Caramel malt is a specialty malt and serves as an additive to base malts.
In the production of caramel malt, germinated grain with a moisture content of 45% is used. At the first stage of drying, which lasts 36 hours, the temperature is gradually raised to 50 degrees. This allows you to get a large amount of dissolved sugars.
After drying, the malt is sent to special drums, where it is roasted for 1.5 hours at low temperatures. The temperature in the drum is maintained at 80-90 degrees for a reason. During this roasting, the resulting sugars are roasted and caramelized.
The next step in the production of caramel malt depends on what kind of malt you want to get.
Caramel malt comes in several varieties.
- Transparent light
- light caramel
- Dark caramel malt
Transparent light.
This type of malt is obtained by simply drying for about 1 hour at a temperature of 170 degrees, while the resulting steam is quickly removed from the drum. Further, the malt is caramelized every 1-2 hours at the same temperature. This approach allows you to get soft and light grains.
This malt gives a good persistent foam and mild flavor. Color: 3-5 EBC
light caramel
Pale caramel malts already have 25 to 30 EBC color. Such malt is mainly used to enhance the taste of beer and to give it a deeper color.
Dark caramel malt
Dark caramel malt has a rich deep color from 80 to 150 EBC. Such malt has a very strong effect on the taste and color of the beer, so its share in the grist is relatively small and amounts to only 2-10%. The main use of dark malt has found, of course, in dark beer, however, some people use it when brewing light beer.
Caramel malt will give your beer a deep rich flavor, bright color and good head retention, but be aware that too much can overpower other malts and spoil the final taste of the product itself.
Beer is one of the oldest drinks, its recipe was suggested to us by nature itself. It was nature that laid in each grain of barley the mechanisms of biochemical transformations that allow transforming nutrients for their further processing. A person has studied these mechanisms and now, by changing the parameters of the processes, he receives for himself the material of the required quality and assortment.
The main raw material for the production of beer is the result of biochemical transformations inside the grain under the influence of temperature, moisture, air. The most common type is , since it does not require special processing during production and is used for the most popular beers, being the basic component. You can read more about it in the article on our website.
The world of beer would not be so attractive if it were not for its diversity. This diversity is provided by special processing techniques in its manufacture. In today's article, we will look at a special type of malt - caramel.
Caramel malt is a category for a wide variety of malts, each with a different degree of processing. For the production of quality beer, it is necessary to use only quality beer with stable characteristics from batch to batch. This is produced at special malt facilities around the world, and we, in turn, can choose the type with the characteristics we need.
We list a number of foreign and domestic manufacturers:
- "Castle Malting" Belgium;
- "Weyermann" Germany;
- "Bindewald" Germany;
- Sladovna Bernard A.S. Czech;
- "Russian malt", "Soufflet" (Soufflet) Russia.
The list of manufacturers is much wider, especially foreign firms. Each of these companies represents a fairly wide range of malts of various degrees of roasting. In order for us to enjoy all this diversity in Siberia, there are wholesale distributors of malt producers such as:
- Grainruss;
- Winnermalt;
- Strategy XXI;
- Russia;
It is worth noting that Grainruss and Rossi have warehouses in Novosibirsk, and Strategy even has warehouses in Krasnoyarsk, but for the most part they offer wholesale lots in large packaging, which is not very convenient for amateur homebrewers.
Consider the main types of caramel malt that we can order in Krasnoyarsk in any quantity:
Château Special B malt– 300 EBC, a special double roast used to obtain a raisin and caramel flavor with a pronounced aroma. Gives the taste of the drink a pleasant soft bitterness. Château Special Bi ground malt should be stored for no more than three months in a clean, dry place.
The presented types of malt are available from most foreign producers, in addition, they can be found at a much more attractive price in the price lists of domestic malthouses. For example, a good offer for brewers is made by Russian Malt (Kursk), thanks to similar enterprises in Russia, the production of unique beers in our country is becoming even more accessible.
Is it possible to make caramel malt at home? The answer to this question will be ambiguous, because the malting process is complex and multi-stage:
Grain is a living organism, in order for it to grow “healthy and strong”, it is necessary to control the process parameters (humidity, temperature, air), providing the grain with everything it needs. In production and at home, it is required to maintain the same growth conditions for grain.
- The first step is washing and soaking.. Even residents of city apartments will not have problems with this, the main thing is not to overexpose the grain in water so that it does not “choke”.
- The next one is sprouting.. He is the most important and responsible. It is necessary to control the temperature and humidity of the growth daily and periodically blow the grain with fresh air so that it does not “suffocate”. In production, this is special equipment: malt boxes, beds, drums, at home, as a rule, a sheet with wet gauze in which grain is wrapped. The control must be pedantic and daily, otherwise either the gauze will dry out, or the grain will suffocate, or choke, from high humidity.
- The third stage is the drying of young malt. The ability of grain to retain active enzymes, as well as its color and taste, depends on the quality of drying. At home, the drying process is difficult to reproduce, in the early stages it is slow, then it comes with a gradual increase in temperature. The degree of caramelization of malt depends on the value of the final drying temperature.. The higher the temperature, the darker the malt we get . At home, it is very difficult to achieve uniform drying and roasting, some grains will definitely burn, some will not be dried enough, so at the end we will get unstable quality malt at home.
Based on the above, we can conclude that today it is much easier to buy ready-made caramel malt in Krasnoyarsk and other settlements Russia than trying to reproduce it at home. It should be remembered that using heterogeneous raw materials, you will not be able to get a beer that has stable characteristics in different batches.
Malt has been used since ancient times, at the dawn of brewing and distilling. Today the product is just as relevant, it is used in cooking, for the production of alcoholic beverages, kvass. Elite alcohol is made from barley malt - whiskey, bourbon. In Russia, bread wine has long been made, which is still popular today, using rye and wheat malt for it. For the manufacture of kvass, rye is mainly used.
Malt is made from wheat, oats, barley, rye and other grains. Pre-grain raw materials are germinated, enzymes are formed in it that convert starch into easily fermentable sugars. Malt production technology is not a simple and laborious process that takes a long time. Therefore, at home, making malt for whiskey or beer is hard work. It is much easier to purchase ready-made malt than to make it yourself.
Nevertheless, despite the difficulties, many brewers and distillers prefer to make do with their product. The full cycle of wheat malt production is described below, how to make rye and barley malt for beer with your own hands.
Malt preparation technology
The whole process can be divided into several stages:
- Selection of cereals, checking for germination;
- Cleaning;
- soaking;
- Germination;
- Drying;
- Removal of sprouts;
- Storage.
Selection of cereals. The choice of grain is an important stage, the quality of the final product depends on it. First of all, you need to decide which culture to use and for what. At home, it is easiest to get malt from wheat or rye. These cereals germinate faster and are easier to grind. A little longer to make barley. By the time it takes 5-6 days for rye malt, 7-8 days for wheat, green malt from barley is obtained in 9-10 days. You can not use young grain after harvest, it has a poor ability to germinate. The minimum period of grain after harvest is 2 months, and the maximum is 12 months.
You can spend at home self test for checking the feasibility. Choose 100 pieces of the largest grains, fill them with water in a glass. Catch the floating grain, instead add the same number of grains that sink. Then lay it out on a saucer, put a damp cloth on top and leave it in a warm room for 2-4 days. Then count the number of unsprouted grains, each -1 percent. As a result, if the germination rate is more than 90%, then this is a good raw material.
Preparation for soaking.
For malt, pure grain is used, sifted, without debris. Pour it into a suitable container and fill it with water, remove the floating grains, rinse twice. Pour clean water 4-5 cm higher and leave for 5-7 hours.
Then change the water and again thoroughly rinse the cereals. Carry out the disinfection procedure, for this, pour the grain with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, pour 2-3 grams into 10 liters of water and soak the grain in the solution for 1-2 hours.
Germination.
After disinfection, spread the grain mass on pallets with a layer of 4-5 cm, let it breathe for a day, mix periodically after 2-3 hours. Cover with a damp cotton cloth and leave indoors at a temperature of 15-15 degrees. It is important that there is good air circulation in the room. Every day, cereals must be mixed and moistened with a sprinkler, make sure that the mass does not get too wet. Usually, for 10 kilograms of dry grain, use 100-150 ml of water. After 2-3 days of germination, the temperature inside rises to 20-23 degrees, at this time it is necessary to turn the grain mass more often in order to prevent wheat or barley from “sweating”.
When the sprout increases in size by one and a half times the length of the grain, then we can assume that the malt is ready. Green malt tastes sweetish, smells like fresh cucumber. Such a product can already be used for saccharification, but its shelf life is very short, only three days. To increase the period, the malt must be dried. Dried malt is suitable for making homemade beer, whiskey and bourbon can be made into malted milk.
Drying.
To begin with, green malt is disinfected with a solution of potassium permanganate, add 0.3 grams of potassium permanganate to 1 liter of water, soak the malt in this solution for 15-20 minutes. Drying is done at a temperature of 30-40 ° C; at a higher temperature, enzymes may die. At home, drying is done in a room with warm floors, a stream of air from a domestic fan is directed to the malt. In the warm season, you can dry in the attic, the main thing is to ensure good ventilation.
Within 3-4 days, the malt will dry out and roots and sprouts must be removed from it. This is easy to do with your hands, rubbing it in your palms. The resulting light malt has a very high activity of enzymes, 1 kg is able to saccharify 4-5 kg of starch-containing raw materials. It can be used to make homemade beer. Malt is stored in a dry place in linen bags or closed containers. Before preparing beer or other alcohol, it is ground in special mills.
Malted milk. It is not advisable to use for saccharification with malt, the raw material from which it is obtained. For example, for wheat, you need to use barley, rye and oat malt. Rye is malted with wheat, barley, oat, etc. For better saccharification, malted milk is made (a mixture of malt and water).
How to make homemade malted milk. First, sterilization is performed, the malt is washed three times with water at a temperature of 65 degrees for 6-10 minutes. Then it is dried and ground in a blender or grain grinder to flour. For 170 grams of malt flour, take 1 liter of water. Pour flour with warm water 0.5 liters at a temperature of 50 - 55 ° C, mix thoroughly with a mixer until smooth and insist for an hour. Then add the rest of the water and heat up to 50 - 52oC. This volume of malted milk is designed for saccharification of 2 kg of raw materials.
Homemade caramel malt for making beer
The composition of the beer includes base malt and special caramel varieties to give the drink taste, density, aroma. Caramel is made from fresh white malt by heat treatment. At home, you can cook caramel malt in a conventional oven or in a slow cooker.
In it, we will tell you in detail how to make malt (barley and wheat) from ordinary grain, which will become a quality basis for your noble grain distillates. To begin with, we will give a brief theoretical background, and then we will analyze in detail the entire process of preparing this ingredient.
Theory
Malt is a germinated grain. Grain is taken, germinated in a certain way and dried. As a result, enzymes are activated in the grain, with the help of which the plant processes the starch contained in the grain, which is then broken down into simple sugars that the plant needs for growth. And we need them for fermentation with yeast. The end result is alcohol.
Malt is usually made from several grains: rye, barley or wheat.
So, our task is to germinate the grain correctly. To do this, you need to pay attention to several points. The first and most important parameter is grain germination. It must be at least 90%.
To check the germination of the grain used, do a test germination. To do this, take 100 grains and put them in water for 3-4 days. If during this time more than 90 grains have sprouted, the grain is suitable for germination.
Second important point- the quality of the water used. In order not to ruin the sprouts, it is recommended to use only bottled or spring water.
Well, now let's proceed directly to germination.
How to make malt at home: step by step instructions
So, the whole cooking process is divided into several stages:
- Selection and disinfection of grain
- Soak
- Germination
- Drying
Let's analyze each of the stages in detail.
Selection and disinfection
First of all, we remove empty grains, dirt and other debris. Then we soak the grain for 15 in a large container. Then we drain the water along with the floating debris and dirt and repeat the procedure. We do this until the grains and water become clean.
After cleaning, we do disinfection - the process is not mandatory, but extremely important. We repeat the soaking procedure, but only additionally add iodine to the water in the proportion of 25-30 drops per 10 liters of water. We wait 3-4 hours and merge.
Soak
After processing, we proceed to soaking. With the help of this technology, we will saturate our grains with moisture and oxygen - the ingredients necessary for effective germination.
The whole process takes about 1.5 days. All this time, we alternately, with an interval of 6 hours, then fill the grain with water, then drain it. For example: for the first 6 hours we keep the grain under a 2-3 cm layer of water, then we drain it, wait 6 hours and fill it again. And so 1.5 days.
Important! Soaking is carried out in a dark and cool place, and the water should be at room temperature.
Germination
Germination is carried out at a temperature of ≈15°C. Scatter the grain evenly on a wide pallet and cover it with a slightly dampened cotton cloth. It acts as a regulator - it absorbs excess moisture, or gives it away, if it is required by the grains.
- The length of the sprout is equal to the length of the grain
- The grain has a sweetish taste
- There is a characteristic crunch when biting
As a result, we will get “green malt”, which, although it does an excellent job of fermenting mash, is stored for a very short time - no more than 3-5 days. To prepare a strategic stock for the long term, the malt must be dried.
Drying, cleaning and aging
Drying can be done in several ways. If you live in a warm climate, you can dry the malt right outside: keep it outside for 3-4 days at a temperature of 25-35°C.
A faster and more suitable option is to dry the malt in an oven at 40°C. Everything about everything will take no more than 30 hours. In this case, we get classic pale malt.
To get dark malt, we keep the grains in the oven for 3-4 hours at a temperature of 80 ° C. up to 105°C depending on the desired color.
After roasting, we need to get rid of the sprouts on the grains, which can give the drink excessive bitterness. To do this, pour the malt into bags and begin to knead them. The procedure is quite long and tedious, but the dried sprouts will fall off. It remains only to winnow the malt on the fan.
Before use, it must be additionally kept for another 30-40 days.
Malt grinding
The last procedure that needs to be done with malt before use is to grind it properly. You can not grind the grains into flour - this will create big problems when filtering the mash, and besides, the efficiency of wort boiling will be lower.
The best option is to use a special grinder. It will properly process the malt without damaging its shell, which is very important for high-quality extraction of substances. Among other things, such mills are very efficient - even the simplest mechanical models can produce up to 5 kg of ground malt per hour.
How to make malt (video)
Conclusion
As you can see, the preparation of malt is indeed a very difficult and time-consuming task. However, if you don’t want to spend time preparing it, but you want to make delicious homemade beer or whiskey, it doesn’t matter. If there is a desire to join grain distillates, it is easier to order ready-made malt. This can be done directly through our website: there you will find dozens of malts of different types and degrees of roasting.
Caramel and roasted malt. Caramel malt is a highly colored aromatic product obtained from dry pale malt (de-sprouted) or green malt of very good dissolution by saccharification in whole grains at 70-75°C and rapid roasting at 120-170°C. Roasted malt (zhzhenka) is a very strongly colored product obtained from dry pale malt as a result of pre-moistening with water and rapid roasting at 260°C.
The color index of roasted malt must be at least 100 units. Lintner.
There is a significant difference between caramel and roasted malts. Caramel malt contains an increased amount of sugars, a significant part of which is caramelized during roasting, combining with amino acids, and forms a large amount of coloring substances. The unreacted part of the sugars gives the caramel malt a sweet taste.
During the preparation of caramel during the saccharification of the whole grain, the resulting sugars impregnate the mealy body. At high temperatures, the endosperm dries up and its mass becomes glassy, brown with a ruby tint. The color of the chaff shell is brown in some places, but lighter than the color of the vitreous endosperm.
Caramel malt is prepared from dry malt according to the following scheme. Dry malt is soaked by repeated spraying for 10 hours. When the moisture content of the malt reaches 50-60%, it is loaded into the roasting drum, with continuous rotation of the drum, the temperature of the malt is slowly raised to 70 ° C.
At this temperature, the malt is saccharified for 30-45 minutes. in an atmosphere of high humidity, then quickly raise the temperature to 120-170 ° C so that during this period the malt grains can dry out. At a temperature of 120-170 ° C, the malt is roasted, the degree of roasting is controlled by the color of the endosperm and the shell of the malt grains. The duration and temperature of roasting (120-170°C) depend on the desired color of the caramel malt and the degree of aroma.
At the end of roasting, caramel malt is unloaded onto iron sieves, where it is quickly cooled.
Caramel malt is produced in three varieties that differ in color.
Light caramel malt is roasted at 110-120 ° C for 3 hours. Its color is 0.3-2.0 units. Lintner.
Medium caramel malt is roasted for 2.5 hours at a temperature of 130-150 ° C; it has a chromaticity of 10-15 Lintner units.
Dark caramel malt is roasted at 150-170 ° C for 3.5-4 hours. Its color is 20-25 units. Lintner.
The moisture content of caramel malt is from 5 to 8% and the content of extractives is from 60 to 70%.
Roasted malt is different from caramel on appearance, color and structure of the endosperm. Dry malt for burnt milk is soaked, but not saccharified, so when it is roasted at a high temperature, the endosperm turns into a loose matte and dark mass with a specific smell. The chaff shell of roasted malt turns dark brown.