How do you choose specialty grains?

[AR-Josh]

Is there a book out there or some kind of reference to help choose specialty grains for a brew. I would like to start designing a beer or two and would like to know what each grain does to the beer. I have palmers book but I think that section is lacking.

 

[Vance71975]

Is there a book out there or some kind of reference to help choose specialty grains for a brew. I would like to start designing a beer or two and would like to know what each grain does to the beer. I have palmers book but I think that section is lacking.

Designing great beers by Ray Daniels.

 

[asterix404]

+1 for this book, it's awesome. Also have you read how to brew by palmer?

 

[jigidyjim]

Check out this sticky, too: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/recipe-formulation-ingredients-descriptions-164140/

 

[AR-Josh]

+1 for this book, it's awesome. Also have you read how to brew by palmer?

I have palmers book but I feel like he glosses over that section. I was looking for something that talks about each grain/malt.

Check out this sticky, too: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/recipe-formulation-ingredients-descriptions-164140/

That is a GREAT sticky. I'll read through that. Thanks!!!

 

[asterix404]

I would only pick up "Brewing Lager Beer" by Noonan after you have read a lot of other books. That book is a serious book and really designed for advanced and professional brewers. An awesome book, buy it, and keep it around until after you have read the others. The other books are awesome.

Also pick up Brewing With Wheat, and the clasic beer series is truly fantastic. Yea, just read a ton and brew a ton and experiment. Getting started with Designing Great Beers is awesome.

Skip the "Brewing Classic Styles" as from the except that I read it was dealing with primarily extract recipes. Daniels book however, goes into all grain and a lot of it. Noonan assumes that you are using all grain and goes into the chemistry of what is actually happening. I actually have all of those books right next to me on my desk and they are really easy readings.

 

[billf2112]

You can go nuts on this topic. I am still tweaking other recipes to match my taste, so I google the grains used in the recipes and see what it says about them. I them google similar grains to get an idea how they could change the brew. This is not to hard for people like me, trying to tweak. If I was designing, I would invest in the books.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Rivenin]

whats your email? i have a 15 page word doc that explains all of them, as well as hop profiles. i'd post it here, but obviously it'd be a horridly long post lol

 

[Rivenin]

basically looks lke this, but obviously it is tons more cleaned up in the doc

2-Row Black Malt North America Neutral flavor. Characteristics & Applications: Use in all beer styles for color adjustment. Provides the color and sharp, almost acrid, flavor that is characteristic of Stouts and Porters. Use 1-10% for desired color in Porter and Stout. Black Malt has a distinctive malty flavor and is not interchangeable with Roasted Barley. Produced from AMBA/BMBRI recommended 6-Row Malting Barley varieties.

2-Row Brewers Malt North America Mild malty flavor. Characteristics & Applications: • Base malt for all beer styles • Smoother, less grainy flavor than 6-Row Brewers Malt. • Slightly higher yield than 6-Row Brewers Malt. • Slight lower protein than 6-Row Brewers Malt. • Produced from AMBA/BMBRI recommended 2-Row Malting Barley varieties.

2-Row Brewers Malt (Organic) North America Mild malty flavor. USDA Organic, 100% Organic. Characteristics & Applications: • Base malt for all beer styles • Smoother, less grainy flavor than 6-Row Brewers Malt. • Slightly higher yield than 6-Row Brewers Malt. • Slight lower protein than 6-Row Brewers Malt. • Produced from AMBA/BMBRI recommended 2-Row Malting Barley varieties.

and this is what the hop one looks like


ADMIRAL 11-15% Bittering
Said to be citrusy, orange flavored. A good compliment hop to Targets. Good dual purpose hop.
Use For: English style IPA and other ales
Substitutes: Challenger, Northdown


AHTANUM 3.5-6% Finishing
Fruity flavors and a spicy aroma, a little woodsy, earthy. This is grown in small quantities right now.
Use For: American Style ales
Substitutes: Amarillo, Cascade


AMARILLO 8-10% Bittering, Flavor
A flowery, citrus-like aroma (more orange than grapefruit) with medium bittering value that is gaining acceptance as a substitute for Cascade due to its hardy nature.
Used For: Good for bittering and flavor, but an acceptable aroma hop as well. Pale Ales, IPAs, Porters
Substitutes: Cascade, Centennial

 

[ArcaneXor]

Go to your local homebrew store and start chewing the malts (well, the non-roasted ones, chewing roasted malts is just nasty). Extrapolate to what they'll taste like fermented, on their own and in combination with other grains. Study recipes, especially pro-brewer recipes (like Can You Brew It material, not the junk from the Szamatulski books). Between knowing what the different types of grain do to a recipe, how they taste and how they are commonly used, you'll quickly become a recipe formulating expert. For example... You want a crisp, dry pale ale that avoids the overbearing sweetness of domestic c-malt. How about domestic two-row with a small dose of Victory, and some light Munich? How about a dark mild with subtle chocolate, but no roast character? Sounds like case for British Pale, English C-55 or C-77, Pale Chocolate and maybe some Carafa Special (i.e. the de-husked version) to darken the color some more?

 

[onipar]

When doing a partial mash, do you count the DME and LME as percents of the total grain bill (when trying to figure out the percentage of specialty grains, etc)?

Also, how can you tell how sweet the beer will be? This is one thing I'm struggling with as I choose specialty malts. For instance would this create too sweet of a beer? 4 oz Caramel Munich, 4 oz Briess Victory, 4 oz Biscuit Malt
1 lb Briess 2 Row Caramel 60 (with about 7 pounds of other DME, LME, and base malts).

 

[TotemWolf]

Read everything you can. (this will give you a base to build on)
Smell and eat the malts raw. (this will tell you more than any book can about each malt on its own)
Brew and drink (try to brew with just a few specialty malts so you can taste them in the beer -- try other beers where you know what is in them as well)

Experiment (try increase/decrease amounts or swap out or add different grains in one recipe -- 1 change at time though so you can tell what it did)

 

[ArcaneXor]

When doing a partial mash, do you count the DME and LME as percents of the total grain bill (when trying to figure out the percentage of specialty grains, etc)?

Also, how can you tell how sweet the beer will be? This is one thing I'm struggling with as I choose specialty malts. For instance would this create too sweet of a beer? 4 oz Caramel Munich, 4 oz Briess Victory, 4 oz Biscuit Malt
1 lb Briess 2 Row Caramel 60 (with about 7 pounds of other DME, LME, and base malts).

Victory and Biscuit are closely related to each other, and add fairly little sweetness. Biscuit is more aromatic than Victory though (but this also depends on the maltster). They mostly contribute bready, biscuity flavors to accentuate a neutral base malt. Sometimes, you can use a combination of domestic pale and Victory/biscuit to approximate the character of a British pale malt, for example.

CaraMunich comes in three types. They are a fairly dry crystal malt. You'll quickly find out that Briess crystal malts smell delicious, but they are also very sweet. English C-malts tend to be a little less sweet, and German C-malts even less so. But again, there are huge differences between maltsters. Personally, Briess products are my least favorite, except their Victory and Aromatic, which I like.

Depending on the style, 1 pound of C-60 may be ok, but I'd consider that the upper limit.

 

[onipar]

Thanks for the answers. Looks like I may to do some more tinkering...

 

[nunyafnb]

"The Brewmaster's Bible" also goes through the different kinds of hops, grains, malts and adjuncts and stuff pretty nicely. It's slightly dated, but it covers quite a bit and has some recipes included. Can get it for around 6-7 bucks used on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060952164/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20