Base malt 1880 - 1914

Another preview of the book I'm busy with. Well, one of the three books I'm working on. The last week or so has mostly been dedicated to Weisse. I've unearthed some interesting new stuff. Which I'm sure I'll be boring you with at some point.

White malt
Made from the very best and palest barley and dried at a low temperature. This type of malt was no longer made very often. But it does pop up occasionally in brewing records for the earlier part of the period.

Pale malt
As it had been since around 1800, pale malt was the base used in the vast majority of beer. Though it was by no means the only base malt employed. As you will see later, it turned up in every style.

Just like white malt, it was manufactured from top-quality. The difference was that it was kilned at a slightly higher temperature, finishing at 180°-200° F.  It was between 4º and 6º (on the tintometer) in colour.

Mild malt
As the name implies, this was a kind of malt mostly intended for use in Mild Ales. It was generally similar to pale malt, save for being slightly darker in colour. Lesser quality barley was used than for pale malt and its diastatic power was also lower.  In addition, it yielded more maltodextrin.

The final kilning temperature needed to be at least 200º F. Giving a colour of 10º to 15º.

Mild Ales, Burton Ales and Stouts all regularly contained some mild malt. It was often used in combination with other base malts, such as pale malt and SA malt.

SA malt
Another very specific type of base malt, SA was intended for use in Strong or Stock Ales. Hence the name. It was malted in such a way as to produce a less fermentable wort. Which is what you would want in Stock Ales, where some residual sugars were needed for secondary conditioning. In the recipes, as there’s no direct modern equivalent, I’ve substituted mild malt.

In addition to Stock Ales, SA malt was also employed in Mild Ales.