Do you have 12:56 to spare? Great, grab a beer and check out my first attempt at making homemade brown malt for a "historical" Porter exchange. The final product is sitting next to me right now and smells like burning peanut butter, but more like peanut butter than burning. I am going to test it out in a half batch of "mild" OG40 20% Brown malt. This way I can check out the flavor and grow yeast for the Historical Porter. Please excuse the camara work. I put this together raw and unedited to capture the process. Enjoy. Questions, comments, remarks. bitches, moans, gripes and complains welcome.
That was pretty cool. But it did take you 7 minutes and 50 seconds longer than me to wonder why you didn't just do this in the oven.
Haha, no. I considered that an option from the beginning. I decided to do this over a fire for the authenticity, so to speak. More work but in the end I am glad I did this over a fire, smoke burned eyes and all. Here is to hoping the uneven kilning produces complexity. When whas the last time you smelled burning peanut butter?
Very nice! I admire your dedication to your Porter. What was your base malt? I am guessing that historicaly they did not toast their malt perfectly. Watching your video makes me want to toast some for a brown ale. Let us know how your Porter turns out. Take care.
Thanks, base malt is Rahr Domestic Pale Ale malt, 2-Row kilned to Brittish lovibond. Smells a bit more like coffee today now that the grain has cooled off. Just brewed a half batch of "mild" I guess to test it out. Base malt with 20% homemade Brown malt OG41 with WY1968. This will give me a feel for the flavor and grow some yeast for the Porter. Wort is a medium brown so some pretty significant color contribution. It is for the "historical" Porter homebrew exchange, link in my profile. We could still use one more if anyone is interested.
Captain's Log: I've lost my toupee and my belt's too big. There's smoke in my eyes and shit. However; I got myself a chair, and a beer. Ok, all kidding aside I liked what I saw of the video and props to you for trying this out. EXCELLENT! I want to mention that Ray Daniels and Geoffrey Larson wrote a book titled Smoked Beers. It's an excellent book with a lot of good information if you're going to run grains past an open flame. I skipped around a little on the video, but I think you would have wanted to keep the fire small. If you get the grains too hot you'll probably denature them. I did this when I make some smoked malt. I made up for it with some 6 row in the grist. And if I can make good beer off my first smoked malt, shit! You'll do fine. As for brewing I'd suggest this: I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND BREWING WITH THIS GRAIN YET. When you smoke grains, and probably when you cook/alter/give funny looks, you're going to need to let that flavor settle. Let this grain settle for a few weeks. An open container or a brown paper bag for 2 weeks minimum. It can't hurt anything, and when you smoke grain it's necessary. Otherwise you're going to make ash beer. I really like the idea of making a mild with this grain first. It will give you a great idea of what you've created. I'm assuming you'll move on to a darker beer to showcase this. It was smart to make a big batch of this grain, and as you commented in your video, thin it out and maybe even do it in batches. This video has made me thirsty and inspired me to find a good source of oak chips. I'm going to make some oak smoked malt soon. Cheers!
The mild is finished. Half batch 51 hours grind to glass. I should brew more of these, nice change of pace from PA/IPA. OG41 FG16 24ish IBU I think I will up the Brown malt from 20% to 30% for the Porter but I like it. Kind of slight smoke then toasty then nutty then subtle roast.
Looks great. But I think everyone on the forum should take up a collection to buy you some proper glassware. I think this is at least the fourth time I've seen that mason jar.
I agree, there's nothing more satisfying than drinking from a fruit jar — well, perhaps it runs a close second to drinkin' from a stoneware gallon jug with handle.
