Malted grains, what's what?

[DaveZ]

For a newbie it's all a bit confusing. Is there an easy way to tell what's what when I go online shopping for a malted grain? A recipe may call for malted barley and malted rye, but I go to an online store and there's 700 varieties of malts. I'd love to try mountain moonshiners recipe but have no friggen idea what to buy :handgestures-thumbdown:

[philthy]

keep researching threads olmate and it will click after abit. Im a newbie also son, the fellas here have forgotten more than ill ever know ^:)^ . im bout to put one down yeeeeehaaaa :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Kimbo]

Hi Dave,
there are 4 main types of grain we use.
they are: Corn, Rye, Barley and wheat. These can be malted or not ( they will say on the packet)
when you come across things like Pilsner, Chrystal, caramalt,etc these are all Malted Barley, roasted/toasted/prepared in different ways to produce different flavours.
I hope this helps :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[philthy]

told ya :laughing-rolling:

[DaveZ]

So most of the malts will be barley then? I've been looking at pilsner, ale etc etc with no clue as to what it is. The malted wheat always seams to say wheat in the name, and I've seen malted rye, the rest must be just 101 variations on barley? So how do you know what to choose? What's a good one to choose if you're just after the conversion ability?

Thanks for the assistance guys :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Dave.

[Kimbo]

So most of the malts will be barley then?Yes I've been looking at pilsner, ale etc etc with no clue as to what it is. The malted wheat always seams to say wheat in the name, and I've seen malted rye, the rest must be just 101 variations on barley? YepSo how do you know what to choose? Trial and error, it comes down to your taste What's a good one to choose if you're just after the conversion ability? I would start with a pilsner ;-)

Thanks for the assistance guys :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Dave.

[DaveZ]

Legend. That makes it a shitload easier, pick a pilsner and wait for experience to guide me the rest of the way.

[Linny]

try drinking different beer profiles to see what you like ... i personally like ales but like kimbo said its all personal choice ....

makers mark originally baked bread to see what grains he liked

[r.c.barstud]

All grain mashing is kinda complex, grain efficiency, yield all that sort of thing. However with barley there is a enzyme efficiency problem that exists, without going into depth there are 2 basic types of barley, 2 row and 6 row, that is 2 rows of seed on the seed head as the same with 6 row there are 6 rows of seed per seed head. The 6 row is better for the conversion factor, 2 row is still viable, it just needs a bit of a enzyme booster. Malted corn is great for natural yeast component, malted wheat and rye is best bought rather than malted at home, the conversion during malting usually gives a nasty toxin. The mash efficiency is a lot of rootin around, I posted a thread on here for jack Daniels mash bill, that might give you an idea on grain bills

[DaveZ]

Beer? :puke-huge: But I get your point, trial and error, see what suits personal taste and what doesn't. Just a starting point is all I'm after. The selection is just plain bewildering. I get the whole 2 row V 6 row thing, but when faced with 5 pages of different malts with varying brand names it just becomes a little overwhelming as to where to start. It's not like I can afford to buy one of each to see what I like and what I don't.

Thanks for all the advice so far, it's given me a good point of reference to begin with.

[Sam.]

There are so many malted varieties for the beer brewers.

Depends on what you are going to do with your grain as well.

If you are just using all malted grain then it doens't really matter what it is, it will be a taste thing.

If you are using a malted grain to also convert unmalted grain then you need a malted grain with a high diastatic power. So you could use say 2kg of malted grain to convert another 2kg of unmalted grain etc.

If you are just using it for taste and are adding sugar is doesn't matter either way, just taste.

Confusing enough yet? :-D

[DaveZ]

Ooh yeah, plenty confusing lol. Thing is there doesn't seem to be a lot of info on the sites to say this is a 6 row, this a 2 row etc. Unfortunately there aint a grain to be seen in my local HBS so I'm left with online stores if I want to go down the all grain path. I have standard cracked corn and barley here from the feed store, but will have to look online for malted stuff. I think I'll close my eyes and pick a pilsner malt and some malted rye, make up MM's recipe and go from there.

[Sam.]

Good plan :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Check out grain and grape or beerbelly for online :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[r.c.barstud]

The barley from your local feed joint will usually be 2row, unmalted of course. The stuff from the home brad shops is usually 6 row( not always) but 2row barley for a.g mashed will work. As a rule of thumb, use 1-1.4 kilo oh grain per 4 litres of water. Alternatively use a sugar head instead of the malted grain, the grain bill remains the same, the sugar provides the alcohol component, it's probably the best and easiest way to learn grain bills. I'm just learning sugar heads myself, they are by far waaaay easier, less work, better yields, etc. I did a comparison a few weeks back and posted the differences on a thread here somewheres. Sugar heads rock!!

[DaveZ]

I've done a few runs of Macs BWKO which is a sugarhead grain wash, I'm loving the results, just would like to try a few AG mashes to see how they compare.

[r.c.barstud]

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3763

As for the taste at this point, all grain is in the lead, the sugar head is just a poofteenth sweeter, but overall, it's still bloody good :)

[r.c.barstud]

Here's my favourite 2 row mash bill, 70% corn, 16% wheat and 14% malted barley(2 row). I'm lead to believe this is makers mark's mash bill, I'm not too sure if it is or not but its bloody nice

[DaveZ]

Thanks mate, I'll have a good read of that when I get time :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[DaveZ]

Had to go for a drive to Emerald today so visited the HBS while I was there. They didn't have much in the way of grains either, but I bought what they had, 2.5kgs of crystal malt. Also managed to find a couple tins of the caramalt extract for macs whiskey. Not sure what I'll do with the malt yet, probably just have a go at the mac whiskey and see how it turns out. Just gotta find some rye.

[DaveZ]

And also got online and ordered 10kgs each of Weyermann Pilsner Malt and rye malt :handgestures-thumbupleft: Now just trying to work out what I'm going to do for a bloody grain mill :think: