Malted corn

[purduekenn]

I’ve brewed 3 batches of beer with Sugar Creek Malted corn this year:

1. 3.5 gallons:73% 2Row Malt and 17% Sugar Creek Bloody Butcher red malted corn.
2. 5.3 gallons: 75% 2Row Malt and 25% Sugar Creek Amanda white malted corn.
3. 5.3 gallons: 75% 2Row Malt and 25% Sugar Creek Bloody Butcher red malted corn.
   All of these beers used Magnum hops for bittering and Willamette at 10 minutes and at flameout. For about 20 IBU’s from Beer Smith software.
   All of these beers used Lallemand BRY-97 dry yeast.

in my experience they don’t taste like a traditional Cream Ale like Little Kings or Spotted Cow. In my opinion you don’t get the sweetness like a traditional cream ale. That doesn’t make the better or worse just different. It was interesting that everyone that tasted the beers like the #3 beer with 25% red corn and said they could drink it all day long. I liked it but I got a what I thought was a little astringent flavor on the finish. It was not awful by any means. I didn’t note it on the 1st brew with 8% less red corn in the recipe. I think my favorite was the white corn I would say I cold drink several pints of it. I need to drink them side by side for comparison. I also liked #1 and could drink several pints of it.

[erockrph]

I’m just coming to a boil on my first brew using Bloody Butcher malted corn. The recipe is essentially my Märzen recipe, but instead of my usual 5-7% CaraMunich, I’m using 20% malted corn.

When I tasted the grains before milling I got a better idea of why this doesn’t taste like flaked corn or grits. There wasn’t any sweet corn flavor; it was more like cornmeal. More importantly,  there is a definite toastiness like a kilned malt. Not only is this malted, but it has to be kilned afterwards to stop the germination. I tasted it side by side with Pils, Vienna and Light Munich, and it seemed in between Vienna and Munich (but closer to Vienna) in its toast character.

I’m really looking forward to how this beer turns out. I’m not sure what place this has in my brewing toolbox yet, but it seems like it might be a way to lighten the body of the beer without lightening the flavor or adding sweetness. It might be a decent fit in a Saison or even a WC IPA/DIPA.

[purduekenn]

@erockrph

I’m just coming to a boil on my first brew using Bloody Butcher malted corn. The recipe is essentially my Märzen recipe, but instead of my usual 5-7% CaraMunich, I’m using 20% malted corn.

When I tasted the grains before milling I got a better idea of why this doesn’t taste like flaked corn or grits. There wasn’t any sweet corn flavor; it was more like cornmeal. More importantly,  there is a definite toastiness like a kilned malt. Not only is this malted, but it has to be kilned afterwards to stop the germination. I tasted it side by side with Pils, Vienna and Light Munich, and it seemed in between Vienna and Munich (but closer to Vienna) in its toast character.

I’m really looking forward to how this beer turns out. I’m not sure what place this has in my brewing toolbox yet, but it seems like it might be a way to lighten the body of the beer without lightening the flavor or adding sweetness. It might be a decent fit in a Saison or even a WC IPA/DIPA.

Let us know how it turned out.

[erockrph]

@purduekenn

@erockrph

I’m just coming to a boil on my first brew using Bloody Butcher malted corn. The recipe is essentially my Märzen recipe, but instead of my usual 5-7% CaraMunich, I’m using 20% malted corn.

When I tasted the grains before milling I got a better idea of why this doesn’t taste like flaked corn or grits. There wasn’t any sweet corn flavor; it was more like cornmeal. More importantly,  there is a definite toastiness like a kilned malt. Not only is this malted, but it has to be kilned afterwards to stop the germination. I tasted it side by side with Pils, Vienna and Light Munich, and it seemed in between Vienna and Munich (but closer to Vienna) in its toast character.

I’m really looking forward to how this beer turns out. I’m not sure what place this has in my brewing toolbox yet, but it seems like it might be a way to lighten the body of the beer without lightening the flavor or adding sweetness. It might be a decent fit in a Saison or even a WC IPA/DIPA.

Let us know how it turned out.

The beer turned out good. It may be me finding what I’m looking for, but I pick up the corn in the background in this. It reminds me a bit of grits or corn tortilla’s, where flaked corn in this amount typically tastes more like sweet corn to me. It’s not an off taste and it blends into the beer just fine, but it doesn’t really add much, either. I’m honestly not too sure where this fits in my brewing toolkit just yet (and it may not at all, to be honest). When I use a lot of corn in a recipe, I’m generally looking for that sweet corn kind of flavor.

I have a fair amount still, and I may try it in something like a Blonde Ale or a Saison in the spring/summer.

[Drewch (Drew C.)]

Glad it turned out

[rookie_l_a (Steve Ruch)]

@denny

@erockrph

@majorvices

@denny

@ynotbrusum

Denny and Drew mentioned using it in a Cream Ale, I believe.  Denny can chime in - I don’t recall any cereal mashing, I think it is mashed like any barley malt…

Yeah, it’s malted, right?  So no cereal mashing necessary.  Drew used it to make a cream ale and it was…interesting.  I don’t know if I’d recognize it as a cream ale. Very unique flavor, unlike any corn beer I’ve ever tasted. My takeaway was don’t think you can just sub it for corn, because it’s so different.

I would definitely imagine the malting would change its character. Seems like it would make an interesting candidate for whiskey distillation. That said, usually when there is an uncommon brewing ingredient like this there is a reason why it hasn’t become popular. IOW it has been tried before.

I wonder if this is why there have been reports of malted Bloody Butcher tasting different than flaked corn, rather than primarily being due to the varietal. I have a few pounds of malted BB that I’ll be using soon, so I’ll be interested to see what the flavor difference turns out to be.

That’s exactly my thinking.  Malted produces a malted flavor, right?  Think of barley malt as opposed to flaked barley.  Very different, just like BB is very different than flaked corn.  That’s why I think it isn’t a replacement for flaked corn, but needs its own recipes.  The cream ale Drew made with it tasted nothing like a cream ale.

What would you use it in?

[denny]

@denny

@erockrph

@majorvices

@denny

@ynotbrusum

Denny and Drew mentioned using it in a Cream Ale, I believe.  Denny can chime in - I don’t recall any cereal mashing, I think it is mashed like any barley malt…

Yeah, it’s malted, right?  So no cereal mashing necessary.  Drew used it to make a cream ale and it was…interesting.  I don’t know if I’d recognize it as a cream ale. Very unique flavor, unlike any corn beer I’ve ever tasted. My takeaway was don’t think you can just sub it for corn, because it’s so different.

I would definitely imagine the malting would change its character. Seems like it would make an interesting candidate for whiskey distillation. That said, usually when there is an uncommon brewing ingredient like this there is a reason why it hasn’t become popular. IOW it has been tried before.

I wonder if this is why there have been reports of malted Bloody Butcher tasting different than flaked corn, rather than primarily being due to the varietal. I have a few pounds of malted BB that I’ll be using soon, so I’ll be interested to see what the flavor difference turns out to be.

That’s exactly my thinking.  Malted produces a malted flavor, right?  Think of barley malt as opposed to flaked barley.  Very different, just like BB is very different than flaked corn.  That’s why I think it isn’t a replacement for flaked corn, but needs its own recipes.  The cream ale Drew made with it tasted nothing like a cream ale.

What would you use it in?

Truthfully, I wouldn’t. Nothing comes to mind where I would like the flavor. Just personal preference.

[rookie_l_a (Steve Ruch)]

@denny

@denny

@erockrph

@majorvices

@denny

@ynotbrusum

Denny and Drew mentioned using it in a Cream Ale, I believe.  Denny can chime in - I don’t recall any cereal mashing, I think it is mashed like any barley malt…

Yeah, it’s malted, right?  So no cereal mashing necessary.  Drew used it to make a cream ale and it was…interesting.  I don’t know if I’d recognize it as a cream ale. Very unique flavor, unlike any corn beer I’ve ever tasted. My takeaway was don’t think you can just sub it for corn, because it’s so different.

I would definitely imagine the malting would change its character. Seems like it would make an interesting candidate for whiskey distillation. That said, usually when there is an uncommon brewing ingredient like this there is a reason why it hasn’t become popular. IOW it has been tried before.

I wonder if this is why there have been reports of malted Bloody Butcher tasting different than flaked corn, rather than primarily being due to the varietal. I have a few pounds of malted BB that I’ll be using soon, so I’ll be interested to see what the flavor difference turns out to be.

That’s exactly my thinking.  Malted produces a malted flavor, right?  Think of barley malt as opposed to flaked barley.  Very different, just like BB is very different than flaked corn.  That’s why I think it isn’t a replacement for flaked corn, but needs its own recipes.  The cream ale Drew made with it tasted nothing like a cream ale.

What would you use it in?

Truthfully, I wouldn’t. Nothing comes to mind where I would like the flavor. Just personal preference.

I’ll put it way down the list of things to try.
I just got some Sugar Creek malt, Crazy Horse hops, and local wildflower honey to brew an all Indiana beer.