Beer Malt: Vienna Barley Malt

At low levels, it has a sweet, cooked, or canned corn-like aroma and flavor. These Sulphur based compounds are produced during germination. The precursor is SMM (S-methyl methionine) that is converted into DMS. Stale and improper malting is the primary reason for this fault. Other reasons could be improper mashing, cooling the wort slowly and wild yeast infection. It is often confused with Rancidity. You can use the stainless steel wort chiller for temperature control

Grainy, husky beers: Similar to nutty, harsh flavors of fresh green wheat. It is often prominent in home-brewers using self-malted grains. Giving the malt a 2-4 weeks rest (in paper bags) helps get rid of it. Besides, improper mashing can cause it. Avoid mashing for more than 2 hours or over-sparging with boiling water.

This could be due to a variety of reasons.

• Firstly improper mashing leads to many unfermentable sugars.
• Secondly incomplete fermentation due to poor yeast health. One of the easiest ways to replicate this is by using baker’s yeast for making beers from the same wort.
• Stuck Fermentation.

Although Indians have a slightly sweet palate, excessive sweetness in beer is a flaw. To deliberately introduce residual sweetness, one could use crystal/ caramel/carapills malts. Milkshake IPA and milk stouts have added lactose (an un-fermentable sugar) to get a balanced sweet palate.

Astringent: Puckering, lingering harshness, and/or dryness. When in excess, it impacts the finish or aftertaste by introducing harsh graininess and huskiness. In wine, it is often a result of excessive contact with grape skins. Reducing the contact with the skins and tannins used rectifies it. In beers, it could be because of too much of peated malts, smoked or biscuit malts. Another reason could be over mash or over sparge (which releases the grain astringency). Altering the pH and a few trial batches are needed to isolate the source of this astringency (grain, hop, or water). The reason for aging wine and certain styles of beers is to mellow down this astringency through certain natural biochemical reactions. Aged bottles are more valuable because of this unique flavor profile. Saving the astringent bottles for next quarter or year is always a good idea.FAQ Details

Watery/ Thin: It lacks the body and mouth feel. In wine, it is a result of not using enough fruits. In beers, it is a result of using too little malt or too many enzymes. Adding a bit of specialty malt like caramel/ crystal malts will rectify it. The mashing temperatures can also be altered to produce more sugars that are unfermentable.

Alcohol in a beer comes from the malt used and not from the hops. However hoppy IPAs (India Pale Ale) tend to be too bitter for easy gulping. Therefore most brewers add extra malt in them to balance the taste. So even though hops don’t make beer alcoholic, hoppy beers tend to have high alcohol percentages.

Both Malt extract (Dry Malt Extract Powder) and Malt Syrup (Liquid Malt Extract) are made from Pilsner barley using vacuum drying. However, Syrup has 80% malt while 95% for dry malt powder. Arishtam Prefers DME because it is a more concentrated form and powders have longer shelf life and ease in transportation.
There is a separate malt powder that is used in the baking industry. This is a powder of diastatic grains. This cannot be used for wort making as the enzymes have not yet converted starch into maltose needed for your beer.

Liquid Malt Extract and DME can be created from variety of grains. The most popular being Barley, Wheat and Sorghum. The advantage with Sorghum Malt Extract is that it is gluten free.

IPA (India Pale Ale) also called American Pale Ale and New England Pale Ale is a hop-heavy alcoholic beer. You need a copious amount of base malt (like Pilsner and malt extract powder) and very little amount of craft malt in the recipe. Go for the yeast with the highest attenuation so that the sweet malty flavors are subdued and hop aromas dominate.

The wort extract powder we sell at Arishtam is ideal for IPA style beers. We will recommend using 2-3 aromatic hops for the best results.

Malt extract has already gone through the wort making process before it was vacuum dried. Hence, there is no need to boil it throughout the 2-hour long mashing cycle that most recipes would call for. That being said, the bittering hops need ~60 min of boiling with malt for it to be fully isomerized. So this is what I would do:

1. From your favorite recipe identify the quantity of Pilsner, Munich and bother base malts and substitute it with Malt extract powder (DME).
2. Add the craft malt (non-base malt) in your wort early on and allow it to go through the 2-hour long mashing cycle.
3. Towards the last 60 minutes add the bittering hops (or the early boil portion of dual-purpose hops). If your recipe has no craft malt, then add 1/4-1/3 of your DME at this stage and skip the step 1 & 2.
4. Towards the last 15-20 minutes, put in the rest of the hops and malt extract powder.
5. Stir it, as malt extract tends to get caramalised into red color if over boiled.

Most Malt can last for 24-36 months from the date of manufacture if stored properly. Malt extract when exposed to moisture solidifies into a solid block. Grains tend to gather pests if not stored properly.

Read our blog on proper storage tips for your craft malted grains. Also, use your coffee french press to test the quality of malt before adding it to your wort.

Chocolate malt is not the same as chocolate powder. If we roast the barley enough, its SRM/EBC/Loviblond will increase. Essentially it means that it will start giving dark brown color to your beer wort rather than the traditional golden colors. This is achieved by a high temperature longer kilning to increase the EBC to 500-1000. During this transformation, the flavors become more caramel-like. This makes them ideal for dark porters, chocolate stout, and other dark beers. Usually, chocolate malt is made from barley but lately, dark roasted chocolate wheat malt is also available.

One should not confuse chocolate malt with black malt. Black malt has an EBC of 1200+ and a overwhelming smokey flavors. Black malt is useful for Guinness style beers (black porters)