Tasting Grain Contributions

[NickL]

I'm always a bit dumbfounded when looking at a grain bill. Some brewers can spit grain bills for new beers out of their head, and they turn out great. They know exactly the flavor contribution of each grain. And when they wanted to tweak the flavor, they know exactly which grain to adjust.

Is there a way to taste what individual grains bring to the table? I assume I could make a single malt beer for each grain but that would take an extreme amount of effort.. I have also seen people chew on raw grains, I tried this but still didn't get a great understanding. I have also seen charts that tell you the basics of what each grain should contribute but those are too abstract for me.

Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe steep some raw grains like a tea? How did you learn?

 

[bleme]

Reading, then tasting raw grain works for me but I have run a few experiments in my early days, like making a cream ale with and without honey malt.

Your tea idea should be great though. It would be like mini-mashes with a 1/4 cup of crushed grain and 160F water, and steep for 30 minutes. Where would you get 1/4 cup of all those grains though?

 

[NickL]

My LHBS has pre-sealed 1 lb bags of everything for $2 or so depending on the grain. I have a couple half pounds left over.

This would be a really cool club event. Everyone brings in a mini-mash of a couple different grains to share.

I think i'll give a mini-mash a try and chomp on the same grain side by side. Maybe then I can see what I'm looking for when tasting raw grain. Raw grain tasting would be a good thing to learn.

 

[chickypad]

I think tasting the grain helps a lot, but you don't get the whole story about how that grain will play in an actual beer. I think it would be the same with making small teas. For me the answer came down to just brewing a lot, though I'm not really one for brewing experimental beers that I wouldn't want to drink. One thing I did early on was take a basic pale ale recipe that I liked with mostly base malt and a little wheat and swap out a single different malt - like vienna, munich, victory, and various crystal malts. Small batch brewing in the 2-3 gal range is good for that sort of thing. To learn what different base malts taste like I think single malt beers are best, but my advice is be sure to brew something you still want to drink in the end!

 

[BrewerE]

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/testing-malt-grain-teas/

 

[NickL]

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/testing-malt-grain-teas/

Nice! Thanks