One Porter, Hold the Alcohol - Evaluating Malt with Tea

Happy Wednesday y’all,

This week, I finally got around to doing something that’s been on the ol’ docket for the better part of a year, namely, brewing malt teas. The idea is simple enough: fermentation and hops obscure the “true” flavor of malts, so why not perform super tiny mashes (sold, don’t care what the purpose is) in order to evaluate the flavor of individual malts, by themselves, and through the “clear glass” of a straightforward steep/mini mash?

The protocol is simple - mill 1.5 oz of your chosen malt, steep it in a mug with 4 oz (weight, not fluid - the difference is, though, only a few grams), wait 30 minutes, and filter through a coffee filter (like a basic pourover setup). Et voila. 

The resultant teas were quite tasty, and I figured I’d just explain what I expected, based on the usual textbook descriptions, for each of the five malts I analyzed (Pilsner, Munich, Crystal 77˚, Experimental Brown, Chocolate), and then copy-and-paste my tasting notes. That’s it! Not a single link this week (jk). 

Pilsner

What I expected: the descriptions for Pils usually contain the terms “grainy” and perhaps “honey,” with various terroir-specific notes concerning specific baked goods, or maybe a fruit. I expected interesting bread

What I got:

• Nose: sweet bagels, like a high-quality wonderbread, shortbread

• Tase: similar; highly bready and almost a touch caramel-y; concha; clean grain

Munich

What I expected: I love Munich, and it’s usually described as quintessentially “malty,” with a dash of “honey” again, and maybe bready, fruity, or even chewy. It’s usually described as a darker Pils with an added depth, hence the similar descriptions

What I got

• Nose: Goldfish almost; rye bread; a sort of cheddar bagel or cracker; pumpernickel. Weirdly savory

• Taste: Honestly, goldfish again, and that slight rye je ne sais quoi; bagel chips. Malty? In some abstract way. Maybe a dash of unsalted pretzel

Crystal 77

What I expected: You’re only “supposed” to use Crystal as a relatively small (maybe 10% or less, broadly) component of darker beers, so I wasn’t actually sure what to expect. Obviously a caramel-y sweetness, maybe some dark fruit (plum, dried apricot perhaps) given the dark color, and maybe the beginnings of an astringent bite

What I got:

• Nose: treacle, toffee, molasses; possibly like a plum vibe; maybe some welch’s grape

• Taste: surprisingly bitter; there’s a present maltiness unlike the munich, but that rye-astringent character is way louder; some of the roasty fruitiness of a lightly roasted, high quality coffee, but no coffee flavor; vague burnt toast, more darkly toasted than burnt actually; some mild honey

Experimental Brown Malt

What I expected: worth mentioning, the method of making this peculiar malt entails making what amounts to Munich malt (which is to say, encouraging the Maillard reaction), but then taking it way too far by letting that process of Maillard Temperature-holding carry on for hours and hours, resulting in a malty h-bomb of flavor. I love this malt so, so much. Unlike most malts, I’ve actually made a 100% beer with this malt (Munich and Pils being the other malts I’ve used for one-malt beers), so I knew to expect some lovely dark fruit flavors, as well as a ton of malty goodness, and maybe a dash of muscovado and the beginnings of chocolate.

What I got:

• Nose: what I think of as maltiness (note on process: something of a super-munich); oddly, quite similar to a munich or personable british base malt in aroma

• Taste: fruit punch! This stuff is incredible. Some chocolate, a touch of muscovado, grape jelly, relatively light sweetness compared with the others. Almost a vague vinegar-y pungent-ness, but no acidity. Quite a bit of umami that meshes well with the sweetness - think a worcestershire-heavy barbeque sauce

Chocolate Malt

What I expected: as the name suggests, this malt is “supposed” to taste like something on the burnt toast-cholocate-coffee spectrum. I expected little more, and given that Chocolate Malt is usually quite a small percentage of grists, I expected that I might not...love a 100% Chocolate Malt tea

What I got:

• Nose: clearly still grainy, but a heavy burnt-toast smell, tempered with some chocolate; a bit smokey (good pipe tobacco, not cigarette or, really, any wood)

• Taste: truly unpalatable at first. Quite roasty, quite astringent, with some chocolate and burnt toast. There’s an odd savory element that I can’t quite place. Burnt. 

Conclusion

And that’s it! Riveting, right? I was surprised by the depth and enjoyability of some of these, notably the Pilsner and Brown Malt, and by some of the flavors I got from the Munich, my default cool-guy “what’s your favorite malt” answer (nobody asks, you correctly assume). I won’t be doing this any time soon, because it’s a bit cumbersome, but you better believe a planned 100% Brown Malt beer just got pushed up the brewing calendar quite a bit

Thanks for reading, and cheers!

Adrian “but how did they make you feel” Febre

P.S. Enjoy the quick lil’ slideshow below