Roasting Base Malts - left in too long

[FreddyMar3]

So I tried roasting 1 pound of my base malt (Maris Otter) for my homebrew club's SMaSH competition last night. I was following the instructions on barleypopmaker.com for making crystal malt.

Everything was going fine until the end of the night when I was doing the two hour, 250F drying step. with about half an hour left on the oven timer, I went to be thinking that when it hit 0 it would automatically shut off the oven (first time using the timer not he oven in my new house.

Well, it did not shut off. I woke up at 3:30 am, about 4 hours 30 min into the 250F drying phase and you can imagine my surprise when the house still smelled very strongly of roasting malt.

The instructions point out that, for different level Lovibond crystal malts, you simply follow the regular roasting instructions for base malts ones the malt has been "cystalized," if you will. Unfortunately, the closes thing i can compare it to in those instructions is Gold Malt, at 300F which is only baked for 25 min.

The malt seems like it will still be good to use. It is not charred. I guess my question is, has anyone ever done a long, low heat roast like this on base malt. If so, what kind of color/flavor did you get out of it?

Right now, my plan is to age it in a paper bag for 2 weeks and just brew with it. What's the worst that could happen?

 

[FreddyMar3]

Should add that it seems to taste fine. I have no idea what color it will yield. it definitely looks roasted but not dark, except for a couple kernels.

 

[Yooper]

Should add that it seems to taste fine. I have no idea what color it will yield. it definitely looks roasted but not dark, except for a couple kernels.

If it tastes good, and not burnt or scorched, it will be fine. Actually, black malt tastes very arid and ashy when you think about it- but since you use a small amount it's good in beer. If you've actually got a good flavored toasted malt, I bet it will be better than fine- it will be really good!

 

[FreddyMar3]

Thanks Yooper. It will be interesting to see what kind of color it'll impart in the beer. Right now I have this as 6% of my grain bill.

 

[Dryhops]

Try steeping a small precise amount of the crushed grain in a quantity of water proportionate to your recipe. I.e if you're using 2lb for 5 gallons, steep 1/4lb in .625 gal of water. You can then roughly determine the SRM and adjust from there.

If you want to be really precise you can compare it to equivalent steepings of malts with known SRM colors, like 1/4lb of various crystal malts.

 

[FreddyMar3]

That's a great idea. I think I'll give that a shot with 20L, 40L, 60L crystal and see what I come up with.

 

[FreddyMar3]

If you want to be really precise you can compare it to equivalent steepings of malts with known SRM colors, like 1/4lb of various crystal malts.

I ran with this idea. Got a handful of crystal 20, 40, and 60 at the LHBS but then somehow lost the 40. Anyway, proceeded with the 20, 60, and home roasted. Filled 3 coffee mugs to the same level, weighed out .25 oz of each grain, heated the mugs in the microwave, added the crushed grain, and let stand for 20 min before straining. Looks like it came in just over 60L.

Thanks again for the idea. Here are the pics:
20, 60, home roasted

"Doughing in"

10 minutes in

"Lautering"

I could not get over how red the 60s looked

From a different angle

 

[Dryhops]

That's pretty neat, thanks for documenting everything with pictures. You seemed to get a pretty good proportion of water to grain and the colors stand out nicely.

Looks like the home roasted is a crystal 80 or so. Maybe higher?

 

[FreddyMar3]

Thanks! I was kinda surprised at how well it worked out myself. The little strainer in the funnel made straining a snap.

I see how you think it would be 80. Looking at the pics it looks much darker but in person they looked so much more similar... Couldn't quite capture it perfectly with my pos iPhone 4 haha. Would've been great of I had 80 to compare it to but didn't think it would come out that dark.


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