Homebrewing Blog and Resource

The hobby of homebrewing beer

Abbey Malt

Beers with complex malty profiles intrigue me. I have learned over the years that less is more when conceiving your grain bills, but one or two specialty malts in the right proportions can give you beers that have intense malty aromas and flavors.

The information put forth in this malt profile will help you to make excellent beer.

The Weyermann maltsters have a trademarked specialty malt called Abbey malt. It is a Belgian brown-biscuity type malt and it has unique characteristics. It’s sweeter than a typical biscuit malt.

I got the feeling that there is some confusion about what malt you can use in your recipe to substitute for Abbey malt. I don’t think there is a straight-up similar malt – it’s a combination of aromatic malt, honey malt, and biscuit malt.

Another interesting descriptor I got out of my research was the use of the word “friable”. To be honest, I had to look it up. Abbey malt is easy to crush for your mash so it’s highly friable. How about that?

Here is the rest of the malt profile:

Flavor: Pronounced maltiness, highly aromatic, cooked bread, nutty, fruity, lots of residual malty/sweetness

Color: 16-19° L

Body: It does add to the body of the beer and provides a fuller mouthfeel.

Use: Buy this malt and brew up a excellent abbey or trappist ale. It also works great in other pale to dark Belgian ales. Might be interesting in a brown porter or fruit beer.

Previous

English Yeast Strain Experiment

Next

Missed Opportunities

2 Comments

  1. Chris

    What percentage of your grain bill should I use for this malt?

    Cheers,

    Chris

  2. Hey Chris,

    10% of your grain bill will be enough to have the malt make a difference in the finished beer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén