• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

What substitutes for Brown Malt?

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

sonvolt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
900
Reaction score
13
WTH is Brown Malt? All the malt that I have is some shade of brownish color :p

Seriously, though, can I substitute something else?
 
So, will I destroy some enzymes when I roast this grain? Will the grain still yield fermentable sugars in my mash???
 
I was under the impression that when you roast the grains this caramelizes the carbohydrates meaning that by and large, the sugars from this grain are non-fermentable, although they do add to the flavor/sweetness/color profile of the finished beer.
 
Turricaine said:
I was under the impression that when you roast the grains this caramelizes the carbohydrates meaning that by and large, the sugars from this grain are non-fermentable, although they do add to the flavor/sweetness/color profile of the finished beer.

Interesting. I think that you are right. However, the website above claims that you can roast 2-row to make a "Munich Malt." Well, according to the Recipator, Munich Malt will yield fermentables. So, if I use the websites' recommendation to roast some pale 2-row to get the equivalent of a Munich malt, should I assume that I have a Cara-Munich - a specialty grain that is no longer a source for fermentable sugars?

:confused:
 
sonvolt said:
Interesting. I think that you are right. However, the website above claims that you can roast 2-row to make a "Munich Malt." Well, according to the Recipator, Munich Malt will yield fermentables. So, if I use the websites' recommendation to roast some pale 2-row to get the equivalent of a Munich malt, should I assume that I have a Cara-Munich - a specialty grain that is no longer a source for fermentable sugars?

:confused:

IIRC from Designing Great Beers in the Porter section, Mr. Dniels states that you can create your own brown malt by gently roasting 2-row.

The degree of roasting matters. If you go crazy, you end up with black barley which has all starches burned away.

Also, I think the crystal malts (those they provide non-fermentable sugars) are sort of mashed (to convert starch to sugar) and are THEN roasted to caramaleize the sugars.

I might be wrong about that last part, though. I know that a simple roast of 2-row will not give any sugars, because you need the hot-water steeping and enzyme activity to convert those starches into sugar.
 
Yeah . . .I understand that the roasting process is not going to give me any sugars. As an avid AG brewer, I understand that the mash is what pulls the fermentables from my grain.

I am trying to formulate a recipe, and I am trying to decide what effect the Pale 2-row malt I just toasted will have on my overall recipe.

I used the process as outlined on this page: http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/Sanders/roasting.shtml

I took 1.5 lbs. of pale 2-row and toasted in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes (20 minutes for the grains to get up to temp and 30 minutes as suggested on the website). What I have now is a nicely toasted 2-row malt that has never been caramelized/crystallized.

Now, as I formulate a recipe, I wonder if my roasting of the grain has effected in any way the diastatic power of the grain. Can I assume that I will get the same amount of fermentable sugars from this roasted grain when I crush it and mash at 150 with the remainder of my grist.

Part of my problem here is that the recipator does not have Brown Malt as a grain option - and I am too cheap to buy promash :fro:
 
Back
Top