[CounterPressure]

Randy Mosher recommends Brown Malt for porters in mastering Homebrew.  Yes, it isn't the same as the brown malt from a century or more ago, but IMHO it contributes a lot to a great porter.  I use it at 10% of the grist and the members of my local homebrew club seem to like the results. One member asked for the recipe and then brewed it.

They talked about how it was done years ago which was basically guys with shovels would work frantically to keep turning the grain so it didn't catch on fire. Some of it would be burnt and other parts were completely unroasted. And that's what they called Brown malt. So if you extrapolate a little from that it just means we need today's brown malt in a small quantity and then add to that some very much lower roasted malt which still has diastatic power. So it goes without saying what you're talking about is spot on. I'm not sure we can ever replicate the Open Flame flavors and all that, without doing it manually I mean, but we can probably come pretty close to every beer with a little bit of effort.

[fredthecat]

Randy Mosher recommends Brown Malt for porters in mastering Homebrew.  Yes, it isn't the same as the brown malt from a century or more ago, but IMHO it contributes a lot to a great porter.  I use it at 10% of the grist and the members of my local homebrew club seem to like the results. One member asked for the recipe and then brewed it.

They talked about how it was done years ago which was basically guys with shovels would work frantically to keep turning the grain so it didn't catch on fire. Some of it would be burnt and other parts were completely unroasted. And that's what they called Brown malt. So if you extrapolate a little from that it just means we need today's brown malt in a small quantity and then add to that some very much lower roasted malt which still has diastatic power. So it goes without saying what you're talking about is spot on. I'm not sure we can ever replicate the Open Flame flavors and all that, without doing it manually I mean, but we can probably come pretty close to every beer with a little bit of effort.

source?

the biggest general mistake ive found in thoughts/"history" from sources anonyma is that people were somehow less intelligent/resourceful than people now. if they wanted relatively consistently roasted malt i am sure there would be ways to achieve this. key: relatively - obviously, technological developments have allowed for greater ease in control

[CounterPressure]

source?

https://beersmith.com/tv/2024/02/understanding-malts-with-jeff-bloem-beersmith-podcast-299/

[Kevin]

the biggest general mistake ive found in thoughts/"history" from sources anonyma is that people were somehow less intelligent/resourceful than people now. if they wanted relatively consistently roasted malt i am sure there would be ways to achieve this. key: relatively - obviously, technological developments have allowed for greater ease in control

Absolutely. The late 1700's to the mid 1800's after all was called the Industrial Revolution with enormous strides being made in both mechanization but also in science. And brewers were neck deep into both industry and science employing mechanical cooling, water chemistry, etc. Kilning malt was also done methodically and using the most efficient methods available. Brown malt was kilned at a very high temperature to give the color desired and very quickly so as not to destroy the enzymes that lead to starch conversion. For the most part they relied on as much mechanization and control as possible for the same reasons industry does so today... to increase profits. Also consider that in London alone hundreds of thousands of gallons of Porter and other brown beer was produced annually which required enormous amounts of brown malt. Guys with shovels would not be able to keep up to meet that demand.