How Much Extra Non-Diastatic Material Can Pale Malt Convert?

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SteveD

How Much Extra Non-Diastatic Material Can Pale Malt Convert?

Post by SteveD » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:29 pm

I'm planning a brew that will have a substantial quantity of non-diastatic malt on the grain bill to get authenticity. Somewhere in the deep dark recesses of my memory I've got a figure of 1/3 that pale malt (or other fully diastatic malt) can convert over and above it's own weight of non diastatic grain. eg, each 3kg of pale can convert 1kg of non diastatic material in addition to itself.

I've had a look through my books and on the net but can't find any reference to an even approximate figure. They all say...it has surplus diastatic power, so it can convert 'an ammount' but they don't say how much more!

Aaaarrgh!

I liked the flavour of Seveneer's porter and it reminded me how much I like dark beers, even though I've brewed mainly bitters and pale ales. So, I'm going to have a crack at a porter of my own, but along more historical lines which means OG 1050+ and the inclusion of substantial quantites of brown and amber malt.

What I need to know is..how much brown I can get away with? I can use a lighter grade of amber which has diastatic power together with darker non diastatic amber. I'll also use a percentage of Rauchmalt to get some of the smokiness of old brown malt, and a small percentage of black malt for colour adjustment.

Preliminary grist make up aiming at OG 1060 in 24L :-

Maris Otter Pale 30% 2.3kg
Diastatic Amber 30% 2.3kg
Brown 20% 1.5kg
Rauchmalt 10% 800g
Amber 8% 600g
Black 2% 150g

If it looks like a lot of grain, I'm working on a basis of 65-70% efficiency, so rather than sparging down to 1006 I'm going to stop short and discard the thin stuff at the end of the sparge.

Hops? Who cares. The porter brewers of old used whatever they could get cheap, and rarely first-quality. I've got some goldings in the freezer, I'll copper hop to about 35-40EBU. None late/steep/dry.

If it's sufficiently ready in time I'll bring some along to the next beer club meet. :)

Just need to know wether the grist as made up will convert fully in the mashtun.

tubby_shaw

Post by tubby_shaw » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:37 pm

Your basic 2 row english barley maly (Marris Otter) can easily convert an extra 35% of its weight :D
So using diastatic amber and pale malt in your recipe you will be fine.
It's nice to see the inclusion of Rauchmalt in your grist and at 10% will give a nice smokey flavour without being over powering 8)

There's a bit of info on diastatic power here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashing#Diastatic_power
Last edited by tubby_shaw on Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Andy
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Re: How Much Extra Non-Diastatic Material Can Pale Malt Conv

Post by Andy » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:39 pm

SteveD wrote:If it's sufficiently ready in time I'll bring some along to the next beer club meet. :)
Looking forward to that Steve 8)
Dan!

SteveD

Post by SteveD » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:51 pm

tubby_shaw wrote:Your basic 2 row english barley maly (Marris Otter) can easily convert an extra 35% of its weight :D
So using diastatic amber and pale malt in your recipe you will be fine.
It's nice to see the inclusion of Rauchmalt in your grist and at 10% will give a nice smokey flavour without being over powering 8)
Oh good. I had a figure of 1/3 in mind which is pretty close. I read it somewhere in the books I've got, but couldn't find the source when I looked. I've got 70% diastatic malts so, as you say, it will work fine.

There are many variations of old porter grists. This one is middle period - late 18th to early 19th century, before they started using mostly pale, and whacking in loads of black malt + adulterants. I wanted to make it smoky because old brown malt was, and therefore original porter would have been. It's not a published recipe but my interpretation having gone through Camra's book, Homebrew Classics Stout and Porter.

I would have upped the strength and hop rate as well, but if I'm going to take it to the club in 2 months , this is about as pokey as I think I could get away with and have it reasonably ready for then.

SteveD

Re: How Much Extra Non-Diastatic Material Can Pale Malt Conv

Post by SteveD » Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:51 pm

Andy wrote:
SteveD wrote:If it's sufficiently ready in time I'll bring some along to the next beer club meet. :)
Looking forward to that Steve 8)
Yeah. Me too, the meet that is! I'm just hoping I can get it brewed and matured enough in time. I'll brew something else quicker maturing as a standby in case it doesn't work out. If it does, I'll bring both! You just can't turn up empty handed. It isn't cricket! :wink:

The other beer would probably be something with the stuff from Hog's Back.... a hoppy bitter. Now that would be original, eh ;)

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