Brown malt/Rauchmeild??

[beer gut]

Hi everyone i hope you are all enjoying the cracking wether? i have a question about Brown malt and Rauchmeild malt, do these malts contribute sugar in the mash? i think Raucmeild does but brown mailt iam not to sure about.It's so i can work out my the grav for my smoked dark ale.Any thoughts or advice i would love to hear.

[lancsSteve]

When you say 'contributes sugar' I assume that you mean fermentable sugars from mashing (as with base malts) rather than non-fermentable sugars (i.e. body and sweetness) like that added by crystal malts?

Both of these are base malts, rauchmalt has similar extraction ppg to maris otter, brown has less:

Info below is from http://www.paddockwood.com/intormation/grains/ which should hopefully help calculations...

Brown Malt (32 PPG, 56 SRM)
Made from green two-row malt. The malt is dried for about two hours until temperatures reach 212 °F (100 °C). It is then cured for about 20 minutes as temperatures rise to about 356 °F (180 °C). Odor of mash: mild coffee. Gives a burnt bitter flavour desired in Brown ales,

Weyermann Beechwood Smoked Malt (Rauchmalz) (37 PPG, 1.3-2.3 SRM)
Best used to create smoked beers, Lagerbier, and Kellerbier. Derived from Alexis, Steffi, and Krona varieties.Smoked with beechwood. 20% in the grist is a good starting point to deliver a unique smoky flavour. Can use up to 100% for a strongly smoky Rauchbier.

[beer gut]

Thanx for the great reply and link lancsSteve.You where right i did mean fermentable sugars i was not sure how to phrase it, it's down to my dislexia.The comfusion came from that on one page it said that roasted malts don't contribute enough fermentable sugar in the mash to be used in calculations.Then i was told that all malts produce fermentable sugars in the mash.I know crystal malt produces fermentable sugars in the mash but black malt does not that's why you can add black malt to the boil when brewing extract brewing.

[coatesg]

Modern brown malt is not a base malt - it doesn't have any appreciable diastatic power.

[coatesg]

Then i was told that all malts produce fermentable sugars in the mash.I know crystal malt produces fermentable sugars in the mash but black malt does not that's why you can add black malt to the boil when brewing extract brewing.

Black malt does, as does brown, but not as much as crystal - it's just rare that anyone uses enough to make any difference - even 100g of black in a mash probably doesn't contribute a point of gravity in 5 gallons. Crystal malt already has fermentable sugars in the grain - and thus doesn't need mashing and can be steeped (eg in extract brewing); but of course with all grain, it's just as easy to whack it in the mash.

Take this recipe for a 12:7:1 porter (historic). This assumes modern day brown in the calculations, points listed after each for about 21-22litres in the fermenter (24l in the copper):

Pale: 4.5kg; 44.6 points
Brown: 2.6kg; 21.7 points
Black: 375g; 2.7 points

(Quick calculation from Beer Recipator)

So the majority of the points comes from the base malt - which was exactly the reason they started using pale malt in porters - it required less malt than using 100% traditionally made brown (blown) malt. Then a not insignificant 20-odd points from the brown, and a tiny contribution from the black (but a big flavour contribution).

In a standard recipe with a little black, choc, etc, then you can probably ignore the contributions - but if you use software to do it for you (like Beer Engine), it should work it all out on your behalf.

[Blackaddler]

Warminster's product range is a good reference point for expected extraction and colour details.