In preparation for a month of isolation I have ordered a 50 lb bag of Mecca Grade Lamonta
I have plenty of yeast and hops. The next part of the process would be to roast to add some complexity.
I have roasted some flaked rice for a saison and it really did work well and added a flavor I hadn’t experienced.
Today I tried out roasting 1 pound of barley malt with the intention of making Crystal 60L.
First Step: I soaked the malted barley for 2 hours. Where the instructions said water I swapped in Metheglin
3: The next step was to do a “dry mash” by holding 160F for 1 to 2 hours in the oven.
I’ve lined the baking tray with parchment paper.
4: Drying at 200F for as long as it takes to get the grains crispy again, about 2 hours for me. It’s important to taste the grains during this process as one wants to get back to the original moisture content. When the malt is wet it tastes mushy and doesn’t have the snap of the barley you are used to. The pile of grains here is approximately 1 inch thick. If I spread the grains out over a larger tray with a thinner deposit this step probably would have gone faster.
5: Roasting. Here you have, after drying, 0 mins, 15 mins and 30 mins at 300F. I stirred every so often to keep the grains from burning. What looks black in this photo is actually a chocolate color. The grains were baked in a 1 inch thick layer. A thinner deposit probably would have scorched.
6: Store the grains in a paper bag for a few days before using. This waiting period apparently takes the edge off of the roast.
I have to say that this whole process, while time consuming, was easy and the results are incredible. My wife keeps eating the grains on their own… so I hope I get to brew with them.
This is great. I did this once before several years ago for a “single malt scotch ale,” and it was probably one of the best beers I had brewed up to that point. I’ll probably never be able to recreate it though.
Thanks for the play-by-play! Gonna give this a whirl.
I think you have an insect problem
Yes I remember now. I was hoping you chimbed in. Does it matter the type of barley malt.
This is a fun project so I’m glad you are going to try. I don’t think it matters what kind you try. I have yet to sample my beer but it’s holding steady at a full .004 higher than if I had not crystalized. So something worked.
This is intresting. Should try this
I would think for you, there(Bonaire), this would be useful especially given the difficulty of ordering brewing stuff. You could make your own crystal malt out of a common supply of base malt, and this would “liberate” you a bit,…
Since you asked in your thread:
I used kolsch malt, so similar to pils. Time & temp I don’t recall - it was many years ago, but I based it off something I read online.
Im soaking some pale malt
I chose to crystallize and roast. Next time I’ll try just crystallizing
So by that you mean just do the soak and dry part? Would that be carapills? I’m looking for medium roast. I have carapills and special B need something in the middle
Soak, oven mash, then dry. I think I got a Special B, after these steps, with a 15min to 30min roast at 300 degrees (stirring regularly)
