Was thinking about trying home-toasting, as I theoretically ‘split’ a 50# sack of two row with a fellow brewclub member, but since I am moving in a few weeks, he is probably going to end up keeping it.
However, I did have a thought to brew a quick APA for a going-away party some friends are throwing for us.
My question is: do you need to ‘rest’ home-toasted malt for weeks before using it? I tried this once with oats for an oatmeal stout, and in “Radical Brewing”, Mosher says you should store the oats for at least 2 weeks to allow some harsh compounds to denature.
Is this necessary on 2-row?
Related, haven’t brewed an APA in years, but was thinking about a fresh, crisp ale to take me into summer.
Something like:
75% 2-row
10% toasted 2-row
10% victory or biscuit
5% crystal 20
to about 1.050 OG
FWH Centennial
Magnum @ 60
Centennial @ 20
Continuous hopping with Centennial/Cascade/potentially one of the ‘new’ hops (have some Caliente on hand) for last 10 minutes**
dry hop with same
to about 50 IBU
US-05 at 65*
Thoughts?
**I’ve never tried the ‘continuous’ hopping thing, but a few guys in one of my clubs swear by it…I haven’t tasted their hop-forward beers though.
IME, you don’t have to wait at all - I take the grain right from the oven to the mill. On the recipe, the toasted grain adds the Victory/Biscuit character so you don’t really need it and 10% toasted is a good amount.
Don’t have much to contribute to most of your questions except toward the end: if you have caliente don’t waste it in blending just yet. You don’t necessarily have to SMASH, but I highly recommend giving it some dominance. It’s pretty badass.
Ha! I used them in an IPA a while back and it was awesome. I got a lot of raspberry and passion fruit flavor from it. Other than the fact that I oxidized the keg and the beer basically went to $#!+ in a few weeks, it was fantastic when it was young.
I’m not huge on single hop beer, I really haven’t had one that does it for me like a good Amarillo/Simcoe/CTZ wallop, so maybe I’ll try 86’ing the centennial and keeping the caliente.
What flavors do you get from Calientes personally? Any other styles you’ve made with it? All I’ve done is the IPA. I have about 14oz of them left!
I’ve used home toasted malts several times and have tried it both ways, with 2+ weeks “resting” and without. I can’t tell any difference. I don’t do the “resting” thing anymore. I respect Mosher and his book Radical Brewing is excellent. However I find his guidance to “rest” the home toasted malts is unnecessary.
I definitely got some of those stone fruit flavors and aromas out of it. There was a little spice, but none of the licorice qualities that people seem to talk about. A few of us picked up some lemon citrus notes. I added just a bit of galaxy into the mix and made a red with it and all of my friends have been begging me to remake it.
Since you’re a Portland guy I’m assuming this was a ‘West Coast Red’ ala West Coast Blaster/Hop Rod Rye? Galaxies rock. A new place here in Baltimore (Union Brewing Co.) does their APA with all galaxy and it is fantastic.
I definitely prefer a bit of caramel sweetness in my hoppy beers. The beer I made with caliente’s last time was something like
