Author: Marshall Schott

Like many, my interest in brewing at home was sparked by a combo of a joy of making stuff myself, frugality, and my love for the hoppy/bitter IPA. Having had a single unpleasant experience with a dark beer, I’d written off brewing anything darker than the beautiful mahogany hue of an Irish Red or Amber Ale, focusing the large majority of my attention on paler styles. It wasn’t until years later, inspired the deliciousness of Deschutes Brewing’s Black Butte Porter, that my allegiance to hop bombs began waning. I realized I’d been ignoring something special. I’ve since brewed numerous dark beers ranging from Schwarzbier to Russian Imperial Stout, they’ve become some of my favorite styles.

And yet, I was confounded by the very ingredient responsible for giving these delicious beers their dark color. When it came time to design my first dark recipe, I found myself torn between what seemed the two most popular roasted grain options– Roasted Barley, an unmalted roasted grain said to impart a smooth chocolate and coffee character, and Black Malt, aka Black Patent, a malted option many people claim imparts acrid and ash-like flavors. One was better for Stout, the other better for Porter, and a blend of both worked well for certain styles.

I only recently stumbled on a BYO article from 2007 where the differences between Roasted Barley and Black Malt are discussed, within which is the comment:

If there ever was a malt equivalent of the crazy uncle that lives under the stairs, black malt (also called black patent malt) would be it. Few people use it, most people don’t think they like it and everyone is afraid of it. Why, you ask? Because all the current literature tells you so. A usual description goes something like this, “Black malt lends a very sharp, acrid, burnt flavor whose harshness is beyond that of both chocolate malt and roasted barley.” Sometimes, it is additionally described as “ashy.”

Without a doubt, I fall into the category of people who “don’t think they like it,” as I’d used it only a handful of times, usually because I was out of Roasted Barley and needed something for color adjustment. I was afraid, to be sure, and wanted to avoid producing 5 gallons of ashtray water. But I’ve come to trust Kristen over my years of reading his articles and watching/listening to interviews with him. The dude knows what he’s doing and the fact his nearly decade old comment went against the conventional wisdom made me all the more interested to put this one to the test.

| PURPOSE |

To investigate the differences between Roasted Barley and Black Malt when used to make an otherwise similar Porter recipe.

| METHODS |

In order to emphasize the potential delta caused by the variable in question, I went against my regular Porter approach by limiting the roasted malts in the recipe to either Roasted Barley or Black Malt, using a bit more than I usually do.

This Is a Porter Recipe

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 28.4 IBUs 34.5 SRM 1.055 1.012 5.7 % Actuals 1.055 1.012 5.6 % Fermentables Name Amount % Brewer's Malt, 2-Row, Premium (Great Western) 8.5 lbs 73.91 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L 1 lbs 8.7 Roasted Barley OR Black Malt 1 lbs 8.7 White Wheat Malt 1 lbs 8.7 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 15 g 60 min Boil Pellet 11.2 Fuggles 30 g 15 min Boil Pellet 5.2 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090) White Labs 80% 65°F - 68°F

I made a larger than necessary starter of WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast a couple nights before brewing with plans to harvest some for future use before splitting it between the batches.

I measured out the grains and water for both batches the evening prior to brewing, adjusting each with the same minerals. I purchased both sets of grain at the same time from MoreBeer in order to ensure any differences weren’t a function of age or storage conditions. Interestingly, Baird’s Roasted Barley and Briess’ Black Malt were listed as sharing the same 500˚ L, though a side-by-side comparison revealed what appeared to be a pretty big disparity that left me skeptical a difference in character or color of the finished beers wouldn’t be noticeable.

I proceeded to mill each batch of grain into separate buckets that I covered and left alone until it was time to brew.

While milling, I chewed on a couple kernels of each grain to compare the flavor and was surprised how similar they tasted. I’m not sure I’d be able to tell a difference with my eyes closed. The following morning, I heated my strike water then mashed in each batch 20 minutes apart to make for an easier brew day.

Since this variable required separate mashes, hitting the same temperature was important.

About 15 minutes into each mash, I pulled small samples of sweet wort that I chilled to room temperature for pH measurements. While Bru’n Water predicted they’d be the same based on being the same color, I wasn’t so sure given the observed difference, a hunch my meter confirmed.

Each batch endured a 60 minute mash rest with an equal amount of stirs every 15 minutes. I then performed a batch sparge to collect the same volume of sweet wort from each batch and brought them to a rolling boil, the two hop charges added at the appropriate times.

At the conclusion of each boil, I rapidly chilled the worts then took refractometer readings and observed a small but noticeable difference in OG.

Two 6 gallon PET carboys were filled with 5.25 gallons of either wort, placed in my fermentation chamber to finish chilling to 66˚F/19˚C, then eventually pitched with equal amounts of yeast. Both beers were fermenting nicely 18 hours later.

I expected the kräusen on the beers to look at least somewhat different, but that wasn’t the case, both appeared identical for the 5 days they were active. I raised the temperature to 72˚F/22˚C and let them sit another 4 days before cold crashing, fining with gelatin, then kegging.

The full kegs were force carbonated at 40 psi for 22 hours then purged and reduced to 12 psi for serving. When it came time to collect data the following week, the beers were nicely carbonated and had a very slight difference in head appearance.

| RESULTS |

A total of 26 people participated in this xBmt including local craft beer lovers, homebrewers, and a few podcast hosts. Each taster was blindly served one sample of the Roasted Barley beer and two samples of the Black Malt beer in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. In order to achieve statistical significance with this sample size, 14 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to correctly identify the odd sample out. The total number of participants who made the correct identification was 10 (p=0.36), which is consistent with chance and suggests a beer produced with 1 lb of Roasted Barley was not reliably distinguishable from a similar beer made with 1 lb of Black Malt by this tasting panel.

My Impressions: In 6 separate “blind” triangles served to me by others, I was only able to select the unique sample twice, and both of those were admittedly guesses. The only way I was able to tell the beers apart was by foam color, the Black Malt beer being slightly whiter than the more tan head of the Roasted Barley beer. Otherwise, they tasted the same to me. And unlike one of the aforementioned hosts, I experienced both beers as being very smooth, possessing a really nice mouthfeel with an ideal touch of sweetness that was nowhere near cloying, and having much less roasty character than I expected. I’ve made many batches of Porter over the years and I’d have to say this is probably my favorite one to date… both of ’em.

| DISCUSSION |

When it comes to designing an xBmt, there are a few important things we always consider, one of which has to do with the extremity of variable under investigation. In this particular case, I chose to use what I believe to be a moderate amount of either Roasted Barley or Black Malt for the comparison in hopes any differences might be amplified. But that’s not what happened, tasters could to reliably tell the beers apart, which might leave some wondering if the malts can be used interchangeably. The Session co-host, Mike “Tasty” McDole, pondered whether using a larger charge of roasted grain in future iterations of this xBmt might be warranted, as it would presumably boost the character each contributes and make the differences more easily identifiable. Makes sense. But then I started thinking about the oft touted “less is more” adage when it comes to using certain ingredients in cooking and brewing. For many, 1 lb of roasted grain in a 5 gallon batch of anything other than Dry or Imperial Stout is quite a bit, these grains tend to be used more judiciously to add the “essence” of what they’re purported to impart. This left me wondering if smaller amounts of roasted grain would have yielded a larger between-batch delta. I suppose there’s really only one way to find out.

For the sake of clarification, in no way do the results of this xBmt imply Roasted Barley and Black Malt are the same. By nature of the processes used to produce these grains, they are different. The fact participants in this single xBmt were unable to distinguish between beers made with either grain suggests that, in certain applications, they seem to impart a similar character.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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