How many malts do you need in a recipe?

[tennesseean_87]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone invented a malt that would lower mash pH without adding caramel-like color and flavor?

/s

 

[Bobby_M]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone invented a malt that would lower mash pH without adding caramel-like color and flavor?

/s

I see what you did there. Even better, it would be awesome if someone came up with a relatively flavorless clear liquid that you could add directly to the mash to do it.

 

[Broken Crow]

Well to be clear, I was only talking and questioning what the flaked oats added to the party, not any of the other brewing sugars used in the recipe added.

When I said "them", them was meant to be the flaked oats.

Is this a good place to ask if anyone using flaked oats, strikes at 120° or thereabouts for a beta-glucan rest? I only ask because I read everyone's posts when they use oats and I'm still learning to work with all-grain.

 

[aceluby]

How many ingredients do you need to make a spaghetti sauce? Tomatoes and butter simmered for an hour with a little salt and peppers tastes great, why put anything else in it?

I think it's good to think about the ingredients you put into your recipe, as you should with any sort of cooking. I don't think it's all that good with the way it is presented in most of this thread and feels very exclusionary and gatekeepy. Just because you use 3 malts to make a beer while someone else used 6 doesn't make one recipe better than the other.

How many malts do you need in a recipe? As many as your little heart desires. We're homebrewers.

 

[An Ankoù]

A lot of brews are based on clones and other beers. If the recipe calls for it, it is part of the taste. head or feel. I have found that when I could not get the correct malt, and substituted a different Malt, it does affect the flavor ever so slightly (batch to batch). If you had a recipe for Lemonade that included Myers Lemon, you cannot substitute regular lemons or you will not get the real deal!

That's pretty much my take on the issue, too. A lot of US and Aust/NZ brewers like to copy European styles, but their malts are slight different so they try to adjust the malt accordingly, but let's face it, how many have tasted an authentic pint of Tim Taylor's Landlord or Westmalle or Warsteiner Verum? I'm all for keeping the recipes as simple as possible as has been said above. Except for dark beers, which (can) benefit from complexity.
On the other hand, trying to get close to Pilsner Urquell without a triple decoction of under-modified moravian malt is one of the Holy Grails I haven't quite nailed yet.
I think the daftest thing I've ever I undertaken is to build a malt substitution chart for NZ Gladfields Malts. It's daft because a lot of the recipes from them and from Wild About Hops are clone attempts for British and European (as well as US) styles. So I'm trying to clone a clone rather than clone the original. Why? I just love N Z hops. So, in a way, I agree with @aceluby , too.

 

[AlexKay]

Is this a good place to ask if anyone using flaked oats, strikes at 120° or thereabouts for a beta-glucan rest? I only ask because I read everyone's posts when they use oats and I'm still learning to work with all-grain.

When I'm using flaked oats, I'm usually trying for some extra beta glucans to get a smooth mouthfeel -- so anything that would break them down would be missing the whole point! That said, I'm skeptical of how much good a low-temperature rest is to break down beta glucans in a meaningful way. (And if you do decide on a beta glucan rest for some reason, I think you want a slightly lower temperature for it.)

 

[hotbeer]

1 syringe + 1 bottle of lactic acid which lasts over a year in my brew space. It's every bit as easy as baking soda once you buy it IMO. You still have to "inventory and store" grain, measure and mill it, so I don't see that it's saving much in terms of "tasks" on your brew day. Adding my lactic acid takes 1/50th the amount of time that filling my HLT takes lol

We all have things that we do that others might think differently of. Simple and easy aren't necessarily the same to everyone. So when I make such statements its not a attack or disagreement with you. Just me stating how it is for me.

 

[oakbarn]

How many ingredients do you need to make a spaghetti sauce? Tomatoes and butter simmered for an hour with a little salt and peppers tastes great, why put anything else in it?

I think it's good to think about the ingredients you put into your recipe, as you should with any sort of cooking. I don't think it's all that good with the way it is presented in most of this thread and feels very exclusionary and gatekeepy. Just because you use 3 malts to make a beer while someone else used 6 doesn't make one recipe better than the other.

How many malts do you need in a recipe? As many as your little heart desires. We're homebrewers.

What??? No fennel seed?? IPA without hops!
mi scusa mio italianio. Io abbito nel Roma multi anno fai.

Io non capicio qaulle questa? Il e non spaghetti senso fennel!

(Please excuse my Italian. I lived in Rome many years ago.
I don't understand what this is? It is not spaghetti without fennel!)

That being said, I think 4 is the maximum different grains I have used in a single recipe. I think that the roasted grains add some flavor, but mostly color. If a recipe calls for it, I would use it. When I make my own recipes, I think of:
1. Flavor
2. Color
3. Heaviness (mouth feel)
4. Aroma.

Grain has more effect on #2. I think Yeast and Fermentation Temp has more to do with #1 ( and of course Hops)

#3 is all mash temp.


Aroma hops affect # 4 more than anything. Late hops or dry Hops afffect #1 also.

 

[tennesseean_87]

What??? No fennel seed?? IPA without hops!
mi scusa mio italianio. Io abbito nel Roma multi anno fai.

Io non capicio qaulle questa? Il e non spaghetti senso fennel!

(Please excuse my Italian. I lived in Rome many years ago.
I don't understand what this is? It is not spaghetti without fennel!)

That being said, I think 4 is the maximum different grains I have used in a single recipe. I think that the roasted grains add some flavor, but mostly color. If a recipe calls for it, I would use it. When I make my own recipes, I think of:
1. Flavor
2. Color
3. Heaviness (mouth feel)
4. Aroma.

Grain has more effect on #2. I think Yeast and Fermentation Temp has more to do with #1 ( and of course Hops)

#3 is all mash temp.


Aroma hops affect # 4 more than anything. Late hops or dry Hops afffect #1 also.

You ever had a stout? The roasted stuff affects flavor.

 

[oakbarn]

You ever had a stout? The roasted stuff affects flavor.

I agree. There is a definite flavor to the very dark malts. I should have added an asterisk *!