Brewing with a percentage of Malt

[Bogbrewer]

A question for the wise. In the whisky industry it is common practice to have only 20% or so of the grain bill as malt, the remainder of the bill being straightforward unmalted barley. Has anyone tried to brew in a similar way for beer or lagers?

[legion]

Would recommend reading about diastatic power http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/01/04/di ... your-beer/

You would need more malt for the mash to work.

[simon12]

You need distillers malt to use unmalted grains in that quantity which is not good for making beer (not sure exactly why except its higher in protein) or you could add enzmes artificially. Also raw unmalted barley will taste very different to malted and kilned barley. You could (guessing here) have issues with mash PH. If you want to try it I suggest try it at 30% with 70% pale malt and see what its like.

[Frothy]

You need distillers malt to use unmalted grains in that quantity which is not good for making beer (not sure exactly why except its higher in protein) or you could add enzmes artificially. Also raw unmalted barley will taste very different to malted and kilned barley. You could (guessing here) have issues with mash PH. If you want to try it I suggest try it at 30% with 70% pale malt and see what its like.

Enzymes are proteins, so likely a basic measure.
Its typical to do wheat beers @ 50:50 pale malt and adjunct. So with a bit of determination and creativity on the process you could go from there... into the realms of the dark side of brewing

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[Bogbrewer]

In distilling the mash is mashed up to four times. The first mash at between 60 and 65C for about an hour. After draining the grain is remashed ( first aftermash) in water at 75C, drained and then follows the second aftermash and the third aftermash. Of course the flavour profiles required of the of the wort are very different to that of beers or lagers.

Edit to add: the general difference in protein between brewers malt and distillers is about 0.2%.

[Fil]

also many whisky beers are fermented on the grain while further granted much slower conversion can still continue..

then since quality malt is both abundantly available and fairly cheap while barley availability is generally limited to lower grade animal feed stocks, beyond an interesting experiment its unlikely to produce a quality beer

[Bogbrewer]

Not quite so straightforward Fil, the cost of transporting malt to my part of the world whilst not prohibitive, is expensive. I grow my own barley, malt and dry it and it has produced Helles and pils every bit as good as the commercial malt.

[Fil]

Not quite so straightforward Fil, the cost of transporting malt to my part of the world whilst not prohibitive, is expensive. I grow my own barley, malt and dry it and it has produced Helles and pils every bit as good as the commercial malt.

That sounds like the subject of its own dedicated thread..
Where are you ?? you need to update the location in your profile ...

So i gather vermin free space to lay out the malting grain is the limitation ?

A few gallon/5l experimental mashes may be in order, perhaps precooking the unmalted barley like distillers precook their corn combined with an overnight or longer full volume mash??

[Bogbrewer]

Drying malted barley is the single biggest issue. It is both time consuming and energy inefficient, especially in a damp environment. The old way was over peat fired furnaces, however temp control is an issue. It is something that I have not dealt with successfully yet on a small scale using electricity.In the future I may have a go at making beers similar to the German Rauchbier using malt dried over peat but for the present building a drier that can dry up to a tonne at a time reasonably cheaply is the goal.

[Fil]

now thats a build post i will follow wish i could offer constructive input, fraid its way beyond my scope and horizons tho..

I hope you have your hop garden too and i envy you your justifiable contentment supping your raised from the ground brews..

[Bogbrewer]

I live in the Western Isles of Scotland and as such we are supposed to be a bit far north for good hops growing, however after a discussion with another lad who also brews, I decided to buy some hops to see how they got on. Weather here is not overly cold, just windy all year round so rather than letting them grow up, I tried letting them grow parallel with the ground on fences. Hops do grow out here and they grow well, however it is better to have them amongst trees as that gives them the important shelter. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

[Fil]

horizontal hop growing is a pita, ive been attempting to train them along the top of our 6ft fence after growing over an impromptu arch, they tend to bundle at the highest point reaching for the sky.. Trees should give plenty of growth scope but harvesting could be more interesting