While I like a massively hopped DIPA like many others, it seems easier to create huge hoppiness (hop bursting, dry hopping, etc) in a beer as opposed to huge maltiness. Anyone had the Sam Adams’ seasonal Double Bock? Massive amounts of malt flavor.
Is it possible to have a very malt-forward beer without a high ABV (like around 6%)? I know some of the tricks like keeping hop additions early in the boil, mashing at a higher temp, but I’m wondering if anyone has any other suggestions to promote malt flavor?
There is a lot of malt forward beers with out the high Abv. Traditional bock, Munich dunkel, Munich Helles are just few malty beers with out high abv. I myself perfer a malty beer over a hop bomb. There is no tricks besides ones you already know. Just a good malty base malt. Some crystal or caramal malts and roasted malts and a good yeast lager or ale. Both can make a great malty beer with out the high abv.
You’ve highlighted part of my issue…I live in Georgia and the heat here makes lagering all but impossible without either a cave or an extra frig to lager (will have that eventually, but not yet)…so I pretty much brew only ales (IPAs, ESBs, saison in the spring/summer…brown ales, porters, and stouts in the fall/winter) . Is there a particular ale yeast you or anyone would recommend that puts the malt at the forefront? Also, I’ve heard all sorts of advice on how much crystal to use…since I like the strong malt flavor, is 15% to 20% of the grain bill too much?
There are so many yeast that are great some of my favorite are Edinburgh ale wpl028. Great for malty ales. English ale wpl002 has a lot of fruity esters but rich malt flavor. Wy1056 is a clean mild ester producer that malty. Also dennys favorite is another good yeast. On the 10 to 20 percent crystal malts question it depends on the crystal malt what your brewing Some could be overpowering at those percents. I would recommend reading up on them and learning about them. John Palmers book has a great list of malts in it and is online. Take a look at it.
Use a ton of Munich malt as your base malt, and for crystal malt, try Special B – there’s nothin’ better than Special B. You can use up to 20% or even a little more of most crystal malts, but with Special B you really want to limit it to 5% or it gets crazy. Aromatic or melanoidin malt will also help, but again, don’t use more than like 5%.
Use zero gypsum, but as much calcium chloride as you like. Gypsum promotes hop character, and chloride promotes malt perception.
Ferment as cold as you can. If an ale, no problem, just keep it low to mid 60s and you’ll be alright. But colder is better.
Age your beer for a good 6-9 months before you drink it to promote even more malt brightness.
If you can keep it cold, try a bock yeast. BYO just ran an experiment that showed that bock yeast accentuates malt BIG time compared to any other yeast.
