Purchasing Malted Corn?

[Cpt_Kirks]

Does anybody sell corn malt online? Or, will I have to malt my own?

I've tried flaked corn, but it does not produce any noticeable corn flavors.

This is for my Mexican Amber Lager. I want to add a few pounds of corn malt to the next batch.

 

[daksin]

Corn is not a strong flavor- I've never heard of anyone using malted corn but that doens't use much. We add 1-2 lbs to our cream ale which only imparts a light corn sweetness, which is all you really want.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I just picked up a 50 pound sack of popcorn.

Wonder if it can be malted?

Probably be harder to crush than malted field corn.

 

[Revvy]

There's been a pretty active thread on malting corn that's been going on for a month or so. It might be the one at the top of the similar threads box below, the one that ws just posted in yesterday. And I think there's a link in there to another malting corn thread.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Interesting.

Corn will only be about 10% of my grain bill, so the conversion issue he had should not be a problem.

 

[Revvy]

The other thing to try is to air pop the popcorn and use that in your cream ale Malticuolus has a thread on it. Been meaning to try it. You can also use any other form of corn, such as grits, or creamed corn or corn on the cob, and I've even used tortilla chips, and you'd just have to do a cereal mash first. You could also try grinding the popcorn and cereal mashing that. There are so many ways that corn can be used, and I'm sure some of them impart more of a corny taste than others. I'm thinking roasting corn on the cob and using that, or maybe making polenta and chucking that in the mash tun....

 

[krackin]

Be sure to roast your corn in the husk if you haven't done that before. I suggest that to my customers as the best way to always cook fresh corn. They all agree after trying it. It prevents burning, silks come off easy, and retains flavor.

 

[Revvy]

Love it that way!

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

The other thing to try is to air pop the popcorn and use that in your cream ale Malticuolus has a thread on it. Been meaning to try it. You can also use any other form of corn, such as grits, or creamed corn or corn on the cob, and I've even used tortilla chips, and you'd just have to do a cereal mash first. You could also try grinding the popcorn and cereal mashing that. There are so many ways that corn can be used, and I'm sure some of them impart more of a corny taste than others. I'm thinking roasting corn on the cob and using that, or maybe making polenta and chucking that in the mash tun....

I think I might have some left over corn bread...

This is for a Mexican Amber Lager, BTW.

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Hi,

I have malted and roasted popping corn. Worked out quite well. Smells fantastic and I have still to use it. Below are some pictures of how it turned out. I only did 500g, but plan to do the other 500g this weekend.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Hi,

I have malted and roasted popping corn. Worked out quite well. Smells fantastic and I have still to use it. Below are some pictures of how it turned out. I only did 500g, but plan to do the other 500g this weekend.

View attachment 105937



View attachment 105938



View attachment 105939



View attachment 105940

So, 500g (~1lb) batches work best, or were you just trying out a smaller batch first?

I like the way you got some carmelization, that should work good in my Amber.

Did you do anything special to make the malt?

:rockin:

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Yeah it was just a test. I got about 2lb for £1.25 which is not that bad. Then just followed the normal process to malt them. I tried to roast them the crystal way to try and get as much sugar as I could from them, and it appears to have worked. They have a nice smell of peanut butter coming through the bag. Looking forward to using them in my next brew. I have a lot of experience with malting as I do gluten free beer, and sorghum is hard to come by here. So if you have any questions, I will try my best to help answer them.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I've got about 2.5lbs of popcorn sprouting in a grain bag now.

Since Sunday, I have been immersing the bag in warm water for about 45 minutes, then letting it drain, each evening.

I keep the bag in a warm spot, sitting on the back of my fermentation chiller.

As of last night, the corn is sprouting like crazy.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Yeah it was just a test. I got about 2lb for £1.25 which is not that bad. Then just followed the normal process to malt them. I tried to roast them the crystal way to try and get as much sugar as I could from them, and it appears to have worked. They have a nice smell of peanut butter coming through the bag. Looking forward to using them in my next brew. I have a lot of experience with malting as I do gluten free beer, and sorghum is hard to come by here. So if you have any questions, I will try my best to help answer them.

So, you roasted it wet? At what temperature and how long did you roast it?

 

[unionrdr]

As a point of interest kwtell,I,& some others had threads about Native American Tizwin (pronounced Tizween) that discussed how they malted sweet corn,dried or not,& brewed batches of beer to fill a barrel to ferment. It was said to produce a low ABV brew similar to an English ale. My G-G-G Grandad the Apache chief never passed this one down,so I had to figure it out with buds like kwtell.

 

[Ash_Mathew]

My apologies. I had only just seen that you replied... Yes. Roasted them wet stacked up so they basically "sweated" in the oven. I start at a low temp for about an hour, then turn it up for about half hour/hour depending on what colour roast I want. I have a gas oven and start on about gas mark 4, then turn it up to gas mark 6. Sure you can find a conversion online if you don't have a gas oven.

I am just waiting for my honey corn beer to fully carbonate. But what I have tried so far is nice. Did it with fuggles as I have tried it with citrus hops right when I started and didn't know fully what I was doing. So that kind of put me off citrus style hops. I think next time I will skip the honey and add darker adjuncts like brown sugar and golden syrup to give it a better colour and obviously a different taste. I looked all over for purple corn to experiment with that, but we don't seem to have it here. Just good old fashioned yellow.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

My corn malt turned out darker, I left it in the oven a little longer.

At first, it smelled like popcorn and toast. A couple of days later, it smells like...malt. I'm going to run it through the Corona mill a couple of times next weekend. Once to break it up, and again with a tighter setting to try to get a decent crush.

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Yeah, I wanted to leave mine in a little longer, but SWMBO started to moan that I was in the kitchen and not giving her any room. I think next time I will just tell her to bugger off. Haha

Let me know how the beer turns out that you make with it. Is it going to be all corn, like mine? Or mixed with wheat/barley? What hops were you thinking?

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Yeah, I wanted to leave mine in a little longer, but SWMBO started to moan that I was in the kitchen and not giving her any room. I think next time I will just tell her to bugger off. Haha

Let me know how the beer turns out that you make with it. Is it going to be all corn, like mine? Or mixed with wheat/barley? What hops were you thinking?

12lbs Six Row Pale
3 lbs Munich Dark
1 lb Crystal 60L
1 lb Pale Wheat

2.5lbs Roasted Corn Malt

.75oz Magnum 14.5% @ 60m
1oz Hallertau 3.0% @ 5m

WLP940 Mexican Lager Yeast

10.5 gallon batch

Should produce a decent Mexican Amber Lager, I think.

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Cool, man. Let me know how it goes. I will leave the tasting of it to others, as it's kind of a bottle of death to me. Haha Sounds good though. I would like to see the end product.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I ran the corn malt through my Victoria Mill Sunday. It was much easier to grind than I expected. I figured popcorn would be like trying to grind rocks, but it came out very nice.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Brewed the Mexican Popcorn Amber Lager Saturday. It went smoothly. I was a bit concerned the corn would cause MLT draining issues, but the opposite occurred. The wort came within a point of target.

Until I added the hops, the boiling wort smelled like...corn.

:rockin:

 

[Ash_Mathew]

Yeah, I personally think it is a great smell. Might do another one soon as I still have about 1.5KG left of my corn grain. Definitely going to be a heavier beer this time, though.

Glad yours came out good. Show us pictures if you have them of the colour etc, and of course when it is done.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

It looks pretty dark for an amber. Currently it's in cold crash, I'll probably have a little taste Friday after I keg it.