Malt. Malting is the process of wetting grain and letting it start to grow (starts converting stored starch into sugar) and then stopping the growth with heat (kilning). That gives you base malt, like when you see US 2-Row listed as an ingredient.

The 90L refers to 90 Lovibond which is a unit used to denote the amount of roasting the caramel malt gets. The higher the number, the darker it will make the wort and the deeper the caramel flavors it will impart.

Anything that is not barley is labelled as whatever grain it is. You'll see Caramel Rye, or Roasted Wheat.

It does take a little bit of experience to start getting the hang of it, but check out some maltser's websites like Weyermann or Briess. They have a lot of info on their various malts. And also John Palmer's book has very good introductory material.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

This is the older, outdated version of the book, but the malt info is still worth reading.

 

[TheCADJockey]

How To Brew - John Palmer

Check out this chapter, it has a description of many of the grains with a short explanation. The following chapter has some instructions on how to steep the grains. Hope this helps get you closer to your answer.