Spelt

[raiderman]

I saw spelt malt on the Malt Miller and thought why not. Having searched I get multiple hits along the lines of "that's spelt wrong" so finding out what it's gonna do and does it matter how much I chuck in its not easy. Any one used this stuff and have any pointers?

[seymour]

Spelt is an ancient form of wheat. It's much less commonly grown than bread wheat and emmer wheat, but making a small comeback lately. It's very nutritious and lower in gluten, so some brewers include Spelt in their grainbill for "healthier" beers. Apparently some German and Belgian brewers have been using it all along. As you probably noticed, it's a small compact grain, and de-husked, so you may struggle with a sticky, messy mash. Consider adding rice hulls, oat hulls, or even mash hops to protect against a stuck sparge. Spelt is also higher in protein than regular wheat, so expect more haziness in your final beer. It supposedly has a nice crisp, grainy flavour, but I haven't personally brewed with it (yet?)

[raiderman]

Spelt is an ancient form of wheat. It's much less commonly grown than bread wheat and emmer wheat, but making a small comeback lately. It's very nutritious and lower in gluten, so some brewers include Spelt in their grainbill for "healthier" beers. Apparently some German and Belgian brewers have been using it all along. As you probably noticed, it's a small compact grain, and de-husked, so you may struggle with a sticky, messy mash. Consider adding rice hulls, oat hulls, or even mash hops to protect against a stuck sparge. Spelt is also higher in protein than regular wheat, so expect more haziness in your final beer. It supposedly has a nice crisp, grainy flavour, but I haven't personally brewed with it (yet?)

Cheers Seymour. I've baked with it just never thought of brewing with it. After the success of oats I though why not! I'm thinking 250g at first so that should be safe enough

[raiderman]

Or a kilo !

[Hanglow]

Yeah I'd use more. Wayermann say you can use it up to 100% on their website. Treat it more as a base grain

[raiderman]

I'm thinking a kilo of Munich is enough to show against 4kg of pale so I'll give that a go and if it's interesting ill up it further

[raiderman]

I think home brewers must be tradtitionalists, the only useful thing I found on an anmerikan site is
Spelt is a distant genetic relative to wheat, and imparts a dry, tart, and earthy character and aroma. Use up to 40% in the mash. This German-grown malt is Ideal for Saison and Belgian wheat styles. Crushed so you can just add it to the mash without milling.
Anyone trying it seems to think it can only go in a saisson. Bollocks to thast, aside from T58the closest to Begium mine will get is in doing whatever I bloody well like!

[DeGarre]

I have got 1 kg of spelt and in the spring it'll go to my annual hefeweizen, together with some rye malt most likely. I would just use it in anything to replace wheat malt, not sure how different it is from wheat though, probably not miles away.

[raiderman]

I have got 1 kg of spelt and in the spring it'll go to my annual hefeweizen, together with some rye malt most likely. I would just use it in anything to replace wheat malt, not sure how different it is from wheat though, probably not miles away.

Give me a week and I might know! I brewed 1kg malted spelt to 4kg pale malt so it should be enough to show what its like, but I'm 4 days into the ferment using a saisson yeast and the fv is still 4 inches deep in yeast head and smellling or tasting isn't an option right now! I'll hopfully be able to keg this weekend and I'll give you a first impression

[Fuggled Mind]

I've used it in a few summer ales instead of wheat but it was never more than five percent of the grain bill. Always gave pleasant results. It lends quite a refreshing flavour in my opinion but not that radically different to wheat.

As you probably know, spelt goes by the name of dinkel and there is a German speciality beer called dinkel beer. I could be wrong but in the two versions I tried (one was actually Swiss), there were none of the characteristics of wheat beer (e.g. clove, banana and bubblegum) so I wonder if it's made using a neutral ale yeast but it does have that fresh wheat taste.

Personally I would use it as you would wheat though it's a tad more expensive.

Cheers

Jason

[seymour]

Bump. It's been awhile, but how did your spelt beer turn out?

[Eadweard]

I did a 100% spelt beer and the mash was a sticky mess with awful run off. Beer tastes nice though.