Has anybody used Briess Distillers Malt?

[bpgreen]

I think more beer was promoting this the last time I placed an order. The price was the same as 2 row, so I got 20 lbs of this and 20 lbs of 2 row, along with a few other things.

I'll be brewing a batch with it this weekend, but I'm curious if anybody has used it already.

[Beer-lord]

I've seen it at More Beer and it peaked my interest but that's as far as I got. I'm interested in how it comes out.

[The_Professor]

My understanding would be that something called distiller's malt would be optimized for diastatic power. What's the grain bill you are planning on BP?

[bpgreen]

My understanding would be that something called distiller's malt would be optimized for diastatic power. What's the grain bill you are planning on BP?

I read up on it after posting. The diastatic power is 250!

It's designed for grain bills with high amounts of unmalted grain.

I did read a few reviews on morebeer from people who used ir for bert and they had good things to say about it.

My grain bill is 10 lbs of distillers malt, .5 lhb c60, .5 lhbs raw wheat (just because I get it in bulk st Costco; I used to use more when I did partial mash biab, but I get an e4 error if I use more in the m&b). I was planning on using 1 lb of oatmeal (because I bought a giant bucket at Costco by accident because it's next to the wheat and I have to use it up). I had a brain fart while weighing the oatmeal and accidentally used 543 g instead of 453. So I do have some unmalted grain, but not so much that it would need this much diastatic power.

My efficiency had never been great since going all grain (it's gotten better, but it's still not great), so maybe this will help. One potential drawback would be that the beer might end up too thin.

[bpgreen]

I haven't kegged a batch using this yet, so I don't know what the final results will bre.

But I can offer a few observations.

The individual grains are tiny. I don't know if a normal crush made a dent. But for my second batch, I used my kitchen aid attachment at the setting just slightly coarser than when I want to make flour.

Although the reviews on morebeer said they got better efficiency using this, but my OG on the two batches I've made with it were similar to what I've gotten with Breiss 2 row, maybe slightly lower.

It may make the wort more fermentable, but that's kind of a mixed bag. I might get a higher ABV, but it might also thin the beer more than I'd like.

[mashani]

Random thoughts / blather:

A malt with more amylase enzyme availability won't convert more then can be converted (as long as there are enough enzymes to convert whatever it is in the mash). In anything but a mash with a huge amount of adjunct, it will just makes it happen faster, so in mash of nn duration where someone isn't actually doing a conversion test, they might get better results if the nn duration wasn't actually long enough. Yes, some pro brewers do 15 or 20 minute mashes. Those same brewers also do TWO HOUR or even longer sparges with a very slow trickle of water and temps that effectively keep mashing the grains and converting sugars as the water trickles through the grain bed. They are not simply "releasing the sugars" with a sparge, they are making more while sparging. With a long mash, there is nothing left to convert, which is why we can cold sparge after a long mash.

Anyways, I think you mash for like forever (many hours, over night sometimes), and with a really long mash all the stuff you are using will convert regardless, as you aren't using massive amounts of corn or the like, just 5% or 10% raw wheat, which is no different then using that kind of proportion of flaked grains. (and that is not massive amounts).

You can mash 100% Light Munich malt with a D power of like 60, and still get full conversion if you are patient enough and don't use any other adjunct malts. It just takes longer. Hence the existence of ginormous long traditional step infusion mashes for such things. Those kinds of mashes aren't very useful with modern high enzyme grains unless you are trying to get cloves in a wheat beer, but did serve a legitimate purpose for malts like this, or older less modified base malts.

The small kernel size you mentioned (especially if they are skinny kernels vs. plump) makes me think it's 6 row based, or if not some really weird 2 row variety. Either way, with a small kernel like that, by "volume" it's likely going to have a bit more protein and a bit more husk compared to the "good starchy stuff" in the middle. So it actually could give you slightly lower OG then if you used the same amount of a high enzyme 2 row malt with plumper kernels with more "good starchy stuff".

Also, unless it has some magical enzyme other then amylase, it's not going to make anything "more fermentable" then any other malt once all the starches are converted, anymore then any other kind of malt. If it makes something "more fermentable" for someone who makes some beer with another malt, they just didn't mash long enough and didn't do a conversion test and basically didn't get full conversion whether they realize it or not, or else mashed at a lower temperature, or had better water profile, or something else most likely.

[bpgreen]

Good information, mashani, as always.

I've been doing overnight mashes for a while. It's just so easy to set the m&b up and have it ready whenever I've got time. I sometimes start my sparge in the morning, and sometimes don't get to it until after dinner.

I've been using about .5 lb raw wheat and 1 lb oatmeal lately. But 2 row converts that pretty easily, even without a long mash.

I never thought about the effect of the length of the mash on hot vs room temp sparge. But it makes total sense.