Taste Test

Brewing Processes
1

So I am interested in learning all the different flavors that malts will bring to the table. Is there a way that I could take individual grains and do something like a mini mash to understand what flavors come from what grains? I’m interested in doing this with base and specialty malts. I don’t want to do like a smash beer since I don’t have a ton of space to make several different small beers this way, and I would like to do this all at once so I can contrast the differences between the malts. I was thinking doing something like making a tea with the grains. Would something like that help me understand those differences in the malts?

Thanks!

2

Yes.

3

how would I do this? Would I need to steep for 5 mins, 10 mins? Does temp matter?

4

Patiently awaiting the posts about this!

5

I would have said that a battery of tests like this would not provide overly useful results.  I find that the biological activity of fermentation on various compounds in wort/fruit/vegetables/etc change too much.  For instance, sauerkraut does not taste like cabbage to me and wine does not taste like grape juice to me.  I’m also interested in more posts about this.

6

I know the easiest way to taste different malts.

Put 2-3 kernels in your mouth and chew them up…

7

I’ve written about this in a couple books…here’s my method…

For Grain…Heat 4 oz. of water to about 170F
Stir in 1.5 oz. crushed grain (about 4 heaping tablespoons)
Let sit for 30 min.  Reheating for 30 seconds at 10 min. intervals to hold temp
Strain through coffee filter and taste
Try a combo of grains to see how they work together

For hops…Heat 4 oz. of water to about 170F
(about a minute in the microwave)
Add 2-3 grams of either whole or pellet hops (1/3 cup whole or about a dozen pellets)
Steep for 5 minutes
Filter through coffee filter
Drink, gag, spit
Most useful for comparisons

8

Do you do this often anymore?

9

THIS is what I was looking for…

With the hops, would this be more for the way a hope would taste as a bittering addition or as aroma? I figure (and correct me if I am wrong) that the aroma is basically the same as how it smells without any steeping.

Which book was this in Denny?

10

I’ve never done it often.  I do it when I want to find something out.

11

I thought it was in Experimental Homebrewing, but I may be misremembering.  The hops would definitely be for bittering, but even then all you’ll get is a rough idea.  It’s mainly useful fro comparing one to another rather than as an absolute guide.

12

My input on this is to chew grain and rub/smell hops. Do this with each grain and hop you are about to use. Then see how that turns out in the finished beer. Then over time as you gain experience you will have a better chance of kind of imagining how ingredients work together and how they impact the final product. But only an educated guess…

I think learning them all at once is cool. You can see how they are different from each other that way. But you still need to find out the final result.

It’s a bit of a stretch to expect to remember how grain tasted a month ago, so maybe refresh your memory at the time you try the beer. Same with hops. But how well do you expect to remember 30 grains or hops a year from now when you finally brew with them.

Either way, enjoy the journey. Give yourself a few years to learn it all lol

13

But you can’t do it for a low oxygen mini-mash, you know to find out…  8)

14

oh, for sure. I don’t expect to get it all right away. But I do want to start being able to imagine recipes in my head by knowing some of the characteristics of the malts and such. I know this will come in time, but it helps me to be able to pinpoint specific flavors by just tasting the one malt at a time.

15

For sure! Go for it!

16

Brew several 1 gallon SMaSH batches at a time.  I’ve never done this but I recall some doing something like this is Zymurgy or on Basic Brewing Radio.

17

I eventually want to do something along these lines. Doing like a gallon or so. Easy to do in an afternoon on the stovetop.