So I’m drinking an ESB right now that I tested these out in and was wondering if anyone else has used them and what your opinions are on them? Here’s a link:
Anyways, I wanted to try them out because I’ve never used them before and I noticed them at NBer one day and popped some in my mouth and they were delicious. So I dumped them in at 5% for a Extra Special Bitter with 90% Floor Malted Maris Otter and 5% English Medium Crystal. EKG at 60, 15 and 0 and fermented with British Ale II (just in case you were wondering).
The description says kind of a berry nut flavor and I am definitely getting that at just 5%. Seems like this could be pretty easy to go overboard with but adds a pretty unique element to a brew I think.
Any one else used these before? I’m going to try them in another upcoming brew to see if I get the same kind of flavor affect out of them again.
Love 'em. Use them a lot. They add a creaminess as well which, with the “nutty”/more complex and slightly sweet flavor that they add have got me hooked. So far, I’ve put varying amounts in porter, ipa, stout, and even a dusseldorf altbier. I use them more like a lower lovibond crystal (they are a type of crystal malt) than I do other forms of oats and/or oat malt. That is, I use less than straight oats or regular oat malt.
The times I’ve used them I’ve liked the beer, but have found myself wishing I had used less. They have a very pronounced effect on the flavor of the beer, so much so that it is almost distracting.
My opinion is that they are a great addition to cmany beers, just keep it subtle. Certainly keep them to less than 5%, unless you really want them to take over.
[quote=“blizzardofoz63”]The times I’ve used them I’ve liked the beer, but have found myself wishing I had used less. They have a very pronounced effect on the flavor of the beer, so much so that it is almost distracting.[/quote]I agree. I can’t find any of my recipes that I used them in so I’m not sure of my percentages in the batches I used them in, however I recall getting a peachy flavor from them in an IPA I brewed, it was interesting but I didn’t care for it. They work well in stouts and porters where the darker malts dominate.
This makes sense to me. I checked my last 2 recipes that used it and I added 2.1% to an IPA that it worked really well with, along with columbus/centennial/cascade hops. A guy who drinks lots of IPA said it was the best IPA he’d ever had. I recall I would have added more but it was all I had, luckily. A used 5.3% on a sour worted oud bruin style beer and that also worked very well, but had a great Scottish Malt backbone and significant lactobacillus sour flavor to balance against.
It is basically a very bold light crystal malt. I do get fruit and candy from it - almost like those cheap strawberry hard candies you see in bowls in peoples’ offices. I liked it in a porter, but liked it less in an IPA.
