Brown Malt

[richtangsoo]

Hi guys i am planning a trip to tuckers maltings this week as i am on holiday in the area.
I have noticed that they sell brown malt and wondered if it is worth getting some.
My understanding is that most places stopped making it because their are other malts that do the job better.
Has anyone experimented with brown malt and does it add anything that other malts can't?.
i am not bothered about sticking to traditional recipes, just brewing good tasting beer.

[RdeV]

What sort of beers are you brewing is the obvious question.
I like a touch of Brown Malt in stouts, porters and mild, obvoiusly it would be out of place in a pale lager.
Not a hard type of malt find here in Aus, IIRC Fawcetts is common, should be same there I would think.

[Dr. Dextrin]

If you think chocolate malt but not so intense, you'll have an idea what it's like. It's a bit like the difference between lightly- and darkly-roasted coffee. You can use quite a lot of brown malt without the beer getting too dark, but the flavour can be a touch sharp (as can chocolate malt) and I prefer it if there's a little sweetness in the beer to soften it. I've heard it mixes well with amber malt, which tends to promote a bit of sweetness, so I'll be giving that a try at some point.

[orlando]

Porters are traditionally made with it. I have just made one click here with some specially kilned malt that I got from fuggledog on here. It has been kilned over oak and has so far produced an intriguing fermentation. Bottled yesterday so will update next month.

[richtangsoo]

Thanks for the reply guys.
I might buy some and have a play with it.
Maybe a low gravity mild with a reasonable proportion of brown malt to let me taste what it does.
The smoked malt sounds fascinating, let us know how it goes.
I believe you can get scottish smoked malt which is used to make whiskey, i thought brupaks had it but they don't seem to list it any more.

[zgoda]

For a brew length of 23 litres 600g of brown malt along with 600g of crystal and 100g of chocolate malt will get you into perfect porter recipe. See eg. London Porter in GW book. It's soooooo tasty!

[alfie09]

For a brew length of 23 litres 600g of brown malt along with 600g of crystal and 100g of chocolate malt will get you into perfect porter recipe. See eg. London Porter in GW book. It's soooooo tasty!

my next brew whats it like? and any changes you made? and what yeast?

[orlando]

I've just started drinking the 19c oak kilned brown malt Porter and it is proving to be a fantastic beer. Not content with my own view I have decided to enter it into the NHBC to get some feedback on it. I've also brewed the GW recipe for Fuller's London Porter that zgoda mentions and that too is a fantastic pint even though it might not exactly be the sort of Porter that would have been brewed before coke was used to kiln malt. richtangso mentions scottish smoked malt which I believe may have been peat smoked. Never tried it but suspect you will find it difficult to get, if at all, commercially. Rauchmalt is probably the closest, again haven't tried it but have heard mixed reactions to it.

[zgoda]

Castle Malting makes peat smoked malt. The smokiness is, well, at least strange, I'd say. Reminds me the smell of burning rubber.

[orlando]

Don't think I will be trying it. The interesting thing about the malt I'm using is that the smokiness is understated so adds "something" which is intriguing and so far really lovely. I have to admit that the recipe, although based on one from Whitbread in 1812, there are differences but these are related to hops rather than the malt so is probably very close to how it tasted back then and that's what makes it so intriguing.

[zgoda]

For a brew length of 23 litres 600g of brown malt along with 600g of crystal and 100g of chocolate malt will get you into perfect porter recipe. See eg. London Porter in GW book. It's soooooo tasty!

my next brew whats it like? and any changes you made? and what yeast?

That's the one of the few recipes I followed literally. No changes to malts and hops. Yeast was Wyeast British Ale 2 (some believe it's Adnams) and then S-04 for rebrew. I'd say I liked 2nd option bit more but in such dark and flavourful beer the differences was more than subtle.

Malts was all Warminster in original. 2nd version was brewed from Warminster's brown and Belgian pale and crystal.