tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post3642670625444995222..comments2024-03-28T13:20:29.156-07:00Comments on Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Peat in Scottish maltingRon Pattinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-78379297254507987412013-04-16T18:48:56.965-07:002013-04-16T18:48:56.965-07:00As a Geordie (living now in Australia) I've al...As a Geordie (living now in Australia) I've always been aware that the Bigg Market - a famous street in Newcastle Upon Tyne is exactly that and not a misspelling of "big". It was still a thriving fruit and veg market when I was a teenager in the 1960s. Bribie Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17966634243772332088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-82871277324584213102011-10-19T08:04:08.305-07:002011-10-19T08:04:08.305-07:00Interesting about the partial caramelization and d...Interesting about the partial caramelization and dextrin, since a keynote of traditional Scotch ale has been a notably malty quality. <br /><br />I checked on coke and in this period, it was available, indeed it appears first to have been used to kiln barley malt (mid-1600's). Wikipedia states cokes produce "little or no smoke". <br /><br />What did Moray meant exactly by the best fuel? I think he meant that peat reek, a traditional smell and taste in the Highlands - and Moray was a Scot - was preferable to malt cured with charred pit coal not to mention green resinous plants like reeds and gorse. Why though would peat be preferred over less smoky coke-type coal? Because the Scots liked the taste! We can't exclude either that early coke gave off some objectionable fumes. IMO it always does so to a degree and I think of that 1930's scotch whisky I mentioned earlier which smelled like a coal bin (not burned peat, a taste I know well from Islay whisky).<br /><br />If best meant the most heat - and peat can be a fierce producer of heat - you can read it in the reverse if you exclude reeds and gorse (clearly out of the question for him, "naught"). I.e., Moray preferred the coal taste to the peat taste and assumed the second fuel added would give the keynote taste.<br /><br />However, this seems against the natural meaning of the words he used and also, to this day Scots maltsters making peated malt for whisky add the peat first and then the coke. They do that to ensure the peat taste will stick. Here is a statement from the Wikipedia entry on coke:<br /><br />"Highland Park distillery in Orkney malt barley for use in their Scotch whisky in kilns burning a mixture of coke and peat. The peat is burned for the initial stage of roasting the barley - while the barley can still absorb the particular desired aromas of the peat - lasting for approximately 12 hours; then for the final 36 hours the barley is roasted under the heat of the burning coke.[1]".<br /><br />This is basically the procedure advised by Moray to dry ale malt 230 years ago (if you didn't have enough peat to use only that).<br /><br />Those ales were often reeky from smoky malt, as the Edward Burt comments on twopenny ale from circa-1730 also show.<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-19197385789439278152011-10-19T07:35:25.346-07:002011-10-19T07:35:25.346-07:00Velky Al said: "Furze, if I remember rightly ...Velky Al said: "Furze, if I remember rightly is another term for gorse."<br /><br />I was going to say the same so it must be true. Can't give you a reference but that's what we called gorse in my family. Maybe it's a regional thing.mentaldentalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15226160741245530097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-43804045630062554472011-10-19T06:22:30.139-07:002011-10-19T06:22:30.139-07:00Regarding 4- and 6-row. The 4-row barley is a vari...Regarding 4- and 6-row. The 4-row barley is a variety of the 6-row where a slight twisting in the grains gives the illusion of “4 rows”. So technically a “4-row” should be defined as being a 6-row. This type was in the older days very popular in Scandinavia and I assume in Scotland as well, and most likely is the same as “bigg”.CarlTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-66922249873144733792011-10-19T05:58:44.960-07:002011-10-19T05:58:44.960-07:00Interestingly, this malting procedure will make so...Interestingly, this malting procedure will make some sort of partial crystal /caramel malt. Note the instruction of piling up the fully modified “green malt” in a massive heap and wait until it heats up (from biochemical heat which can’t escape) until “..as hot as your hand can bear it..” which should be enough to start saccharifiaction in the malt at the centre of the heap before it is put on the kiln to dry. The final colour of the malt will of course still depend on the kilning heat, but the resulting malt will most likely in any case give a very dextrinous low attenuating wort.<br />Regarding the smoke flavour, it is true that it penetrates the grain a lot better when moist.CarlTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-5019724720003343442011-10-19T03:25:08.746-07:002011-10-19T03:25:08.746-07:00Furze, if I remember rightly is another term for g...Furze, if I remember rightly is another term for gorse.Velky Alhttp://www.fuggled.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-49203474423599503902011-10-19T01:49:57.102-07:002011-10-19T01:49:57.102-07:00ALso The farmer's magazine has some intresting...ALso The farmer's magazine has some intresting infomation of Bigg, brewing and distilling <br /><br />http://books.google.ie/books?id=xuMIAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA500&lpg=PA500&dq=bigg+malt&source=bl&ots=OKuf8dyjen&sig=sSyrDgKSMB5MvDLAUs8sB1Z1Uts&hl=en&ei=toaeTpf6E8GYhQfXkIxY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=bigg%20&f=falseOblivioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04184794716327407609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-15094326221247830262011-10-19T01:29:09.002-07:002011-10-19T01:29:09.002-07:00Here is an interesting primary source on Bigg, i h...Here is an interesting primary source on Bigg, i have not yet seen any link to smoke or peat in the kilning <br /><br />http://books.google.ie/books?id=xuMIAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA500&lpg=PA500&dq=bigg+malt&source=bl&ots=OKuf8dyjen&sig=sSyrDgKSMB5MvDLAUs8sB1Z1Uts&hl=en&ei=toaeTpf6E8GYhQfXkIxY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=bigg%20malt&f=falseOblivioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04184794716327407609noreply@blogger.com