Experimental Homebrewing by Drew Beechum

Author:Drew Beechum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2014-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

In the United States you’d have a hard time knowing about strain variety because domestic malts are usually sold to homebrewers by general style monikers. German malts usually are sold by the generic type as well, but if you look at British malts, you’ll see the varieties poking out.

For instance, Maris Otter is not a pale malt toasted in a particular fashion; it is the strain. It was developed in the late 1960s in Britain as a high-yield winter barley variety for cask beer makers. Because the strain is nearly fifty years old, it’s been passed in yield and stability by newer strains and is hanging on just barely, because of its flavors. You’ll see others from Britain as well: Pipkin, Optic, Halcyon, Golden Promise, and so on (see page 195 for tasting notes). Just about the only European malt you’ll ever see explicitly referred to by strain is Moravian, the traditional malt of the Pilsen region.

Every great once in a while, you will see recipes still refer to American strains such as Klages, Harrington, or even B1202. Klages is no longer commercially grown, and even Harrington, once the king of American malts, has faded. Modern varieties such as Tradition, Lacey, and AC Metcalfe have taken their place.

Here’s the question, then: Why don’t we know about these varieties? It’s a not a nefarious conspiracy; the truth is that buyers are usually interested in the variety as much as the data. Barley variety development at several US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Stations (and similar institutions around the world) is driven by the demands of the biggest customers, the mass breweries. Comparatively, craft brewers are just now getting some sway while we homebrewers are the gleaners of the industry.

What do the big brewers want? More than anything, they want consistency, low cost, and low protein with high enzymatic content and starch content. That translates to less room taken up in the mash tun and stronger, clearer, smoother, and more stable wort. The farmers—who already lose a ton of money to barley not fit for malting and beer making—want to increase their product yield that fits the numbers needed for malt. Less than a quarter of the world’s barley growth meets the statistics for the higher-price malting barley category. The rest goes to cheap farm feed.

So farmers want consistent yields, but brewers need consistent numbers for repeatability. How does a maltster faced with a naturally varying agricultural product deal with this dilemma? Maltsters blend—and that is the reason your malt isn’t coming to you as “Tradition” Pale Ale Malt. By blending multiple varieties, a maltster can dial in their numbers (unless the growing season has been truly terrible).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.