Mash ingredients
Encyclopedia
Mash ingredients, mash bill, or grain bill are those materials used in brewing
from which a wort
can be obtained for fermenting into alcohol. The act of creating and extracting fermentable
and non-fermentable sugar
s and flavor components from grain
by steeping it in hot water, and then allowing it to rest at specific temperature ranges in order to activate enzymes that will convert the starches to sugars is called mashing
. The sugars, having been run off from the mash ingredients, will later be converted to alcohol and other fermentation products by yeast in the brewing process.
A typical primary mash ingredient is grain that has been malted. Modern-day malt recipes generally consist of a large percentage of a light malt and, optionally, smaller percentages of more flavorful or highly colored types of malt. The former is called "base malt"; the latter is known as "specialty malts".
The grain bill of a beer or whisky may vary widely in the number and proportion of ingredients. For example, in beer-making, a simple pale ale
might contain a single malted grain, while a complex porter
may contain a dozen or more ingredients. In whisky production, Bourbon
uses a mash made primarily from corn
(often mixed with rye
or wheat
and a small amount of malted barley
), and Single Malt
Scotch
exclusively uses malted barley.
The color of a grain or product is evaluated by the American Society of Brewing Chemists
Standard Reference Method
(denoted both SRM and ASBC, although the two methods are equivalent); the older Lovibond series 52 standard, (°L), which corresponds closely to SRM; or by the European Brewery Convention
(EBC) standard. The British Institute of Brewing (IOB) standard was formally retired in 1991, but is still occasionally seen in the United Kingdom.
Diastatic power also called the "diastatic activity" or "enzymatic power" for a grain is measured in degrees Lintner (°Lintner
or °L, although the latter can conflict with the symbol °L for Lovibond color); or in Europe by Windisch-Kolbach units (°WK).
, which has been used in beer
-making for thousands of years
. Modern brewing predominantly uses malt
ed barley for its enzymatic power, but ancient Babylonian recipes indicate that, without the ability to malt grain in a controlled fashion, baked bread
was simply soaked in water.
Malted barley dried at a sufficiently low temperature contains enzymes such as amylase
which convert starch
into sugar. Therefore, sugars can be extracted from the barley's own starches simply by soaking the grain in water at a controlled temperature; this is mashing.
and bitter
and the precursor in production of most other British beer malts. Dried at temperatures sufficiently low to preserve all the brewing enzymes in the grain, it is light in color and, today, the cheapest barley malt available due to mass production. It can be used as a base malt, that is, as the malt constituting the majority of the grist
, in many styles of beer. Typically, English pale malts are kilned at 95-105 °C. Color ASBC
2-3/EBC 5-7. Diastatic power (DP) 45 °Lintner
.
, and is similar in color to pale malt. Mild malt is kilned at slightly higher temperatures than pale malt in order to provide a less neutral, rounder flavor generally described as "nutty". ASBC 3/EBC 6.
beer; light in color, it is prepared so as to maximize diastatic power in order to better-convert the large quantities of dark malts and unmalted grain used in stouts. In practice, however, most stout recipes make use of pale malt for its much greater availability. ASBC 2-3/EBC 4-6, DP 60-70 °Lintner.
; older formulations of brown porter use amber malt as a base malt (though this was diastatic and produced in different conditions to a modern amber malt). Amber malt has a bitter flavor which mellows on aging, and can be quite intensely flavored; in addition to its use in porter, it also appears in a diverse range of British beer recipes. ASBC 50-70/EBC 100-140; amber malt has no diastatic power.
as well as in porter and stout. Like amber malt, it can be prepared from pale malt at home by baking a thin layer of pale malt in an oven until the desired color is achieved. 50-70 °L, no enzymes.
, around 200 °C. The term "patent malt" comes from its invention in England
in 1817, late enough that the inventor of the process for its manufacture, Daniel Wheeler, was awarded a patent
. Black malt provides the color and some of the flavor in black porter, contributing an acrid, ashy undertone to the taste. In small quantities, black malt can also be used to darken beer to a desired color, sometimes as a substitute for caramel
. Due to its high kilning temperature, it contains no enzymes. ASBC 500-600/EBC >1300.
-like flavors and are sufficiently converted that they can be steeped without mashing to extract their flavor. Crystal malts are available in a range of colors, with darker-colored crystal malts; that is, those kilned at higher temperatures, producing stronger, more caramel-like overtones. Some of the sugars in crystal malts caramelize during kilning and become unfermentable; hence, addition of crystal malt will increase the final sweetness of a beer. They contain no enzymes. ASBC 50-165/EBC 90-320; the typical British crystal malt used in pale ale and bitter is around ASBC 70-80.
, which imparts the aroma and flavor characteristics of Islay whisky
and some Irish whiskey
. Some recent brewers have also included peated malt in interpretations of Scotch ales, although this is generally ahistorical. When peat is used in large amounts for beer making, the resulting beer tends to have a very strong earthy and smoky flavour which most mainstream beer drinkers would find extremely atypical.
, is quite pale and strongly flavored. Invented in the 1840s, Pilsner malt is the lightest-colored generally-available malt, and also carries a strong, sweet malt flavor. Usually a pale lager's grain bill consists entirely of this malt, which has enough enzymatic power to be used as a base malt. The commercial desirability of light-colored beers has also led to some British brewers adopting Pilsner malt (sometimes described simply as "lager malt" in Britain) in creating golden ales. In Germany, Pilsner malt is also used in some interpretations of the Kölsch
style. ASBC 1-2/EBC 3-4, DP 60 °Lintner.
malt or Helles malt is the characteristic grain of Vienna lager and Märzen; although it generally takes up only ten to fifteen percent of the grain bill in a beer, it can be used as a base malt. It has sufficient enzymatic power to self-convert, and it is somewhat darker and kilned at a higher temperature than Pilsener malt. ASBC 3-4/EBC 7-10, DP 50 °Lintner.
malt is used as the base malt of the bock
beer style, especially doppelbock, and appears in dunkel lager and Märzens in smaller quantities. While a darker grain than pale malt, it has sufficient diastatic power to self-convert, despite being kilned at temperatures around 115 °C. It imparts "malty," although not necessarily sweet characteristics, depending on mashing temperatures. ASBC 4-6/EBC 10-15, DP 40 °Lintner.
Rauchbier.
, can be used as a continental analog to Burtonization. Acid malt lowers mash pH
, and provides a rounder, fuller character to the beer, enhancing the flavor of Pilseners and other light lagers. Lowering the pH also helps prevent beer spoilage through oxidation.
Honey malt is an intensely-flavored, lightly colored malt. 18-20 °L.
Melanoidin
malt, a malt like the Belgian Aromatic malt, adds roundness and malt flavor to a beer with a comparably small addition in the grain bill. It also stabilizes the flavor.
Roast barley are unmalted barley kernels which has been toasted in an oven until almost black. Roast barley is, after base malt, usually the most-used grain in stout
beers, contributing the majority of the flavor and the characteristic dark-brown color; undertones of chocolate and coffee are common. ASBC 500-600/EBC >1300 or more, no diastatic activity.
Black barley is like roast barley except even darker.
Flaked barley is unmalted, dried barley which has been rolled into flat flakes. It imparts a rich, grainy flavor to beer and is used in many stouts, especially Guinness
stout; it also improves head formation and retention.
Torrefied barley is barley kernels that have been heated until they pop like popcorn
.
also makes heavy use of wheat. Under the Reinheitsgebot
, wheat was treated separately from barley, as it was the more expensive grain.
is used in British brewing to increase the size and retention of a head in beer. Generally it is used as an enhancer rather than for its flavor.
was often used for similar purposes in brewing. Wheat flour was also, erroneously, used as a yeast food in medieval and renaissance
brewing; flour would be cast into the fermenter to feed top-floating yeasts, which have no means of absorbing the raw flour. Brewer's flour is only rarely available today, and is of a larger grist than baker's flour.
in a beer typifies the rye beer
style, especially the German Roggenbier. Rye is also used in the Slavic
kvass
and Finnish
sahti
farmhouse styles, as readily-available grains in eastern Europe. However, the use of rye in brewing is considered difficult as rye lacks a hull (like wheat) and contains large quantities of beta-glucans compared to other grains; these long-chain sugars can leach out during a mash, creating a sticky gelatinous gum in the mash tun, and as a result brewing with rye requires a long, thorough beta-glucanase rest. Rye is said to impart a spicy, dry flavor to beer.
and millet
are often used in Africa
n brewing. As gluten
-free grains, they have gained popularity in the Northern Hemisphere as base materials for beers suitable for people with coeliac disease
. Sorghum produces a dark, hazy beer, however, and sorghum malt is difficult to prepare and rarely commercially available outside certain African countries. Millet is an ingredient in chhaang
and pomba, and both grains together are used in oshikundu
.
and corn
are often used by commercial breweries as a means of adding fermentable sugars to a beer cheaply, due to the ready availability and low price of the grains. Corn is also the base grain in chicha
and some caium, as well as Bourbon whiskey
, Sour mash
or Tennessee Whiskey
; while rice is the base grain of happoshu
and various mostly Asian fermented beverages often referred to as "rice wines"
such as sake and makgeolli; corn is also used as an ingredient in some Belgian beers such as Rodenbach
to lighten the body.
Corn was originally introduced into the brewing of American lagers because of the high protein content of the six-row barley; adding corn, which is high in sugar but low in protein, helped thin out the body of the resulting beer. Increased amounts of corn use over time led to the development of the American pale lager
style. Corn is generally not malted (although it is in some whiskey recipes) but instead introduced into the mash as flaked, dried kernels. Prior to a brew, rice and corn are cooked to allow the starch to gelatinize and thereby render it convertible.
and quinoa
, while not grains, both contain high levels of available starch and protein, while containing no gluten
. Therefore, some breweries use these plants in the production of beer suitable for people with coeliac disease, either alone or in combination with sorghum.
, white sugar, Dextrose, and/or malt extract. While these ingredients can be added during the mash, the enzymes in the mash do not act on them. Such ingredients can be added during the boil of the wort rather than the mash, and as such, are also known as copper sugars.
One syrup which is commonly used in the mash, however, is dry or dried malt extract or DME. DME is prepared by fully converting base malt, then draining the resulting mash, still including amylases, and evaporating it down to a high density. DME is used exclusively in homebrewing
as a substitute for base malt. It typically has no diastatic power because it is all used up in the production process.
, as improvements in temperature-controlled kiln
ing allowed finer control over the drying and toasting of the malted grains.
The typical British brewer's malt is a well-modified, low-nitrogen barley grown in the east of England or southeast of Scotland. In England, the best-known brewer's malt is made from the Maris Otter
strain of barley; other common strains are Halcyon, Pipkin, Chariot, and Fanfare. Most malts in current use in Britain are derived from pale malt and were invented no earlier than the reign of Queen Anne. Brewing malt production in Britain is thoroughly industrialized, with barley grown on dedicated land and malts prepared in bulk in large, purpose-build maltings and distributed to brewers around the country to order.
is often used as the wood for the fire, imparting a strongly smoky flavor to the malt. This malt is then used as the primary component of rauchbier
; alder
-smoked malt is used in Alaskan smoked porters. Rauchmalz comes in several varieties, generally named for and corresponding to standard kilned varieties (e.g. Rauchpilsener to Pilsener); color and diastatic power are comparable to those for an equivalent kilned grain.
Similarly to crystal malts in Britain, central Europe makes use of caramel malts, which are moistened and kilned at temperatures around 55-65 °C in a rotating drum before being heated to higher temperatures for browning. The lower-temperature moistened kilning causes conversion and mashing to take place in the oven, resulting in a grain's starches becoming mostly or entirely converted to sugar before darkening. Caramel malts are produced in color grades analogous to other lager malts: carapils for pilsener malt, caravienne or carahell for Vienna malt, and caramunch for Munich malt. Color and final kilning temperature are comparable to non-caramel analog malts; there is no diastatic activity. Carapils malt is sometimes also called dextrin malt. 10-120 °L.
6-row pale malt is a pale malt made from a different species of barley. Quite high in nitrogen, 6-row malt is used as a "hot" base malt for rapid, thorough conversion in a mash, as well as for extra body and fullness; the flavor is more neutral than 2-row malt. 1.8 °L, 160 °Lintner.
Victory malt is a specialized lightly roasted 2-row malt that provides biscuity, caramel flavors to a beer. Similar in color to amber and brown malt, it is often an addition to American brown ale. 25 °L, no diastatic power.
Other notable American barley malts include Special Roast and coffee malt. Special Roast is akin to a darker variety of victory malt.
Pale malt in Belgium is generally darker than British pale malt. Kilning takes place at temperatures five to ten °C lower than for British pale malt, but for longer periods; diastatic power is comparable to that of British pale malt. ASBC 4/EBC 7.
Special B is a dark, intensely sweet crystal malt providing a strong malt flavor.
Biscuit malt is a lightly flavored roasted malt used to darken some Belgian beers. 45-50 EBC/25 °L.
Aromatic malt, by contrast, provides an intensely malty flavor. Kilned at 115 °C, it retains enough diastatic power to self-convert. 50-55 EBC/20 °L.
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
from which a wort
Wort
Wort may refer to:* Wort, the liquid created by the mashing of malted barley to use in brewing beer* Worting, Hampshire, a large district and suburb of the town of Basingstoke, in Hampshire, England....
can be obtained for fermenting into alcohol. The act of creating and extracting fermentable
Fermentation (food)
Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
and non-fermentable sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
s and flavor components from grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
by steeping it in hot water, and then allowing it to rest at specific temperature ranges in order to activate enzymes that will convert the starches to sugars is called mashing
Mashing
In brewing and distilling, mashing is the process of combining a mix of milled grain , known as the "grain bill", and water, known as "liquor", and heating this mixture...
. The sugars, having been run off from the mash ingredients, will later be converted to alcohol and other fermentation products by yeast in the brewing process.
A typical primary mash ingredient is grain that has been malted. Modern-day malt recipes generally consist of a large percentage of a light malt and, optionally, smaller percentages of more flavorful or highly colored types of malt. The former is called "base malt"; the latter is known as "specialty malts".
The grain bill of a beer or whisky may vary widely in the number and proportion of ingredients. For example, in beer-making, a simple pale ale
Pale ale
Pale ale is a beer which uses a warm fermentation and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" was being applied around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a...
might contain a single malted grain, while a complex porter
Porter (beer)
Porter is a dark-coloured style of beer. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined. The name was first used in the 18th century from its popularity with the street and river porters of London. It is generally brewed with dark malts...
may contain a dozen or more ingredients. In whisky production, Bourbon
Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
uses a mash made primarily from corn
Corn
Corn is the name used in the United States, Canada, and Australia for the grain maize.In much of the English-speaking world, the term "corn" is a generic term for cereal crops, such as* Barley* Oats* Wheat* Rye- Places :...
(often mixed with rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
or wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
and a small amount of malted barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
), and Single Malt
Single malt whisky
Single malt whisky is a whisky made at one particular distillery from a mash that uses one particular malted grain, which is ordinarily barley.Single malts are typically associated with Scotland, though they are also produced in various other countries...
Scotch
Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...
exclusively uses malted barley.
Variables
Each particular ingredient has its own flavor which contributes to the final character of the beverage. In addition, different ingredients carry other characteristics, not directly relating to the flavor, which may dictate some of the choices made in brewing: nitrogen content, diastatic power, color, modification, and conversion.The color of a grain or product is evaluated by the American Society of Brewing Chemists
American Society of Brewing Chemists
The ASBC is a professional organization of scientists and technical professionals in the brewing, malting, and allied industries. It publishes a journal, the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, usually four times a year....
Standard Reference Method
Standard Reference Method
The Standard Reference Method or SRM is one of several systems modern brewers use to specify beer color. Determination of the SRM value involves measuring the attenuation of light of a particular wavelength in passing through 1 cm of the beer, expressing the attenuation as an absorption and...
(denoted both SRM and ASBC, although the two methods are equivalent); the older Lovibond series 52 standard, (°L), which corresponds closely to SRM; or by the European Brewery Convention
European Brewery Convention
European Brewery Convention is an organisation of technical experts for European brewers and maltsters, and the scientific and technological branch of The Brewers of Europe....
(EBC) standard. The British Institute of Brewing (IOB) standard was formally retired in 1991, but is still occasionally seen in the United Kingdom.
Diastatic power also called the "diastatic activity" or "enzymatic power" for a grain is measured in degrees Lintner (°Lintner
°Lintner
°Lintner or degrees Lintner is a unit used to measure the ability of a malt to reduce starch to sugar, that is, its diastatic power. While the measurement is applicable to any amylase, in general it refers to the combined α-amylase and β-amylase used in brewing. The term is also generalized to...
or °L, although the latter can conflict with the symbol °L for Lovibond color); or in Europe by Windisch-Kolbach units (°WK).
Malts
The oldest and most predominant ingredient in brewing is barleyBarley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, which has been used in beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
-making for thousands of years
History of beer
Beer is one of the world's oldest beverages, with the history of beer dating back to 6000 BC, and being recorded in the written history of Ancient Iraq. The earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer...
. Modern brewing predominantly uses malt
Malt
Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...
ed barley for its enzymatic power, but ancient Babylonian recipes indicate that, without the ability to malt grain in a controlled fashion, baked bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
was simply soaked in water.
Malted barley dried at a sufficiently low temperature contains enzymes such as amylase
Amylase
Amylase is an enzyme that catalyses the breakdown of starch into sugars. Amylase is present in human saliva, where it begins the chemical process of digestion. Food that contains much starch but little sugar, such as rice and potato, taste slightly sweet as they are chewed because amylase turns...
which convert starch
Starch
Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store...
into sugar. Therefore, sugars can be extracted from the barley's own starches simply by soaking the grain in water at a controlled temperature; this is mashing.
Pale malt
Pale malt is the basis of pale alePale ale
Pale ale is a beer which uses a warm fermentation and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" was being applied around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a...
and bitter
Bitter (beer)
Bitter is an English term for pale ale. Bitters vary in colour from gold to dark amber and in strength from 3% to 7% alcohol by volume.-Brief history:...
and the precursor in production of most other British beer malts. Dried at temperatures sufficiently low to preserve all the brewing enzymes in the grain, it is light in color and, today, the cheapest barley malt available due to mass production. It can be used as a base malt, that is, as the malt constituting the majority of the grist
Grist
Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. It can also mean grain that has been ground at a grist mill. Its etymology derives from the verb grind....
, in many styles of beer. Typically, English pale malts are kilned at 95-105 °C. Color ASBC
American Society of Brewing Chemists
The ASBC is a professional organization of scientists and technical professionals in the brewing, malting, and allied industries. It publishes a journal, the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, usually four times a year....
2-3/EBC 5-7. Diastatic power (DP) 45 °Lintner
°Lintner
°Lintner or degrees Lintner is a unit used to measure the ability of a malt to reduce starch to sugar, that is, its diastatic power. While the measurement is applicable to any amylase, in general it refers to the combined α-amylase and β-amylase used in brewing. The term is also generalized to...
.
Mild malt
Mild malt is often used as the base malt for mild aleMild ale
Mild ale is a low-gravity beer, or beer with a predominantly malty palate, that originated in Britain in the 17th century or earlier. Modern mild ales are mainly dark coloured with an abv of 3% to 3.6%, though there are lighter hued examples, as well as stronger examples reaching 6% abv and...
, and is similar in color to pale malt. Mild malt is kilned at slightly higher temperatures than pale malt in order to provide a less neutral, rounder flavor generally described as "nutty". ASBC 3/EBC 6.
Stout malt
Stout malt is sometimes seen as a base malt for stoutStout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
beer; light in color, it is prepared so as to maximize diastatic power in order to better-convert the large quantities of dark malts and unmalted grain used in stouts. In practice, however, most stout recipes make use of pale malt for its much greater availability. ASBC 2-3/EBC 4-6, DP 60-70 °Lintner.
Amber malt
Amber malt is a more toasted form of pale malt, kilned at temperatures of 150-160 °C, and is used in brown porterPorter (beer)
Porter is a dark-coloured style of beer. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined. The name was first used in the 18th century from its popularity with the street and river porters of London. It is generally brewed with dark malts...
; older formulations of brown porter use amber malt as a base malt (though this was diastatic and produced in different conditions to a modern amber malt). Amber malt has a bitter flavor which mellows on aging, and can be quite intensely flavored; in addition to its use in porter, it also appears in a diverse range of British beer recipes. ASBC 50-70/EBC 100-140; amber malt has no diastatic power.
Brown malt
Brown malt is a darker form of pale malt, and is used typically in brown aleBrown ale
Brown ale is a style of beer with a dark amber or brown colour. The term was first used by London brewers in the late 17th century to describe their products, such as mild ale, though the term had a rather different meaning than it does today...
as well as in porter and stout. Like amber malt, it can be prepared from pale malt at home by baking a thin layer of pale malt in an oven until the desired color is achieved. 50-70 °L, no enzymes.
Chocolate malt
Chocolate malt is similar to pale and amber malts but kilned at even higher temperatures. Producing complex undertones of vanilla and caramel (but not chocolate), it is used in porters and sweet stouts as well as dark mild ales. It contains no enzymes. ASBC 450-500/EBC 1100-1300.Black malt
Black malt, also called patent malt or black patent malt, is barley malt that has been kilned to the point of carbonizingCarbonization
Carbonization or carbonisation is the term for the conversion of an organic substance into carbon or a carbon-containing residue through pyrolysis or destructive distillation. It is often used in organic chemistry with reference to the generation of coal gas and coal tar from raw coal...
, around 200 °C. The term "patent malt" comes from its invention in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1817, late enough that the inventor of the process for its manufacture, Daniel Wheeler, was awarded a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
. Black malt provides the color and some of the flavor in black porter, contributing an acrid, ashy undertone to the taste. In small quantities, black malt can also be used to darken beer to a desired color, sometimes as a substitute for caramel
Caramel
Caramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream, custard and coffee....
. Due to its high kilning temperature, it contains no enzymes. ASBC 500-600/EBC >1300.
Crystal malt
Crystal malts are prepared separately from pale malts. They are high-nitrogen malts that are wetted and roasted in a rotating drum before kilning. They produce strongly sweet toffeeToffee
Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of 300 to 310 °F...
-like flavors and are sufficiently converted that they can be steeped without mashing to extract their flavor. Crystal malts are available in a range of colors, with darker-colored crystal malts; that is, those kilned at higher temperatures, producing stronger, more caramel-like overtones. Some of the sugars in crystal malts caramelize during kilning and become unfermentable; hence, addition of crystal malt will increase the final sweetness of a beer. They contain no enzymes. ASBC 50-165/EBC 90-320; the typical British crystal malt used in pale ale and bitter is around ASBC 70-80.
Distillers malt
Standard distillers malt or pot still malt is quite light and very high in nitrogen compared to beer malts. These malts are used in the production of whiskey and generally originate from northern Scotland.Peated malt
Peated malt is also available; this is distillers malt that has been smoked over burning peatPeat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
, which imparts the aroma and flavor characteristics of Islay whisky
Islay whisky
Islay whisky is Scotch whisky made on Islay or Ìle in Gaelic, the southernmost of the Inner Hebridean Islands located off the west coast of Scotland. There are eight active distilleries on the island, as of early 2008, with a ninth being made ready for production...
and some Irish whiskey
Irish whiskey
Irish whiskey is whiskey made in Ireland.Key regulations defining Irish whiskey and its production are established by the Irish Whiskey Act of 1980, and are relatively simple...
. Some recent brewers have also included peated malt in interpretations of Scotch ales, although this is generally ahistorical. When peat is used in large amounts for beer making, the resulting beer tends to have a very strong earthy and smoky flavour which most mainstream beer drinkers would find extremely atypical.
Pilsner malt
Pilsner malt, the basis of pale lagerPale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
, is quite pale and strongly flavored. Invented in the 1840s, Pilsner malt is the lightest-colored generally-available malt, and also carries a strong, sweet malt flavor. Usually a pale lager's grain bill consists entirely of this malt, which has enough enzymatic power to be used as a base malt. The commercial desirability of light-colored beers has also led to some British brewers adopting Pilsner malt (sometimes described simply as "lager malt" in Britain) in creating golden ales. In Germany, Pilsner malt is also used in some interpretations of the Kölsch
Kölsch (beer)
Kölsch, also written Koelsch, is a local beer specialty brewed in Cologne, Germany. It is a clear beer with a bright straw-yellow hue, and it has a prominent, but not extreme, hoppiness. It is less bitter than the standard German pale lager. Furthermore, Kölsch is warm fermented at a temperature...
style. ASBC 1-2/EBC 3-4, DP 60 °Lintner.
Vienna malt
ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
malt or Helles malt is the characteristic grain of Vienna lager and Märzen; although it generally takes up only ten to fifteen percent of the grain bill in a beer, it can be used as a base malt. It has sufficient enzymatic power to self-convert, and it is somewhat darker and kilned at a higher temperature than Pilsener malt. ASBC 3-4/EBC 7-10, DP 50 °Lintner.
Munich malt
MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
malt is used as the base malt of the bock
Bock
Bock is a strong lager of German origin. Several substyles exist, including maibock or helles bock, a paler, more hopped version generally made for consumption at spring festivals; doppelbock, a stronger and maltier version; and eisbock, a much stronger version made by partially freezing the beer...
beer style, especially doppelbock, and appears in dunkel lager and Märzens in smaller quantities. While a darker grain than pale malt, it has sufficient diastatic power to self-convert, despite being kilned at temperatures around 115 °C. It imparts "malty," although not necessarily sweet characteristics, depending on mashing temperatures. ASBC 4-6/EBC 10-15, DP 40 °Lintner.
Rauchmalz
Rauchmalz is a German malt that is prepared by being dried over an open flame rather than via kiln. The grain has a smoky aroma and is an essential ingredient in BambergBamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
Rauchbier.
Acid malt
Acid malt, whose grains contain lactic acidLactic acid
Lactic acid, also known as milk acid, is a chemical compound that plays a role in various biochemical processes and was first isolated in 1780 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Lactic acid is a carboxylic acid with the chemical formula C3H6O3...
, can be used as a continental analog to Burtonization. Acid malt lowers mash pH
PH
In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...
, and provides a rounder, fuller character to the beer, enhancing the flavor of Pilseners and other light lagers. Lowering the pH also helps prevent beer spoilage through oxidation.
Honey malt is an intensely-flavored, lightly colored malt. 18-20 °L.
Melanoidin
Melanoidin
Melanoidins are brown, high molecular weight heterogeneous polymers that are formed when sugars and amino acids combine at high temperatures and low water activity. Melanoidins are commonly present in foods that have undergone some form of non-enzymatic browning, such as barley malts , bread...
malt, a malt like the Belgian Aromatic malt, adds roundness and malt flavor to a beer with a comparably small addition in the grain bill. It also stabilizes the flavor.
Unmalted barley
Unmalted barley kernels are used in mashes in Irish whiskey.Roast barley are unmalted barley kernels which has been toasted in an oven until almost black. Roast barley is, after base malt, usually the most-used grain in stout
Stout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
beers, contributing the majority of the flavor and the characteristic dark-brown color; undertones of chocolate and coffee are common. ASBC 500-600/EBC >1300 or more, no diastatic activity.
Black barley is like roast barley except even darker.
Flaked barley is unmalted, dried barley which has been rolled into flat flakes. It imparts a rich, grainy flavor to beer and is used in many stouts, especially Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
stout; it also improves head formation and retention.
Torrefied barley is barley kernels that have been heated until they pop like popcorn
Popcorn
Popcorn, or popping corn, is corn which expands from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Corn is able to pop because, like sorghum, quinoa and millet, its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and a dense starchy interior. This allows pressure to build inside the kernel until an explosive...
.
Wheat malt
Beer brewed in the German Hefeweizen style rely mostly or entirely on malted wheat as a grain, as does Belgian witbier. LambicLambic
Lambic is a very distinctive type of beer brewed only in the Pajottenland region of Belgium and in Brussels itself at the Cantillon Brewery and museum...
also makes heavy use of wheat. Under the Reinheitsgebot
Reinheitsgebot
The Reinheitsgebot , sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law" in English, was a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley and hops...
, wheat was treated separately from barley, as it was the more expensive grain.
Torrefied wheat
Torrefied wheatPuffed grain
Puffed grain includes ancient puffed grains like popcorn as well as puffed rice. Modern puffed grains are often created using high temperature, pressure, and/or extrusion....
is used in British brewing to increase the size and retention of a head in beer. Generally it is used as an enhancer rather than for its flavor.
Wheat flour
Until the general availability of torrefied wheat, wheat flourFlour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
was often used for similar purposes in brewing. Wheat flour was also, erroneously, used as a yeast food in medieval and renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
brewing; flour would be cast into the fermenter to feed top-floating yeasts, which have no means of absorbing the raw flour. Brewer's flour is only rarely available today, and is of a larger grist than baker's flour.
Rye
The use of ryeRye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
in a beer typifies the rye beer
Rye beer
Rye beer refers to any beer in which rye is substituted for some portion of the barley malt.One example of this is roggenbier which is a specialty beer produced with up to sixty percent rye malt...
style, especially the German Roggenbier. Rye is also used in the Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
kvass
Kvass
Kvass, kvas, quass or gira, gėra is a fermented beverage made from black...
and Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
sahti
Sahti
Sahti is a traditional beer from Finland made from a variety of grains, malted and unmalted, including barley, rye, wheat, and oats; sometimes bread made from these grains is fermented instead of malt itself...
farmhouse styles, as readily-available grains in eastern Europe. However, the use of rye in brewing is considered difficult as rye lacks a hull (like wheat) and contains large quantities of beta-glucans compared to other grains; these long-chain sugars can leach out during a mash, creating a sticky gelatinous gum in the mash tun, and as a result brewing with rye requires a long, thorough beta-glucanase rest. Rye is said to impart a spicy, dry flavor to beer.
Sorghum and millet
SorghumSorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
and millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
are often used in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n brewing. As gluten
Gluten
Gluten is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye...
-free grains, they have gained popularity in the Northern Hemisphere as base materials for beers suitable for people with coeliac disease
Coeliac disease
Coeliac disease , is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy onward...
. Sorghum produces a dark, hazy beer, however, and sorghum malt is difficult to prepare and rarely commercially available outside certain African countries. Millet is an ingredient in chhaang
Chhaang
Chhaang or chang is a Tibetan/Sherpa/Limbu/Newari alcoholic beverage also popular in parts of eastern Himalayas.-Geographical prevalence:...
and pomba, and both grains together are used in oshikundu
Oshikundu
Oshikundu or Ontaku is a traditional Namibian drink made from fermented millet . Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties exist. It is made by women from cereal. It is often drunk the same day...
.
Rice and corn
In America, riceRice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
and corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
are often used by commercial breweries as a means of adding fermentable sugars to a beer cheaply, due to the ready availability and low price of the grains. Corn is also the base grain in chicha
Chicha
For the musical genre, see Peruvian cumbiaChicha is a term used in some regions of Latin America for several varieties of fermented and non-fermented beverages, rather often to those derived from maize and similar non-alcoholic beverages...
and some caium, as well as Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
, Sour mash
Sour mash
Sour mash is a process in the distilling industry that uses material from an older batch of mash to start fermentation in the batch currently being made, analogous to the making of sourdough bread. The term sour mash can also be used as the name of the type of mash used in that process, and a...
or Tennessee Whiskey
Tennessee whiskey
Tennessee whiskey is Straight Bourbon Whiskey produced in the state of Tennessee. This definition is legally established under the North American Free Trade Agreement and at least one other international trade agreement that require that Tennessee whiskey be "a straight Bourbon Whiskey authorized...
; while rice is the base grain of happoshu
Happoshu
Happoshu , or low-malt beer, is a tax category of Japanese liquor that most often refers to a beer-like beverage with less than 67% malt content...
and various mostly Asian fermented beverages often referred to as "rice wines"
Rice wine
Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage made from rice. Unlike wine, which is made by fermentation of naturally sweet grapes and other fruit, rice "wine" results from the fermentation of rice starch converted to sugars...
such as sake and makgeolli; corn is also used as an ingredient in some Belgian beers such as Rodenbach
Rodenbach
Rodenbach was a brewery and a brewing family from Roeselare, Belgium. The brewery is now owned by Palm Breweries. It is noted for its production of barrel-aged sour beers in the Flemish tradition.-Brewery:...
to lighten the body.
Corn was originally introduced into the brewing of American lagers because of the high protein content of the six-row barley; adding corn, which is high in sugar but low in protein, helped thin out the body of the resulting beer. Increased amounts of corn use over time led to the development of the American pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
style. Corn is generally not malted (although it is in some whiskey recipes) but instead introduced into the mash as flaked, dried kernels. Prior to a brew, rice and corn are cooked to allow the starch to gelatinize and thereby render it convertible.
Non-grain solids
BuckwheatBuckwheat
Buckwheat refers to a variety of plants in the dicot family Polygonaceae: the Eurasian genus Fagopyrum, the North American genus Eriogonum, and the Northern Hemisphere genus Fallopia. Either of the latter two may be referred to as "wild buckwheat"...
and quinoa
Quinoa
Quinoa , a species of goosefoot , is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family...
, while not grains, both contain high levels of available starch and protein, while containing no gluten
Gluten
Gluten is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye...
. Therefore, some breweries use these plants in the production of beer suitable for people with coeliac disease, either alone or in combination with sorghum.
Syrups and extracts
Another way of adding sugar or flavoring to a malt beverage is the addition of natural or artificial sugar products such as honeyHoney
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, white sugar, Dextrose, and/or malt extract. While these ingredients can be added during the mash, the enzymes in the mash do not act on them. Such ingredients can be added during the boil of the wort rather than the mash, and as such, are also known as copper sugars.
One syrup which is commonly used in the mash, however, is dry or dried malt extract or DME. DME is prepared by fully converting base malt, then draining the resulting mash, still including amylases, and evaporating it down to a high density. DME is used exclusively in homebrewing
Homebrewing
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer, wine, sake, mead, cider, perry and other beverages through fermentation on a small scale as a hobby for personal consumption, free distribution at social gatherings, amateur brewing competitions or other non-commercial reasons...
as a substitute for base malt. It typically has no diastatic power because it is all used up in the production process.
Britain
British brewing makes use of a wide variety of malts, with considerable stylistic freedom for the brewer to blend them. Many British malts were developed only as recently as the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, as improvements in temperature-controlled kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
ing allowed finer control over the drying and toasting of the malted grains.
The typical British brewer's malt is a well-modified, low-nitrogen barley grown in the east of England or southeast of Scotland. In England, the best-known brewer's malt is made from the Maris Otter
Maris Otter
Maris Otter is a 2-row "winter" variety of barley commonly used in the production of malt for the brewing industry. The variety was bred by Dr G D H Bell and his team of plant breeders at Cambridge...
strain of barley; other common strains are Halcyon, Pipkin, Chariot, and Fanfare. Most malts in current use in Britain are derived from pale malt and were invented no earlier than the reign of Queen Anne. Brewing malt production in Britain is thoroughly industrialized, with barley grown on dedicated land and malts prepared in bulk in large, purpose-build maltings and distributed to brewers around the country to order.
Continental Europe
Before controlled-temperature kilning became available, malted grains were dried over wood fires; Rauchmalz is malt dried using this traditional process. In Germany, beechBeech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
is often used as the wood for the fire, imparting a strongly smoky flavor to the malt. This malt is then used as the primary component of rauchbier
Smoked beer
Smoked beer is a type of beer with a distinctive smoke flavor imparted by using malted barley dried over an open flame. The Rauchbiers of Bamberg in Germany, Schlenkerla in particular, are the best-known of the smoked beers.-History:...
; alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
-smoked malt is used in Alaskan smoked porters. Rauchmalz comes in several varieties, generally named for and corresponding to standard kilned varieties (e.g. Rauchpilsener to Pilsener); color and diastatic power are comparable to those for an equivalent kilned grain.
Similarly to crystal malts in Britain, central Europe makes use of caramel malts, which are moistened and kilned at temperatures around 55-65 °C in a rotating drum before being heated to higher temperatures for browning. The lower-temperature moistened kilning causes conversion and mashing to take place in the oven, resulting in a grain's starches becoming mostly or entirely converted to sugar before darkening. Caramel malts are produced in color grades analogous to other lager malts: carapils for pilsener malt, caravienne or carahell for Vienna malt, and caramunch for Munich malt. Color and final kilning temperature are comparable to non-caramel analog malts; there is no diastatic activity. Carapils malt is sometimes also called dextrin malt. 10-120 °L.
The United States
American brewing combines British and Central European heritages, and as such uses all the above forms of beer malt; Belgian-style brewing is less common but its popularity is growing. In addition, America also makes use of some specialized malts:6-row pale malt is a pale malt made from a different species of barley. Quite high in nitrogen, 6-row malt is used as a "hot" base malt for rapid, thorough conversion in a mash, as well as for extra body and fullness; the flavor is more neutral than 2-row malt. 1.8 °L, 160 °Lintner.
Victory malt is a specialized lightly roasted 2-row malt that provides biscuity, caramel flavors to a beer. Similar in color to amber and brown malt, it is often an addition to American brown ale. 25 °L, no diastatic power.
Other notable American barley malts include Special Roast and coffee malt. Special Roast is akin to a darker variety of victory malt.
Belgium
Belgian brewing makes use of the same grains as central European brewing. In general, though, Belgian malts are slightly darker and sweeter than their central European counterparts. In addition, Belgian brewing uses some local malts:Pale malt in Belgium is generally darker than British pale malt. Kilning takes place at temperatures five to ten °C lower than for British pale malt, but for longer periods; diastatic power is comparable to that of British pale malt. ASBC 4/EBC 7.
Special B is a dark, intensely sweet crystal malt providing a strong malt flavor.
Biscuit malt is a lightly flavored roasted malt used to darken some Belgian beers. 45-50 EBC/25 °L.
Aromatic malt, by contrast, provides an intensely malty flavor. Kilned at 115 °C, it retains enough diastatic power to self-convert. 50-55 EBC/20 °L.
External links
- "Understanding Malt Analysis Sheets – How to Become Fluent in Malt Analysis Interpretation" by Greg Noonan
- How to Brew by John Palmer, an online book detailing all the basics of homebrewing beer.