Old brown snapped malt (update)

[Fuggledog]

An update on the final test of some home made brown 'snapped' malt, as reported in a previous thread. The key question was whether the malt (possibly similar to the type used in original porter) retained enough diastatic enzymes to self convert? This, for me was a key test, because without self-conversion I'd have made another roasted malt, but clearly not the brown malt of old that was used as 100% of the grist in orignal porters, 'Entires' and Butt beers etc.

To start with here are some comparison shots of the brown malt alongside Vienna, Diastatic amber, Munich (UK version) and modern brown malts. Note that the other malts are crushed and the snapped brown is currently whole:



Close up of the home made snapped brown, modern brown and Munich:



I started by crushing 200g of the brown malt in a morter and pestle:



Aroma was immediately 'ashy' on being crushed, but reminiscient of 'peanut butter' when in the bowl. I mixed the grist in with 1 L of water, the mash settling at about 63C. I decided to test the temperature and presence of starch using the following schedule: baseline, 30 min, 60 min, 90 min, 2 hours, 2.5 hours and 3 hours. Unfortunately i underestimated how differcult it would be to keep the mash at temperture given its small volume. consequently i discovered the mash had falled to approximately 56C at 30 minutes, so boosted to around 66C and placed in a preheated oven. After 1 hour i had to boost the mash again to get it above 60C, so in short the timings for the iodine test aren't necessarily representative of a larger mash. I found that the test was positive for starch up to 2 hours which was disheartening. however a 'taste test' suggested that there was indeed some sugar in the mash so i pressed on. at 2.5 hours the test was negative for starch and i let it proceed to 3 hours as the sample at 2.5 hours had a lot of grains and other crap that showed blue specs (mash liquid was negative). The images below are from baseline and 3 hours. Given the fluctuations in temperature, I'm actually really encouraged by this result, and feel confident that I could use this malt at 100% of the grist to make a pseudo-historical porter (or porter inspired) beer.



at 3 hours:



What is also very interesting/exciting is the colour of the wort. i am suprised how dark it appears to be. This is the colour of the 'base malt', so no sugars, or dark coloured malts have been added, just the snapped brown (please ignore all the crap at the bottom):



If anyone has any thoughts about this result I'd be really pleased to hear them. I'd be particularily interested in what EBC this might equate to?

Next experiment will be to try making the blown malt described by G.W. in the last thread and going through the same testing procedure. I'm also looking forward to attempting an 'Entire Butt Beer' with this malt in a few weeks time. Will report back again on those experiments.

cheers,

Ben