Does anyone roast base malts

[Cheshire Cat]

I was wondering at this time of short supplies and long lead times does anyone roast base malts to produce darker malts or cara malts.

 

[Drunkula]

Yep.

 

[Harbey]

Wow. Never thought of this but sounds like a great idea. I never have much in the way of darker malts but always plenty of pale. Any advice @Drunkula ?

 

[Drunkula]

I'm doing it with already pre-crushed grain. I use a slow cooker will water in it temprerature controlled with an STC-1000/Inkibird to stew wetted grain in a roasting bag, they type you get for chickens as they're reliably waterproof. Ikea bags aren't. I thought they were but they're not. If you fill Ikea bags with water and think yeah - no.

EDIT: Make sure you preheat the water in the slow cooker and add extra to use in the grain - go a few degrees higher at first because the grain temp will drop it a bit.

You're basically doing a mash with the grain. Then afterwards you can spread it on baking trays and dry and toast it in the oven. To speed it up you can put the grain in a big wok to drive off some of the moisture. You've got to stir it about to break it up. I really recommend putting silicone liners on the baking trays.

I did experiments with the amount of water - got notes somewhere but I can't be arsed looking. The wetter the grain got the longer it took to dry but the more glassy the sugars in the final result became. The glassy stuff was gorgeous.

I made up a load of crystal from pale malt and recently some crystal wheat because the recipe wanted it.

I'd like to try doing it with uncrused and there are plenty of articles out there on it. I reckon it's a lot easier with whole grains.

Toasting grains is simple. Just spread them on a tray. Recommendation is to put it in a paper bag for a while after to let astringent gubbins fly away.

 

[Rodcx500z]

So basically you can do your own custom grains

 

[Harbey]

Thanks for the advice and ideas @Drunkula . So, basically stew the grain is some moisture, then dry it and toast it. Is that correct? If so, what temp do you stew at? 65c?

 

[dwhite60]

I like to toast up some pale malt in the oven at 175C. Spread it out in a shallow pan. Stir it around a bit about halfway through. I ususally do about 10 minutes. Gives just a bit of a toasted flavor. Darkens it just a bit too.



http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/experiment/toasting-your-own-malt

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Thanks CD excellent

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I've got a sous vide and the bags so I want to make crystal wheat. What temperature do you stew at?

 

[Drunkula]

what temp do you stew at? 65c?

Yeah, I thought anywhere from 64 to 69 range and went 66. I would like to know if the sugars being more or less dextrinous would made a difference even when later cooked but I don't know.

@Cheshire Cat as above I did 66c last time.

The first time I did it I had loads of the glassy stuff and I could not stop eating a pinch every time I went past it. The dry roasted pale malt I did is very much like Special X, which is a bit like biscuit malt.

If you google doing it yourself you'll find videos of Basic Brewing doing it and a few other articles.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Thanks CD
Yes I found a method on Google looks straight forward but the crystal malt is a job for a wet day as very long. I think I'll roast first and if that's ok move to crystal.