Specialty Malts: Beer Accent
Specialty malts, the malt world's spices, bring color, aroma, and flavor to the kettle. To create these unique characters, a maltster varies the kilning heat and moisture. They produce specialties from chewy pale crystals to nearly carbonized black kernels.
Highly roasted malts retain little starch through the roasting phase. As the malt color (SRM/Lovibond) increases, the contribution to gravity drops.
Exposed to new tools, it is tempting to throw in everything. You can ruin a meal by throwing in the spice cabinet and you can do it to your beer with too much specialty malt. Keep them down to 25 percent or less of the grist. Veteran brewers rethink their recipe designs when crystals rise over 1 pound for 5 gallons.
To learn a malt variety's flavor, pop a few kernels in your mouth and chew. Hold the malt for a minute or two and taste the changing flavor. The amylase enzymes in your saliva perform the same magic mash conversion.
Crystal/Caramel Malts
After germinating, the grains are moistened in a drum roaster and held at 130°F to 150°F until the starches convert in the husk. Effectively, the maltster mashes the barley in the kernel. The sugary grain is then dried and roasted pale or dark. Crystal malts are named for their color contribution in Lovibond.
Chew on a grain of crystal malt. Notice how it's rock hard compared to pale malt? That's the sugar crystals locked inside the husk. When you crack it, the sugar dissolves into the beer. This is why crystals make great steeping fodder.
Brewers often refer to a specific crystal malt by the abbreviation “C [Malt Color].” For example: Crystal 60L is shortened to “C60.”
The Belgians and Germans name their crystal malts differently. While you'll still hear brewers talk about German C60, it helps to know that is CaraMunich III. The common German names start with “Cara” like Cara-Hell, CaraMunich, CaraFoam, or CaraRed. Belgian maltsters are a bit more straightforward, but common ones are Caramel Pils (C8) and Special B (C220).
As the grains darken, two effects happen: the amount of sugar decreases and the flavor transforms. The light crystals offer extra sweetness, but not much else. Climbing the color ladder yields stronger caramel flavor and eventually strong roasted nut and coffee flavor. This culminates in the darkest and most intense crystal malt, Special B. Used sparingly, the malt wraps roasted flavors in a cocoon of plums and raisins, great in darker beers with depth. It is very easy to overdo it, so be sparing.
Roasted Malts
Before the 1817 invention of the direct-fired drum roaster, slightly charred brown malt was the darkest unburned malt. Brewers wanting darker beers turned to questionable additives including burnt grain husks. The roaster brought the first dark roasted but unburned malt: black patent malt.
Very black beers were now possible for low cost. With pale malt's adoption, brown malt quickly fell out of favor. Very few producers make a true brown malt.
Black patent may have the first roasted malt, but others have appeared, each emphasizing different flavors. The intense heat of the roasting process renders much of the starch unusable for fermentation, but that's fine since you want their flavor and color.
Other Roasted Malts
Chocolate Malt — Chocolate malt provides less color than black patent, but it also provides less of black patent's tongue-clucking acrid flavor. Gives subtle chocolate and coffee tones to the brew.
Carafa — A German chocolate malt variety in several strengths denoted as I, II, or III. Smoother than the other chocolate malts are the “special” dehusked variants. Removing the blackened husk takes away the acrid roast character leaving a powerful dark toffee and chocolate–flavored malt.
Kiln Coffee — A product of one maltster, Franco-Belges, Kiln Coffee isn't super dark, but it carries a potent espresso flavor that can sex up dark beers, especially porters and stouts.
Roasted Unmalted Barley — A stout cornerstone, roasted barley uses raw, unmalted barley to provide a foam-positive and body-boosting protein and massive color.
American use of raw rice and corn is responsible for the development of the American cereal mash process. For a description of this technique, see the recipe for Dougweiser.
Other Malts
A mishmash of different malts remains to be explored. When you encounter new grains, chew on them and read about their traditional use. These malts generally need mashing or steeping with base malt:
Acid malt — “Sauer malt” is a crafty German way of circumventing the Reinheitsgebot. Acidifying brew water increases efficiency of a system. Brewers acidify their water with small additions of food-grade acid. The Germans can't, so they soak malt long enough to activate natural barley lactobacillus, producing natural lactic acid that dries on the malt. Small additions of this malt can acidify the mash or add a light sour tang to the brew.
Aromatic malt — This pale malt is a different take on Munich malt similar to Melanoidin that in small quantities — less than 10 percent of your grain bill — can provide powerful malt aromas and flavors to your brew.
Biscuit — A pale malt that should be used sparingly due to its potency, biscuit adds fresh-baked bread or cracker character to your beer.
Carapils Dextrin Malt — Found in numerous homebrew recipes, carapils gives beer a boost of long-chain dextrin sugars. These unfermentable sugars remain, adding a sense of fullness and body. Handy for extract brewers needing a little boost. Most varieties, with the exception of Briess, can be steeped.
Honey Malt/Brumalt — Produced by manipulating oxygen levels during the malting process, honey or brumalt gives distinct honey flavor and sweetness. Provides a boost in apparent body. Due to its intensity, it's recommended for 15 percent or less of your total grain bill.
Melanoidin — Supercharged Munich malt that produces a red color and intense maltiness. Used to replace some of the flavors attributed to decoction mashing.
Victory — An American malt variety similar to biscuit and aromatic, victory gives maltiness and dry toasted bread qualities to your brew.
