How To Read a Malt Analysis Report

[uberg33k]

I finally got the time to finish a post on how to read malt specifications. It seems like hops and yeast get all our attention now a days and I wouldn't want malt to get jealous.

http://immaculatebrewery.com/how-to-read-a-malt-analysis-report/

 

[IslandLizard]

Excellent compilation of the most common (and useful) malt parameters!

A few months ago I gave a malt presentation to our BJCP study group and when researching the various malt topics it often felt like I was staring into an empty grain silo.

 

[uberg33k]

Excellent compilation of the most common (and useful) malt parameters!

A few months ago I gave a malt presentation to our BJCP study group and when researching the various malt topics it often felt like I was staring into an empty grain silo.

Yup. This post was originally much longer and more in depth, but I realized people would probably glaze over. I thought it more prudent to post something more top level, let people read over it and ask questions, then compile those questions into a new post (if I get enough of them) to do something more in depth.

 

[IslandLizard]

Yup. This post was originally much longer and more in depth, but I realized people would probably glaze over. I thought it more prudent to post something more top level, let people read over it and ask questions, then compile those questions into a new post (if I get enough of them) to do something more in depth.

Oh, plenty of us will love and absorb your unabridged version. If you don't mind posting it in the nerdy section, I'm sure it will serve its purpose. I obtained most material from Palmer and Noonan's writings, but found a lot of detail still missing, and ended up with more (but different) question marks than I started with.

Then the maltsters in turn are notorious for giving incomplete data, such as Weyermann not listing DP values anywhere I've looked.

 

[uberg33k]

I deleted most of what I wrote, so I'd have to start all over again. I kind of want to do another Simple Brewing Science post or two to help readers understand and to use as reference, but maybe it would be easier to go the other way (from practical into scientific concepts). It's also not real easy to recreate because I have a horrible style to how I write. It's more like 2-3 days of overwhelming mental diarrhea poured onto a page and then 2 weeks of editing it and pulling things together so it sounds like I have some grasp of the English language. Q&A would be much easier for everyone involved Otherwise it might be another 4-5 weeks before I could crank something out.

I agree with you on Weyermann and it strikes me as so odd. You'd think with the German affinity for precision, they'd be more forthcoming with the specifications, but not so much. I even emailed them and they seemed perplexed as to why I'd want more detailed information. This is why I quietly nudged people into pestering maltsters for more detailed analysis in the blog post.

 

[IslandLizard]

Thanks for all you did so far. :rockin:

Setting high standards for yourself is admirable, although they can be debilitating at times. I hear you about writing and how a bunch of ideas on paper don't necessarily make for a comprehensible article to be read by others. Hopefully some day it comes to you and you'll revisit the original you had started but on a better slate. I tend to over-save work in progress and rarely step back to older "drafts" as they have more wrong than I can fix on the current. But it has saved my butt a few times. And I'm not talking about writing, per se. At least English is a language.

Regarding Weyermann, in their defense, the (South) German brewing tradition doesn't allow for adjuncts, so in that scenario, who would care to know? They do list the percentage one can use, at maximum. Most of us rather see the exact numbers, though, and they should have them.