On Friday, August 23, 2019, I made my first attempt at making some crystal malt. I used Brewcabin.com’s post as a guide.
8:00 AM: Soaked 1 lb Thomas Fawcett Golden Promise malt in about 21 oz of bottled water in a plastic container at around 78°F for four hours.
12:07 PM: Poured the soaked grains into a stainless steel stock pot with lid and floated in eight gallons of water in my boil kettle at 160°F. Plan to let mash for 3 hours.
1:15 PM: The grains seemed to be losing water so I added a bottle of water (16.9 oz) to the stock pot. On retrospect, I believe this was way too much water to add, if any needed be added at all.*
3:25 PM: Poured the grains into a colander to drain off liquid. Collected about 20 oz of wort that measured 5.9 Brix.* Spread the grains in a stainless steel pan to about 1/2″ inches deep. Placed in oven at 220°F to begin drying.
3:45 PM: Stirred grains.
4:15 PM: Stirred grains.
I stirred the grains every 30 minutes. It took approximately 4 hours to sufficiently dry the grains. I then set the oven at 300°F. Once the oven was heated to 300°F, I began timing. I let the grains roast for 20 minutes. That is my guess at achieving about 30L, based on figures from the Brewcabin.com post.
* In retrospect, I believe I added way too much additional water while mashing. I think spraying the grains occassionally would be a better idea. I did not want them to dry out, but also, I think having them soaking in water draws sugars from the grains into solution – lost sugar! So next time I will spray them as necessary so they remain wet, but not soaking.
The crystal malts tasted great. I think they will add some nice flavor and color to a beer, but they are crunchy and easy to chew and lack the hard glassiness of typical crystal malts.
