Brew Dudes

The key word in this post’s heading is “need”.

I think there is a some confusion about which malts need to be mashed and which ones do not.  We Brew Dudes have come up with this working definition for malts that need to be mashed:

“Grains that contain unconverted starches, from which you require their contribution as a fermentable sugar source, require mashing.”

Malts that fit into this definition are your base malts.  They make up the majority of your grain bill and they are going to produce the majority of your fermentables.

Malts that have been processed in a way so that the enzymes that would break down starches into sugar in a mash have been denatured entirely would not fit this definition and would not need to be mashed.

Now there are malts that have been processed where their enzymes haven’t been totally denatured.  We feel that if you are using these malts in amounts that are small percentages of your total grain bill, these can be safely steeped rather than need to be mashed.

Of course, we would need to conduct some side by side brewing sessions to see if this statements stands up to a taste test.

Discuss.

Mike and I have been chatting about malts lately.  One group of malts we were talking about are high kilned or high temperature kilned malts.

I think we found some confusion in what we read (online and offline) of what malts belong and don’t belong in this group.

I went to some maltster websites to get more information, a definition, and examples.

High kilned malts are dried at higher temperatures for a longer time, but not so long that they no longer have any enzymatic power to convert their starches into sugars.  Yes, they have less diastatic power than a base malt like 2-row, but they should still be mashed.

These malts include:

Munich Malt

Vienna Malt

Mild Malt

Aromatic Malt

It is interesting to note what malts fit into this category and which malts do not.  For example, Victory.  We’ll continue this train of thought in the next post.