Flaked Barley substitute?

[Braid]

Doing a recipe that calls for 4.25 lbs of flaked barley. Any issue with just using additional barley malt and if not, how much? Thanks!

 

[BrewBrain]

What's the recipe? That's a crap ton of flakes!

Wouldn't go with additional malt. Flaked barley is usually for body/mouthfeel. Carapils or flaked oats or something similar would probably be best. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the overall recipe.

 

[StoutFan]

I use flaked barley for head retention and body, as stated above. 4 1/4 lbs, wow, how big is the rest of the bill?

 

[Braid]

It's biermuncher's Guiness clone recipe.

Calls for:

11 lbs of Pale Ale
4.25 lbs of Flaked Barley
1.75 lbs of Roasted barley
.25 lbs of Acid Malt

I'm assuming accidualted malt is the same as acid malt and have that on hand as well as a crap load of various other grains. I just don't have any flaked stuff on hand and the nearest brew store is about an hours drive away. Guess I need to think about putting this recipe on hold?

 

[BrewBrain]

Ah. A ten gallon batch makes sense. Yes, I'd hold off until you have the flaked barley. I just don't know what I'd do to replace it.

 

[Braid]

So what exactly does the flaked barley do anyway? Well, any flaked adjunct for that matter.

 

[BrewBrain]

So what exactly does the flaked barley do anyway? Well, any flaked adjunct for that matter.

It's for head retention, body, mouthfeel. Basically, it thickens the beer up a little to give it a "fuller" feeling.

I have no experience with flaked grains other than oats and barley, so I'm not sure if, say, flaked wheat would work very well in this recipe. Oats will do the same thing as barley, but you do get a small bit of oatmeal flavor. At 4.5 lbs, I'm just not sure how much flavor you would get in the beer. Also, oats are oily in texture and will create a different mouthfeel. It may also affect head/head retention.

So, I'm not saying you can't use another flaked grain, I just don't know for sure what will happen to the beer if you substitute flaked wheat and I know the beer will be somewhat different with flaked oats, though probably still good.

Flaked corn is a whole different ballgame. Don't put that in. It's used for lighter beers - cream ales, light lagers, etc. I've never actually used it, but I can't imagine it would work at all in a stout.

 

[Malticulous]

You may be able to find some raw barley at a super market or health food store. Crush and cook it and it should do nearly the same thing.

 

[brewt00l]

I have no experience with flaked grains other than oats and barley, so I'm not sure if, say, flaked wheat would work very well in this recipe. Oats will do the same thing as barley, but you do get a small bit of oatmeal flavor. At 4.5 lbs, I'm just not sure how much flavor you would get in the beer. Also, oats are oily in texture and will create a different mouthfeel. It may also affect head/head retention.

yup right church, wrong pew. I ran short of flaked barely with my last dry stout and sub'd some oats just because I had them and that flavor and mouthfeel contribution is different enough to really shift the beer out of the dry stout class...still a good beer but different.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

You can find pearl barley at health food stores. Every time I have seen it, it was torrified (puffed, pre-cooked).

 

[Braid]

Ok already!!! Ya'll have set my head a spinnin! Dang, I just got friday off from work so I guess we're gonna head up to Raleigh and visit the Farmer's Market. What's that honey? The brew store is on the way??? You've got to be kidding me?!?!?!?