Looking for some thoughts on mashing crystal 60 by itself

I’m not looking to make beer, but I was looking to see if anyone knew the diastic power of say #20 of C60?

1.033-1.035

http://byo.com/resources/grains

Mashing a crystal malt by itself would be the equivalent of steeping.

Diastatic power is a measure of the enzymatic power of the malt to convert starch to sugar. It is measured in Degrees Lintner.

Crystal Malts have no diastatic power. In other words, they don’t have the enzymatic power to convert starch to sugar.

Crystal Malts have already been mashed by the maltster and are already converted to sugar. This is why you can steep them.

Crystal Malts are not 100% fermentable, but mashing them with a Diastatic base malt doesn’t necessarily provide a large increase in fermentability.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... ility.html http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/testin ... lt-208361/

So If I were to steep them on their own it would be a complete waste of time?

What are you looking to do? I’m confused

Not sure I’m understanding what it is you’re trying to do.

You want to make a beer from crystal malt only?

That won’t work because, as previously stated, crystal malt isn’t 100% fermentable, maybe 30% - 50% depending on the degree of kilning.

You would end up with an under-attenuated, overly sweet beer. This is why crystal malt usually only makes up a small percentage of the grist.

But don’t take my word for it, as with most things brewing related, it’s been done before:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/beer-cr ... ly-225990/ http://beertech.blogspot.com/2011/03/cr ... ation.html

However, the best way to learn is just to do it yourself. Let us know how it works out.

If you were planning on fermenting it on its own, yes, it would be a waste of time.

Slightly OT, but someone asked and I looked for the info and didn’t find much… Claimed chocolate and most malts needed conversion. I recall chocolate malt is accepted for steeping. Is it converted prior to roasting, during roasting? I don’t think it is converted (crystal), so then how does it contribute to SG?

Chocolate malt is roasted pale malt. The roasting process kills all of the enzymes. The malting process produces mostly starches and some proteins which are then roasted. Think of it as frying a potato. Potato starch isn’t converted to sugars before frying, you’re just producing maillard reactions by heating the raw starches and proteins… (same for steak, etc…)

It contributes to SG by adding the maillard reaction products of the starches and proteins in the malt during the roasting process.

Thanks. That’s basically what I thought. Adds SG but not fermentables.