The Brew United Challenge is nearly upon us! John is getting ready for his Brown Porter by roasting some malt at home. With the help of a recent BYO magazine article on just that topic, John took a stab at his first batch and we give it a taste in this weeks video.

I was totally blown away by this malt John made. I wasn’t expecting it to be bad by any means, but I was totally thrown by how well it came out. The color of the kernel itself was dark brown. While the husk was still strangely yellow. Maybe not as yellow as the base Pilsner malt he started with but not the deep brown red hue of the kernel.

This stuff tastes like a super biscuit malt. Very similar to Special Roast from Briess.

John’s next plan is to push the limits and try and blacken some malt using his grill outside. The reason for this vs. using the kitchen oven is that when you try to make darker malts they tend to smoke quite a bit. Not something the wife and kids need to deal with.

It will be real interesting to see how this malt shows itself in a finished beer. I wanted to try a malt tea with it, but he only toasted a small amount as a pilot. His BrewUnited batches are likely to be on the small side (<2 gallons). Can't wait for the tasting video!! BREW ON!