Roasting Malt at Home

Ingredients
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I’m about to embark on very unfamiliar territory. I’m about to roast red wheat malt at home!! Why? Cuz I have a recipe that calls for 10 oz. of “Carawheat (50.0 SRM)” and i searched everywhere using every iteration of the word with zero success.

So i sought help from AI and his is what it provided:

" Timed oven schedule for 12 oz (0.75 lb) — step by step

Prep (0 min)

*** Use malted wheat (whole kernels). Clean and sort.**

Step 1 — Soak / convert (0–120 min)

*** Heat water to 150 °F (65 °C). Soak kernels fully submerged for 90–120 minutes to gelatinize starches and allow internal conversion (this creates crystal/caramel character). Stir occasionally.**

Step 2 — Drain and arrange (120–130 min)

*** Drain well; spread ~2 in (5 cm) depth in a covered roasting pan (lid or foil) to keep moisture for internal caramelization. Preheat oven to 180 °F (82 °C).**

Step 3 — Low‑temp roast (130–220 min)

*** Roast covered at 180 °F for 90 minutes, stirring every 20–30 minutes to even color. This encourages Maillard reactions and internal caramelization without charring.**

Step 4 — Darken gradually (220–280+ min)

*** Increase oven to 220 °F (105 °C) and roast uncovered for 30–60 minutes, stirring every 10–15 minutes. Check color by cracking a kernel — the interior color is the true guide. If still too light, raise to 250–300 °F for 5–15 minute bursts, watching closely to avoid burnt/astringent notes. Sources warn higher temps shorten the window and risk off‑flavors.**

Step 5 — Cool and cure

Cool quickly on a tray, then store in a paper bag or breathable container for 1–2 weeks to let harsh volatiles mellow. Do not use immediately."

So, If anyone has any experience with roasting malts at home and would like to share info., I’m all ears!

Cheers!

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I think it would be more complicated than what you proposed. Carawheat is like a crystal or caramel malt. The process used involves starting with malted wheat and steeping the wheat at a temperature to activate enzymes and convert starches to sugar before roasting it.

If you roast unmalted wheat, it will provide some color and flavor, but it would not be very similar to Carawheat.

I would think a 45 degree lovibond crystal malt would taste more like Carawheat than roasted unmalted wheat.

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My apologies, the steps you pulled from ai seem to include everything I said already (I scanned your post too quickly).

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I have no experience with soaking the malt first, but I have roasted Corn Malt on three separate occasions for a Mexican Lager.

325°F for 30 minutes (2023) - 16oz - 16% of the grain bill
325°F for 40 minutes (2024) - 24oz - 24% of the grain bill
350°F for 45 minutes (2025) - 24oz - 24% of the grain bill

All three occasions, my kitchen smelled just like popcorn!

I didn’t find the extra time or temperature to have much (if any) effect on the finished beer. The toasting did add a smidge of color and some malty depth and certainly removed any corn sweetness from the taste. All three finished beers were different levels of tasty with the biggest difference between them being the yeast I used.
Next time I make that beer, I may give the “soaking” a try. I bet that would really show in the end. Or, maybe I won’t mess with the Corn Malt at all and see what this beer would taste like without any extra effort. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

More notes and pix here: Mexican Street Corn Lager | The Biergarten

Good luck! I will be following along.

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Cara malts are made with green, unkilned grain.

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John Mallet, in Malt, suggests that this may be a challenging endeavor:

“Crystal malts are a bit more difficult to make. The wet malt is sealed in a container and heated to saccharification temperature 145-155°F 63 68°C) until it tastes sweet (one to four hours). This saccharifies the starch in the endosperm in the exact manner that occurs in the mash tun.

“The sweet grain is then heated to a higher temperature and allowed to dry by increasing ventilation. The higher the temperature, the deeper the color of the crystal malt. The interior of the grain will take on a glassy appearance and be hard to the tooth if all goes well. Thus far, I have not perfected a technique for making crystal malt at home. The crystal malts I produced were a bit withered looking, but tasted wonderful. Fresh crystal malt is something every brewer must experience!”

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Subbing would save you a lot of time. 7oz of C45 + 3oz of victory malt should get you in the ballpark of 10oz of carawheat.

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Thank you for this information. I will attempt this using malted wheat. The recipe also calls for the wheat to soak as you suggest.

Also, I had a discrepancy with Northern Brewer many years ago and as such, I have not and will not spend a dime with that company. But, thank you for taking the time to attach a link.

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The information I read indicated the soaking “brings out the caramel sweetness”. I have no idea, but I think it will be fun and a good learning experience. Thanks for your input!

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Yea, you’re probably right. But, again, it might be fun and a learning exercise. Thanks for your input!

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Yea, I’m sure you’re right. I realize my result will not be exact, but I’m hoping it will be close. The information from the AI process was mostly gathered from information published in BYO. I’ll post my results! Thanks for your input!

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Well I completed my roasting task yesterday. It was a bit time consuming, but a good learning experience. And, while I was able to roast the wheat to about 50SRM, I have no idea what the extract will be. Fortunately, this ingredient is only 5% of the total grain bill. Now it rests for a couple weeks.

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Did you taste test all the levels of roast? Curious if you can perceive any differences. At 5% of the grain bill, I doubt any differences would show up in the finished beer, but maybe??

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That’s a great question. However, the only way I know of to taste the malt is to chew on a few kernels and I’ve never been good at tasting grain in that way. But i did try a few at each stage and couldn’t really taste wheat. I thought about steeping some, but that seamed like a lot of extra work for little gain.

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Try grinding some and making a tea

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As I said above: “I thought about steeping some, but that seamed like a lot of extra work for little gain.”

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Yeah, definitely a just for curiosity thing