Mike recently brewed this English Bitter using Carastan malt to get a real toffee flavor.  Here is our profile of Carastan malt.

I found a bunch of sources that discussed this malt and most trails led to Bairds Malt Ltd.  They are a UK malt producer and had Carastan malt as one of their products. 

Not sure where the name came from, but using everything I read, I can make these statements with confidence: 

Carastan is a label used for British Crystal malts that lie in the 30 to 37°L range that impart a rich, toffee flavor to your beer.

You can get American caramel malt that fits the same Lovibond color range but it won’t taste the same…similar probably, but not the same.

I found this malt to be available on a few homebrew websites, so pick some up when you have the chance.  It may make your English styles more, you know, English.

Flavor: Toffee, light toast

Color: 30 to 37°L

Body: Adds body and color to your brew

Use: Probably best used in English styles especially English clone recipes that call for lighter colored crystal malts.  Bitters, Browns, Milds

I’ve been thinking about Munich Malt lately.  John did a Munich Malt profile on it back in 2008 and I wanted to dig in and bring it up to the surface again.

Last year I attempted my first Oktoberfest and went with an approximate 50/50 split of Munich to Base Pilsner malt; fairly traditional for the style.  (Of course I had a few other specialty malts in there but that’s besides the point. Recipe)  My general experience though is using Munich as a specialty grain of sorts not a base malt.  I have only added it in the <10% range of the beers I have brewed with it.  I have always looked at it as a way to add a touch more grainy/malty punch to a recipe where the other malts are a little thin.

There has been some debate in the Homebrewing Forum world about how much Munich malt is needed at a minimum to get any flavor.  Some people say that anything less than 15% isn’t doing anything that you can taste.  I am not sure about that as I seem to be pretty sensitive to Munich’s flavor profile.  That O’fest I made actually didn’t taste right on my palate (and that was before it went bad with a slimey infection).  I have always wondered since if it was because of the 50%ish Munich malt in there that I didn’t like.

Being a “day-in and day-out experimentalist” in my professional life I devised the following path to figureing out 1.  What does Munich Malt really taste like and 2. How much is too much for my palate and lastly 3. At what point does its flavor contribution drop below noticable levels?

I propose to make a batch of 100% Munich wort hopped with a 60min Magnum addition.  Lets say 40IBUs and 1.050OG.  In parrallel, I would make a 100% Pilsner wort hopped the same way and same gravity.  Then I’d blend the two worts together to make the following rations (Munich/Pilsner): 100/0, 50/50, 30/70, 10/90, 5/95, 0/100.  I suppose this would be an interesting study in Pilsner malt too.

The real trick here is the fermentation.  My first thought was to make each blend using wort in 1 gallon jugs, then ferment them each with measured yeast.  But then I need to hope each one ferments the same and I have to maintain the temp of like 6 or more jugs.  While that is its own challenge, I like the idea of each fermenting as a blend.  Because that’s how a beer would be made normally.

However it would probably be easier to pitch appropriate yeast amounts into two 5 gallon batches (100% Munich, 100% Pilsner)  and then blend them at bottling time, or even at tasting time….  I wonder if that really reflects the final beer’s flavor though.  Thinking about ease and likelyhood of actually doing this experiment… blending at tasting makes more sense.  (It also prevents me from having to do two worts in the same day)  Any thoughts?

Munich… It elludes me currently, but not for long.

BREW ON!

I was over Mike’s house for an impromtu brew session a few weeks back and we looked over the malts that he has in his collection.  One of those malts was Pale Chocolate Malt.  Although at a quick glance, the pale version looked exactly the same as its plain ol’ chocolate counterpart.  With some closer inspection, it is subtly lighter in color and milder in flavor than regular chocolate malt.  

After chewing on the malt, Mike talked about the placement that Pale Chocolate has on the ladder of malt color.  If you think of your crystal malts, typically they go as high as 120°L.  Special B is around 150°L.  Noting that the next malt on the ladder is chocolate malt (starting at 300°L), there isn’t anything in between. 

Pale chocolate fills the void between the sweet, caramels and the darker roasted malts.  It imparts its own unique flavor to a beer that you can’t get from just upping one malt or dialing down another.

Here are the stats:

Flavor: Mild coffee, toasty, nutty.  

Color: Can range from 195 to 250°L

Body: Not really a body builder.

Use: In beer where a dark coloring would work: Milds, Porters, Stouts…maybe small amounts in Ambers.

Since we were investigating the subject, I thought it would be cool to have a chart for some common malts’ diastatic power.

This list in not complete so I will probably add to it as time goes on.

Since I am brewing a Maibock with it, I thought I would whip up a malt profile for Pilsner Malt.

Pilsner malt is a base malt that can be made from 2 or 6 row malt. It gets its characteristics from the drying and curing steps in the malting process, where in the kiln the temperatures are kept lower in comparison to other malts’ productions. The kiln is also well ventilated in Pilsner malt production so it dries out quickly. The malt is cured at lower temperatures too.

What is produced is a very light-colored, highly-modified malt with excellent glucan and protein levels.

Pilsner malt seems to be produced in a number of different countries including Germany, Belgium, The UK, and the US. Without doing an experiment, my guess is that each area produces something that is similar but a little bit different…probably not much different though.

It be used at up to 100% of total grist since its diastatic power tends to be over 100° Lintner (which is the measure of the malt’s ability to break down starch to sugar)

Some suggest a protein rest during the mashing of this malt, but others state that it should produce an excellent wort with a single infusion procedure.

It is recommended to boil your wort for 90 minutes when using Pilsner malt. If your grist has over 50% Pilsner malt in it, then you should plan for a longer boil to combat the production of DMS. DMS is Dimethyl Sulfide and it produces a cooked vegetable/corn aroma in your beer. Not good. Boil for 90 minutes and cool your wort down quickly to stave off DMS as much as possible.

More stats:

Flavor: Ferments clean, some grainy notes

Color:1.4 to 1.9° lovibond

Body: Good body and mouthfeel

Use: All lagers, but especially pilsners. Belgian beers work too.

Ok.  So here’s another reason I should just go all grain…

I don’t know how great Munich malt extract is.  It seems the brands that produce Munich malt extract mix it with a base malt.  None of the descriptions I read stated that they were 100% Munich malt.

They cut it with some percentage of base malt, which is good…I guess…if you just want to brew with one type of malt extract and it happens to be Munich.

I want to brew with both Pilsner and Munich malts…and if I go back to extract, I am at the mercy of the maltster.

Here’s a good example for beginners.  When a more experienced brewer says that you have less control of your malt profile using extracts, this situation is what they mean. 

I think I can make a better Maibock with an all grain bill than extract.  More to ponder.

I originally wrote this post back in November of 2007.  I was wondering about smoking malt and if anyone had done it.  Alas and alack, it didn’t seem that anyone had.

I am reviving this subject to add more information about this type of malt and to ask the question again.  Here’s the profile for smoked malt also known as Rauchmalz:

This type of malt was made historically by taking malted barley and drying out over open flame, rather than the sun’s rays.

The town of Bamburg in Germany is well known for making smoked beers, although they are now made all over the world.

Flavor: Smoky

Color: 2.5  to 5°L – Light in color…

Body: I don’t think it adds body to your beer…it’s all about the smoke!

Use: Certainly in Rauchbiers and other smoked beer varieties like a smoked Porter or brown ale. Although Scottish ales have a smoky quality to them, it is frowned upon stylistically to impart that smokiness through smoked malt.

Now for my question:

I saw a recipe for a smoked porter.  It called for smoked malt (Rauchmalz) or that you could smoke your entire grist to get the same effect.  The question is:  Have you ever smoked malt?

Leave a comment and we will get this discussion going.  I would like to know any techniques or tips to smoke my own malt.