Originally published in the March/April 2015 issue of Zymurgy magazine.
[Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse by John Mallett, published by Brewers Publications in 2014.]
Like stock creates the base of every great soup, malt provides several key attributes that define beer as we know it, including color, flavor, body, and, eventually through fermentation, alcohol. When formulating the malt bill for a beer, a brewer should take each of these factors into consideration. Grain bills vary widely; some may utilize only one type of malt while others call for complex combinations.
Flavor
Throughout my years of brewing with Bell’s, Old Dominion, and Commonwealth Brewing, I have had many discussions about malt and its contribution to beer flavor. Beer drinkers often have differing opinions as to what defines “malty” flavor. As brewers and maltsters, the techniques we use to capture and produce those flavors also vary. Our exposure to other flavors and our subjective perceptions impact the way malt manifests in the finished product.
If I were to stick a pin on a map to define what malty means to me, it would land close to Munich malt. Although malt also contains toasty, sweet, burnt, and husky flavors, the rich, aromatic flavor of Munich malt is what springs to mind when someone says the word “malt.” Even small additions of Munich malt to a recipe seem to fill out the middle palate. If I am writing a recipe, chances are that there is some Munich malt included. Beyond that, I’m very open to malt styles; German, Belgian, English, and lots of American malts all get their turn on the mashing stage.
Chewing malt is a vital part of beer formulation; it is the best way to explore and analyze the combination of subtle differences between varieties. It’s amazing how many people are disconnected from their senses of taste and aroma. Beer enthusiasts and brewery employees seem reluctant to actually eat ingredients during tours and trainings, and it takes considerable prodding to get people to actually put raw materials in their mouths to truly experience a flavor. Munching on malt lets a person assess more than just flavor, giving a brewer a direct example of crucial quality metrics such as differences in friability1 and moisture content. There are many practical and delicious reasons to put malt in your mouth, all of which help decide what grains will be best for your beer.
Brewing Perspectives
A wide variety of philosophies and techniques is used by brewers in grain bill formulation. Creating a complex yet well-balanced beer is equal parts art and science. It is difficult to quantify the multitude of individual flavor contributions from specific malts, so the brewer must move beyond the spreadsheet. It can be very enlightening to learn how different brewers approach this challenge.
Conceptualizing, brewing, assessing, and tinkering with a recipe is how most brewers approach developing exceptional beers. The process of dialing in a recipe can sometimes take years, but that path can be shortened with sufficient vision, experience, and careful calculations. Brewers approach beer formulation from many different angles: some are technical, thriving off spreadsheets and gross percentages; others are research-based, scouring available resources to get a sense of the range for a given style. And then there are the extremely intuitive brewers who are able to bring a holistic sense of how the individual parts will add up and interact to form a beautiful and balanced beer. Talking to great brewers about how they envision a beer and then pull the malt bill together gives insight into all brewing processes. Thoughts from a few such brewers are shared in the following section.
Cigar City Brewing Co. (Tampa, Fla.)
Wayne Wambles is the main creative force behind the delightfully complex beers at Cigar City in Tampa, Fla. On the continuum of technical focus to artistic vision, Wambles embodies the artistic approach; his conceptualization takes many cues from painting. He described base malt as being the canvas that provides structure for beer. Mouthfeel is analogous to texture of the brush strokes. In his view, specialty grains provide color—toasted and caramel malts impart bright colors whereas dull colors come from darkly roasted malts. With this outlook it is not surprising to find that Wambles often builds resonating and powerful malt flavors in his beers through very complex grain bills. “With Big Sound, our Scottish beer, we use 11 different malts; mainly toasted and caramel malts.”
As he works toward the initial recipe, he may remove or add malt. He describes his approach to formulation in a simple way: “Generally I sit down and try to get an idea of what I want to make: I have a preconceived notion of color, gravity, and IBUs. Then I determine what type of malt flavors I want. After I write down the malts that I want to use, I then fill in the gaps with percentages and IBUs.” It is only after the percentages are determined that he plugs the recipe into an older version of Pro Mash brewing software that he has been using for years. This gives him a good estimate of what he should expect in the brewhouse.
Here’s how Wambles might formulate a theoretical English barleywine. To build the desired underlying supporting complexity he would start with two different types of Maris Otter base malt. His approach is that “when building a wine, great vintners will oftentimes use grapes from different parts of the land.” Wambles would add some cara malts and a bit of Vienna or another toasted malt to the Maris Otter.
Wambles likes to use Maris Otter as a base malt in many different styles; for porters he feels that it builds a complex malt flavor characteristic of the style. He describes that flavor as malty-biscuity with a bit of earthiness. At 3° L it tends to add a lot of flavor without much color and is therefore a great foundation for malt-forward and low-alcohol beers. “It has built-in flavor that you just don’t get with pale. If milled properly I think that it mashes better. If you just crack it, then it lauters very well.” Cigar City uses Simpsons as its main supplier for Maris Otter.
“I like English specialty malts a lot,” Wambles explains. “American malts are very clean but the English cara and crystal malts seem to have more depth. They carry fruit flavors that American malts do not.” For the bright, clean malt flavors needed to complement the flavorful hops in American IPAs, he prefers caramel malts from Briess or Great Western.
Wambles also eagerly shared his love for the fig- and prune-like flavors from English dark caramel malts such as Baird or Simpsons, noting his appreciation for their contributions to styles such as Belgian dubbel or Belgian dark strong. In the robust porter style he likes to use pale chocolate malts. “You can stack chocolate malts up and jack up the percentages, and get a more rounded beer without too much dry, burnt, char flavor.” He likes Cara-foam® malt to add body as well as chocolate rye malt because “you can use lower percentages to get great rye flavor without a difficult lauter.” Briess Special Roast is another go-to malt in his recipe development.
To elevate complexity Wambles recommends adding some Victory®, aromatic, or biscuit malt to the grist but warns, “if you overuse it, it turns into a mess.”
Wambles believes formulating a complex beer requires a deft hand to prevent crossing the line from subtle to dominating. For example, in regards to double IPAs he feels that a touch too much caramel can transform the beer from delightful to “a big sweet mess” that often tastes under-attenuated. Similarly he noted that excessive black patent malt leaves a finish dominated by char and ash flavors. Too much toasted malt, like Victory®, imparts a flavor like unsweetened peanut butter that tastes awful to him.
Wambles is careful to not dilute the malt characteristics with unintended yeast flavors. He likens it to “covering a painting with wax paper” when beers are served with too much suspended yeast. With specialty malt additions that sometimes top 40 percent, it is clear that Cigar City’s commitment to substantial malt flavor is a key part of its brewing program.
Auburn Alehouse (Auburn, Calif.)
Jennifer Talley’s ebullient personality is a window into her passion for brewing. She has been brewing professionally for more than 20 years; first at Squatters Brewery in Salt Lake City, next at Craft Brew Alliance (Red Hook) in Seattle, then Russian River Brewing Co., and finally at Auburn Alehouse. Her many years of pub brewing allowed her the opportunity to trial and refine recipes and the processes for developing them. The desire to make flavorful beers within the lower alcohol constraints required by the state of Utah inspired her to brew creatively.
For Talley, recipe development begins with substantial research. “Before I sit down, I want to learn about the style; read, taste, talk to other brewers. Know the history; learn from it, not to copy but to find what I like about it. Only then do I put pen to paper.”
After determining her target parameters including wort starting gravity, alcohol percentage for finished beer, color, and most importantly malt flavor notes, she begins her calculations. The underlying foundation of the beer is the base malt. She feels it’s important to actively taste the malt as the beer takes shape in her mind. Of particular importance are the specialty malts needed to get to her final objective. She is also keenly aware of the synergy with other ingredients in the beer. “You can destroy everything you are trying to bring out from the malt by over- or under-hopping the beer. The malt does not exist in a vacuum. You need to think about how they all interact.”
When formulating a beer described as “mid-color, malt-forward with middle range hops to provide counterpoint,” Talley would start with about 40 percent Maris Otter pale malt or Gambrinus ESB malt and back that up with the house base malt, likely a standard American two row pale malt. To build a layer of malty character she would add roughly 15 percent of 10° L Munich malt. Adding 5 percent of a midrange 40–60° L caramel malt would complete the initial recipe. Small corrections would likely be made after transferring these quantities into her formulation spreadsheet. The tweaks to the final recipe might include an addition of Carafa® III of less than 1 percent to fine-tune the color. When the first batch of the beer was in her glass she would eagerly seek opinions to determine what additional modifications would be beneficial. For her, the benefit to brewing at a pub was that ready access to different points of view: “I always have open ears to my customers.” She considers the recipe a living document and that subtle changes are not just acceptable, but desired.
When asked what malts stand out to her after years of brewing, she was quick to respond. “Weyermann® Pilsner malt. You just cannot substitute; you need to spend the money on the great malt for the Pilsner style. That flavor is hard to describe; there is a slightly bready but bright maltiness to it.”
She likes Cara-Aroma® from Weyermann® and feels that it brings a depth of caramel maltiness with an added complexity. “It is gentle and bold at the same time with a great color range.” Brewing in Utah taught her how to maximize flavors within the constraints she faced. “If you want a beer that has a malt background you only have so much room. You have a limited amount of malt that you can actually add, because you need fermentable sugars too.”
Another favorite is Hugh Baird roasted barley; she feels it should be the star in a dry Irish stout. To increase color without much flavor she likes Carafa® III, the dehusked black. “No one will ever know it is in your beer. At 1 to 3 percent it can give you the black or the red you want to match the style.” She feels that it is hard to get true red hues, as opposed to copper or amber, and visually there is a large and important difference.
For Talley, the largest problem she encounters as she tries new beers is an excessively heavy hand with specialty malts. “Someone has mistaken punching you in the face for flavor. Overuse is inarticulate in formulation. When I just can’t finish my pint, typically they have overused specialty malt.” In her experience, key culprits include Victory®, chocolate, black malt, and even roasted barley.
“I have a hard time with biscuit. It is easy to overdo it.”
When asked about her least favorite malts, she replied, “Peat malt; it’s too phenolic. If you want smoke flavor, use real smoked malt.”
Wambles holds the same opinion: “Anything peated,” Wambles says. “I have trouble with it in any beer; it is my number one hated malt.”
Piece Brewery and Pizzeria (Chicago, Ill.)
Chicago’s busy and cool Wicker Park neighborhood is the home of Piece Brewery & Pizzeria. Jonathan Cutler has headed up brewing operations since they first opened in 2001. In the time since, the beer produced in the tight brewhouse has garnered plenty of acclaim, including medals at the World Beer Cup® and Great American Beer Festival®.
When Cutler formulates the malt bill for a beer, he thinks about it in three parts. “Base malt is the foundation you build on; with it you’re probably already 90 percent of the way there. I’m always thinking of base malt first.” German Pils malt is his first choice if he is working on a German style. If the beer is American, he will use two-row pale malt. He uses the second portion of malt to “turn the dial and point to the style.” The addition of malts like Munich or crystal to the base malt adds a desired complexity to match the style. He uses the third part, finishing malts, to tweak the beer’s functionality. “It serves a purpose; enhancing head or bringing up the color. I’ll use oats, wheat, or maybe a bit of Carafa® to bring it all together.”
For Cutler, the composition of a beer is like a piece of music. “It’s lyrical, like a song. Your base malt is kind of your bass track; it’s your rhythm, the structure the whole beer is built on. Then you bring in some guitar or keyboard, something interesting. Then you come in on top with your vocals and tie it all together, put a bow on it; some little thing that makes it. It turns a boring song into something that you say, ‘that’s kind of different. I haven’t heard that before.’ The song needs to have a hook.” He adds that, “your first batch is like a demo tape. You may add some backing vocals if need be. It might need a little more cowbell. The malts must work together mellifluously before you know that the cut is ready to press.”
Cutler’s favorite base malts are pale and two row malts from Rahr, Weyermann® Pilsner, and wheat. Common instruments for the middle section? “I am a fan of Munich, English pale, melanoidin, and light caramel like C-15 and C-60.” He uses a wide variety of finishing malts, but Carapils® or dextrin are essential to his beers. “There is nothing else like them.” He is a fan of the whole Weyermann® catalogue and loves the unique flavors of Cara-Foam®, Cara-Hell® and Cara-Wheat®.
“The variety of roast malts is incredible. What kind of roast malt for your stout? Different malts give very different results.” He loves the counterpoint that Munich or chocolate malt brings to a stout. By sitting in the middle, “They tie it all together; it doesn’t just go from base to char.”
Cutler’s least favorite malt is C-60, but he also recognizes that it is essential to craft brewing. “It has great character and is the quintessential malt for American pale ale, but is prone to oxidation within a very short period of time. There is nothing worse than the ribey,2 oxidized C-60 flavor. It’s the perfect middle ground malt but it is a catch-22. It can make a perfect beer but it can also break it.”
His parting advice? “Learn by doing. Sometimes when you taste a malt, it doesn’t necessarily translate to the beer. You need to taste it in the finished beer and learn from that.”
Footnotes
- Friability is the property of being easily crumbled or pulverized. Fully modified malt should be friable, unmalted barley is not.
- Ribes is a British flavor descriptor for bruised tomato or blackcurrant leaves. It is associated with catty flavor.