My first Lager.

[fatduck]

Ive been brewing now for about 8 months, I try to brew every weekend, but I've been away for a few weeks trying to set up my chest freezer. Im going to brew my first lager this weekend, A Maibock. And I'm very excited, and wanted to share.

6 Pounds Pilsen Malt Extract.
1 Pound Wheat Extract.

3 Pounds Munich Malt.
This is where the recipe gets fun, I am going to roast 2 pounds of the munich malt at about 300 F, I'm going to put it all in and take it out at various stages of roast, to get a rounded roast flavor.

Then depending on what is available at the LHBS I will use an oz of ~8% bittering hop, fuggle, glacier, perle something like that. And 2 oz of sterling or saaz for flavor/aroma.

 

[944play]

This is where the recipe gets fun, I am going to roast 2 pounds of the munich malt at about 300 F, I'm going to put it all in and take it out at various stages of roast, to get a rounded roast flavor.

The enzymes in the Munich will be denatured in the oven and it will no longer be able to convert itself. You would need to add some more base malt to get it converted.

 

[fatduck]

That is why I am leaving off a pound so I can still get some conversion, Is that too little? I just got back from the shop, so Ive got my 3lbs, should I save off more than a pound for my minimash?

 

[944play]

You'll need an average of 35 degrees Lintner for full conversion according to the Wikipedia entry:
Diastatic power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So I guess it depends on the DP of your particular Munich, but looks like a typical Munich has just enough to convert itself:
Mash ingredients - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bob]

+1. Munich, as a general rule, has just enough diastatic power to convert itself. Vienna is somewhere in between Munich and Pale Malt in terms of diastatic power, and might be an alternative.

Bob

 

[fatduck]

It's more of an experiment. I have read a LOT of different opinions on the matter. So I just went ahead and did it. Split it into 3 equal parts, and one that was just a couple ounces, and tossed them all into a 275F oven. Pulled the first pan after about 25 minutes, pulled the second pan at about 40 minutes and then turned the heat up to 400F and pulled the third equal part out about 15 min after that. Then I cranked the heat up again to 450F and let the last 2-3 ounces go for another 10 minutes. And I'll be brewing it up tomorrow, maybe tonight. I have read opinions on both sides of the fence about waiting to let the harsh burnt flavors gas off the grains, and I've decided to go for it.

The idea is to make a helles bock type lager(yes I know my #s are way off for a true "bock") . And most of what I have read says that Munich should be used for at least 76% of the grist, including Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels, So I feel confident that my malt will get some conversion. I have to crush my own grains anyway, so my conversion probably not be very good anyway.

Regardless this is mostly an experiment on roasting my own grains, the true goal of this brew is to build up a big yeast cake for my Baltic Porter that is coming up after this brew.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that before I roasted them I soaked them in water and then drained them well, and upon tasting some of the grains today I very clearly got some sugars converted in my oven, so even If they don't have much power to convert the roasted grains I'll still get some sugar out of the deal.

 

[gxm]

EDIT: Forgot to mention that before I roasted them I soaked them in water and then drained them well, and upon tasting some of the grains today I very clearly got some sugars converted in my oven, so even If they don't have much power to convert the roasted grains I'll still get some sugar out of the deal.

You're basically making your own CaraMunich then?
I'm wondering why you were concerned about diastatic power (a subject I know very little about).

 

[Bob]

The idea is to make a helles bock type lager(yes I know my #s are way off for a true "bock") . And most of what I have read says that Munich should be used for at least 76% of the grist, including Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels, So I feel confident that my malt will get some conversion. I have to crush my own grains anyway, so my conversion probably not be very good anyway.

You misunderstand. Of course Munich will convert. As has been stated, Munich has (barely) sufficient diastatic power to convert itself. Where we warned you was when you started talking about using only Munich malt, and deliberately killing the diastatic power of a goodly portion of it. That makes me worry that the remaining, diastatically-active malt will have insufficient power to convert the starches in the toasted/roasted Munich, which no longer has the ability to convert anything, not even itself. You dig?

In other words, yes, Munich can be used as Daniels writes. But you've missed that Daniels is talking about Munich straight from the maltster, from after it's been baked. steamed and stewed in your oven.

So: Your original 3 pounds of Munich would have been quite happy to convert itself in a mash. But that's it - if you had chosen to add wheat or something, chances are the Munich would not have been able to diastatically convert the wheat starches to fermentable sugars. What you've chosen to do is put your unroasted/toasted Munich in a situation where it cannot hope to cope - converting 200% of itself in a mash. It can't; it won't. The Munich you've put through your oven has no hope of modifying its own starches, and the pound of Munich you've got left over, un-fooled around with, can't hope to deal with the surplus. You need some pale malt with excess diastatic power in that mash, or you will end up with little more than starch, protein, and haze.

I hope that clears up your confusion.

Bob

 

[boo boo]

EDIT: Forgot to mention that before I roasted them I soaked them in water and then drained them well, and upon tasting some of the grains today I very clearly got some sugars converted in my oven, so even If they don't have much power to convert the roasted grains I'll still get some sugar out of the deal.

Roasting malted grain will denature the enzymes in the grain TOTALLY.
If you did this at a slow rate of heat up to 155 or so then I imagine it would crystalize the sugars the same as a malster would do. After that all you are doing is increasing the roast flavour.