How to use toasted malt in cider - Advice Please!

[Mitchamitri]

Right I am making proper cider thanks to the generosity of too many people to mention – I already have 120pints fermenting away merrily, and have about another 250 pints worth of apples left to brew up. This is obviously more than we can drink (ish!!) and has given me headroom for doing some creative things with it, so alongside the fermentation bins I have demijohns with oak chips in the top, honey, allsorts, to make creative ciders.

In my LBS the other day I spied a bag of toasted crystal malt (young’s – I think about 500g) and bought it on a whim. And now I don’t know what to do with it.

I have inherited (see my generosity comment above) what I think is a boiler (of some description) – its a brown plastic barrel with the word “Sparkley” on the front. There’s an kettle element that screws into it and a heater control that looks like it can hold temperature at whatever its set at. Theres also a drawstring bag that’s obviously been used in it that’s part fabric and part mesh.

I read in a brew book last night that malt replaces some sugar – I think??

So, my question is, how do I / can I use the combination of stuff I have above to make a malted cider?

[stevezx7r]

Crystal malt will add colour and body to any beer it's added to. Basically, crystal usually makes up a smaller percentage of a beer than a base malt. It can be bought in several different levels of flavour from 10l to 150l (lovibond, a measure of it's colour). A lot of people seem to think that the different levels of crystal supply a higher or lower level of colour to the beer but it's the flavour and not the colour that changes, i.e a lighter crystal malt has a light caramel flavour whereas a darker crystal would have hints of roast.

So, if you want to use the crystal you could steep it (a la partial mash) for say, 20 mins in around 3 to 1 ratio of water to crystal at around 65C. This would add fermentatble sugars and colour to anything you add the liquor too.

[Mitchamitri]

I like the idea of adding a roast caramel flavour to cider - something wintery, warming and reassuring!