Brewing With Specialty Grains

Specialty grains are an easy way to add extra flavour, colour and aroma to your brew, and may be easily added to kit and extract recipes. Some of these specialty grains you may use include crystal malt, chocolate malt, carapils and roasted barley. Using these grains will add greater flavours, aroma and complexity to your beers.

The process used to extract flavour from the grains is called steeping. This is simply soaking the cracked grains in hot water and then removing the grains from the liquid.

To do this, you need a basin or pot and a sieve (or a muslin straining bag with the grains inside). Put a liter of hot water in the pot (about 70 degrees C is good). Add the grain to the pot, either loose or in the grain bag. The Muslin bag makes it easier and it simply works like a big teabag. You can dunk the bag up and down a few times in the hot water to help extract the flavour.  Do not boil the grain or squeeze the grain bag as tannins will leach out affecting the flavour. Leave the grain to steep.

Once you have steeped the grain for around 15 to 20 minutes, strain the grain through a sieve into a saucepan. Run another 500ml of hot water through the grain to rinse out the last of the goodness and then discard the used grain.

To ensure the grain liquor is completely bug free, its a good idea to boil the grain liquor for a few minutes before adding it to your fermentor. This is a good time to steep or boil in some extra hops for your brew. See the article on using fresh hops.

Which grains to use?

To start with, try the following recommendations in conjunction with your favourite recipe/kit to add extra flavour and body:

STOUT

100g Roasted Barley and 100g Chocolate Malt

DARK ALE

100g Chocolate Malt and 100g Crystal Malt

AMBER/BROWN ALE

220g Crystal Malt and 30g Chocolate Malt

RED ALE

200g CaraRed Malt and 50g Roasted Barley  (Adds a rich red colour to your Ales and Lagers)

PALE ALE / BITTER

200g Crystal Malt

CARAMUNICH

200g CaraMunich (Adds a subtle sweetness and rich golden hue - great for Lagers, Wheat beers, Blondes and Golden Ales)

LAGER

250g Carapils Malt

To make it easy, Brewers Choice carry a range of specialty grain packs that you can use in your brews. The grain comes measured and pre-cracked for your convenience.

Once you have tried these, you can experiment, using different combinations and amounts. If you like the results, talk to your Brewers Choice Manager for more ideas on how to use grain to improve your beers.

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