roasted barley...unmalted...Briess vs Crisp

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odie

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Getting ready to order some roasted barley (unmalted) since my LHBS does not seem to carry. Lots of black barleys (malted)...

The two main ones I find are Briess 300L and Crisp 500L. I assume they are a bit different flavor profiles. Or are they basically identical since they are both unmalted?

Some recipes just specify "roasted barley" while others are specific as to 300L or 500L.

what do y'all buy/use? what ever you can find? either? both?
 
Just to add a bit to the confusion, I would try to buy dehusked roasted barley, instead of the normal version. I prefer the taste of it. A bit less harsh so you can basically add more without getting astringent.
 
From what I've seen and understand roasted barley is dehusked, possibly done before the roasting process. The kernels are "naked" when you buy it, resembling very small coffee beans, and are (almost) black.
In contrary to what one may expect they taste rather sweet and aren't bitter or acrid at all.

Dark roasted barley malts often come in dehusked versions too, to prevent excess bitterness from the roasted husks, e.g., Carafa Special, Blackprinz.
Midnight Wheat (malt) is of course huskless by nature. It's a very clean color contributor, with very little perceptible flavor.

You can buy roasted barley online, from brew shops with larger selections.

Homemade?
I wonder if you could roast naked barley pearls if you have a source for them. I'm thinking Manischewitz and such, although I have the inkling a lye solution may have been used to remove the husks. Not sure if that's the case or what effects it would have.
 
From what I've seen and understand roasted barley is dehusked, possibly done before the roasting process. The kernels are "naked" when you buy it, resembling very small coffee beans, and are (almost) black.
In contrary to what one may expect they taste rather sweet and aren't bitter or acrid at all.

Dark roasted barley malts often come in dehusked versions too, to prevent excess bitterness from the roasted husks, e.g., Carafa Special, Blackprinz.
Midnight Wheat (malt) is of course huskless by nature. It's a very clean color contributor, with very little perceptible flavor.

You can buy roasted barley online, from brew shops with larger selections.

Homemade?
I wonder if you could roast naked barley pearls if you have a source for them. I'm thinking Manischewitz and such, although I have the inkling a lye solution may have been used to remove the husks. Not sure if that's the case or what effects it would have.
I find roasted dehusked barley and roasted barley online (just different naming maybe?), and if memory serves me correctly, I remember seeing some husks in some of my roasted barley from the UK.
 
roasted dehusked barley and roasted barley online (just different naming maybe?)
Although dehusking reduces bitterness/astringency in the final product, don't just assume it's just a different name, find out what kind of barley it comes from. There's a big difference between roasted barley (unmalted) and roasted barley malt. The latter has been malted (duh!) before roasting, which largely changes her characteristics and flavor profile during the subsequent roasting process.

When you look at roasted barley (unmalted!) you'd think it's terrible, intimidating, burnt, or charcoal-like. Until you taste it. It's really good, a bit sweet even.
 
Although dehusking reduces bitterness/astringency in the final product, don't just assume it's just a different name, find out what kind of barley it comes from. There's a big difference between roasted barley (unmalted) and roasted barley malt. The latter has been malted (duh!) before roasting, which largely changes her characteristics and flavor profile during the subsequent roasting process.

When you look at roasted barley (unmalted!) you'd think it's terrible, intimidating, burnt, or charcoal-like. Until you taste it. It's really good, a bit sweet even.
I know, I prefer it to chocolate malt or roasted malt in general. Although black malt almost tastes similar to roasted barley to me. I also thought that Carafa special was actually roasted barley and not malt and I liked it a lot better compared to chocolate malt... but turns out, it is roasted malt as well.

Confirmation bias here we go! :D
 
I have maybe 3-4 different chocolate malts and 2-3 black malts right now. But they are malted and roasted barley is not. There is a reason...not entirely sure why but recipes do call for it. How much different I don't know but I like to keep a few pounds of everything on hand at all times. Whole grain stores a long time.

I'd rather decide on what to brew based upon what I feel like and not what I have in stock. Running out sucks...
 
Some recipes just specify "roasted barley" while others are specific as to 300L or 500L.
A lovibond differential of 200 is significant as the flavor profile of the dark roasted barleys (and malts) change - kind of like light roast vs medium roast vs dark roast coffee.

What are you brewing as the flavor profile you are trying to achieve would dictate which is the better option?
 
I'm not a fan of the 300L, but then again, I like big, roasty stouts. Once I got the ingredients for my imperial stout, and I'm like WTF, why is the roasted barley lighter than the chocolate malt, did they give me the wrong stuff? Then looked it up and found out why. Breiss has a 300L "roasted barley" (obviously) and a 550L one called "black barley". Just annoying that they would use the same naming convention for their lighter one as almost every other place does for stuff ~2x as dark, then change the name on the one that is the more typical color...
So naturally I would go with crisp.
 
I'm not a fan of the 300L, but then again, I like big, roasty stouts. Once I got the ingredients for my imperial stout, and I'm like WTF, why is the roasted barley lighter than the chocolate malt, did they give me the wrong stuff? Then looked it up and found out why. Breiss has a 300L "roasted barley" (obviously) and a 550L one called "black barley". Just annoying that they would use the same naming convention for their lighter one as almost every other place does for stuff ~2x as dark, then change the name on the one that is the more typical color...
So naturally I would go with crisp.
Then just to really mess with us, they make “black patent” malt too. 500L
 
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