So many roasted malts

You may never have heard of Plunkett Brothers, but they did play a key role in a classic beer.

They were a Dublin-based malt roaster. And, most importantly, pretty much house roaster to Guinness.

As this testimonial attests.

James's Gate Brewery, Dublin, 25th February, 1873
"Dear Mrs. Plunkett,
We have the pleasure of stating that we are purchasing considerable quantities of your Patent Brown Malt, and find it of very good quality. We would alio say that our connection with your Firm and that of your husband, the late Mr. Randal Plunkett, and his father, extends over fifty years, during which we have had large and satisfactory transactions.
ARTHUR GUINNESS, SONS & CO.
Mrs. Eliza Plunkett, Belle Vue.

The above text comes rom a Plunkett Brothers advertisement in "The Theory and Practice of Modern Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1888. By which time Guinness hhad probably swapped out the Patent Brown Malt for roast barley. I know for certain that they were using roast barley in 1894, because I've seen it in a bbrewing record.

Plunkett Brothers produced an impressive range of roast grains:

Chocolate Finest Patent Malt Roasted for Flavor.
Finest Patent Malt Roasted for flavor and color.
No. 1 Patent Roasted Black Malt for color.
No. 2 Patent Roasted Black Malt for color.
Patent Roasted Barley.
Patent Roasted Maize (Patent granted June, '80)
Special “Candied” Malt (Registered March 31, '85)
Golden Finish Malt.
No. 1 Amber Brown Malt.
No. 2 Amber Brown Matt.
High-dried Pale Malt.

I wonder what roasted maize was like? And what the hell it was used for.

Roasted malt or roasted barley

I remember when I first looked at Barclay Perkins Porter records being confused by the appearance of "roasted" in the grists. I assumed it stood for roasted barley. How little I knew back then.

The records in question were from before 1880 which meant it couldn't possibly have been roasted barley, as that was illegal before the Free Mash Tun Act. A kind reader helpfully pointed out that it must have been roasted malt, another way of describing black malt. Or patent malt. I've just stumbled upon something that means I might have been right after all. Sort of.

I've been spending the last couple of days ripping the statistical tables out of "A Practical Treatise on Malting and Brewing" by William Ford. It's got some great number on malt and hops. Just what I needed for my collection of beer-related statistics. I'm very proud of my tables of numbers. Every so often I open them up, just to admire them. I should really mould a second volume of "Numbers!" from them.

When I'd finished extracted and dusting off the numbers, I thought I'd run my eyes over the wordy parts of the book. May as well, while I was in the neighbourhood. Which is when I found this fascinating passage about roasted malt:

"This may be considered the proper place to introduce a few words on an interesting and prominent article in brewing, namely, Roasted Malt.

Being of comparative modern invention, and most valuable to the porter brewery, it has, in a great degree, superseded the Blown, or Brown Malt, which had constituted a very important branch of the malting business. It has likewise, to some extent, interfered with Amber Malt.

Both Brown and Amber Malt are used for giving colour and flavour, but principally flavour, to porter. But this misnamed malt, roasted, has displaced above two-thirds of the Brown and Amber. One peck of roasted is equal, in giving colour, to eight bushels of brown. Formerly the grist for porter was constituted of one-third pale, one-third brown, and one-third amber."
 "A Practical Treatise on Malting and Brewing" by William Ford, 1862, pages 68

Black malt interfering with amber malt? Surely it should be locked up for such behaviour. Being more serious, I'm sure that black malt did reduce the usage of brown malt. In the years before its invention in 1817, Porter grists were 30-40% brown malt. Not sure that equal parts of pale amber and brown is one that I've seen.

This is what happened to Whitbread Porter and Stout grists during the 19th century:

Whitbread Porter grists 1805 - 1900
Year	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	sugar
1805	79.08%	20.92%
1808	56.95%	28.70%		14.35%
1816	54.76%	25.99%		19.25%
1817	88.00%	11.64%	0.36%
1821	94.98%	3.86%	1.16%
1830	98.28%		1.72%
1840	85.62%	11.99%	2.40%
1850	76.41%	20.34%	3.25%
1860	75.97%	20.36%	3.67%
1870	79.19%		5.99%			14.83%
1880	85.77%	8.70%	5.53%
1888	79.93%	4.08%	7.35%		8.64%
1891	77.49%	9.67%	6.82%			6.02%
1895	85.54%	6.81%	7.66%
1900	85.77%	7.12%	7.12%
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/001, LMA/4453/D/09/003, LMA/4453/D/09/010, LMA/4453/D/09/011, LMA/4453/D/09/014, LMA/4453/D/09/023, LMA/4453/D/09/034, LMA/4453/D/09/043, LMA/4453/D/09/054, LMA/4453/D/09/064, LMA/4453/D/09/075, LMA/4453/D/09/082, LMA/4453/D/09/085, LMA/4453/D/09/090, LMA/4453/D/09/094.

It's clear that the introduction of black malt had an immediate impact on Whitbread's use of brown and amber malt. But the use of brown malt increased again between 1840 and 1860, before falling again at the end of the century.

"The word malt is greatly libelled in these roasting-houses. The corn is steeped only forty hours, being the shortest time the law allows, consequently pays at least 5 per cent. less duty than ordinary malt, and is usually thrown upon the kiln from four to seven days after being emptied from the cistern. Corn perfectly malted will not give out so much of colour, or so standing a colour, as that merely partially malted; and on the other hand, barley, unmalted or not steeped, gives still less colour, and the colour is not permanent. This corn is not so perfectly dried on the malt kiln as pale or other malts; and the process of roasting is conducted by law, as it respects the premises, not less than one mile from the malt-house; the business of roasting is similar to that of roasting coffee. The best quality is that which is of a dark coffee-brown colour, nearly black, and close roasted, that is to say, none of the corns burst.
"A Practical Treatise on Malting and Brewing" by William Ford, 1862, pages 68 - 69.

Now isn't that fascinating? Black malt wasn't properly malted, but just enough to pass the legal definition. It doesn't shock me that maltsters would try to skip as much of the process as they could get away with. I am surprised that the colouring properties of partially malted grains were better than either fully malted or unmalted ones. Especially that unmalted grains performed the worst.

"There is a special Act of Parliament for regulating the proceedings of the malt-roaster, which I have reason to believe was concocted mainly by a few of the London roasters, ostensibly to protect the trade and revenue against the fraud of roasting barley not paying the malt duty. But the effect of its provisions are to create a very nice little monopoly; the trade is in very few hands, all is sent out by certificate."
"A Practical Treatise on Malting and Brewing" by William Ford, 1862, page 69.

There was a reason for this legislation: the government didn't trust the roasters, suspected them of roasting unmalted grains. They limited the number of them so they could keep a better eye on them.

"I was sent for by the Excise to examine a sample of corn called Patent, or Black Malt, for my opinion whether it was ever malted. I found that about one-tenth—not more—had partially vegetated; my answer was,  'As part had vegetated, it was possible all might have been steeped and paid duty, consequently it was malt according to law, but never was the malt of commerce, inasmuch as the law, as now construed, constituted all grain to be malt that had been steeped forty hours, and had remained in couch thirty hours, without reference to its being malted.'

But by a late Act, all malt found upon the premises of a malt-roaster, or roasted malt found on the premises of a brewer, that has more than five per cent. of unmalted grain, or if grain have more than five per cent. of which the acrospire has not passed at least half over the grain, the same is liable to seizure.

The principal makers of Black or Roasted Malt are Mr. Walmsley, New Boad, Whitechapel; Mrs. Backhouse, Spital Square; Messrs. Bandall, Lambeth; and Mr. Swonnell, London; and Messrs. Plunkett, Dublin."
"A Practical Treatise on Malting and Brewing" by William Ford, 1862, pages 69 - 70.

So black malt was malt as defined by law, but not really malt in the sense of having been completely malted. If you see what I mean. Nor would it have qualified as malt according to an older legal definition. The latest legal definition seemed to be more concerned that it had been through the process where it was measured for tax purposes (i.e. the malt tax had been paid on the grains) rather that it actually having been malted fully.

As usual. it was all about money. As long as the government got their tax, they really didn't give a toss what the maltster did.

So what was it - roasted malt or roasted barley? Seems like roasted half-malt is the answer. I wonder if anyone still makes something similar?

Beer Ignorance

Unwisely, I've looked at some more of the Beer Genie site. Oh dear. Oh dear.

One section is called "Beer Knowledge". Beer Ignorance would be more accurate. Here's one of the best bits:

"Stout

A drier, darker, fuller-bodied and, some would say, stouter descendant of porter. Born in London as "stout porter" and raised in Ireland, it soon lost its surname and become synonymous with a brand founded in 1759 by Arthur Guinness. Having drunk imported porters and stouts from Britain, the Irish brewer decided to brew his own "dry Irish" version using unmalted roasted barley instead of dark malts - producing a more acrid, astringent and thicker interpretation. London Stouts, in contrast, were made with 100% malt grist including the original brown malt and with no roast barley. When the British government imposed restrictions on malting and beer strength during the First World War, the dry Irish style stole a march on its British counterpart and, aided by both canny advertising and the missionary zeal of Irish Diaspora, it's become the benchmark for stouts."

Yeah, Arthur Guinness used roast barley. Despite the fact that it wasn't invented until after his death. And if the excisemen had caught him with unmalted barley on his premises he would have received a big fine and possibly had his brewing equipment confiscated. Beers brewed in Britain and Ireland were all-malt by law. Why do people keep repeating this bollocks? Guinness only started using roast barley in the 20th century. Well after some London breweries, like Barclay Perkins.

Oh, and dry "Irish-style" Stout only appeared in the 1950's. But who cares about boring things like facts?

The irony is that BBPA publications (and those of its predecessor the Brewers' Society) have provided me with many of the facts that I use. They should get the writers of their website to look through some old editions of the Brewers' Alamanack.

Priming with unfermented wort

SBS. That's what the Australian channel was called that showed European programmes. I won't tell you what some Australians called, as it involves a racial slur. It was also the name of one of Barclay Perkins' many, many, many Stouts. (BS, BBS, BS Ex, BBS Ex, BS C, IBS, IBS Ex, RNS, OMS - I think that's the lot).

Remember the other day we were discussing the blending employed by Guinness? In particular, the use of unfermented wort as primings, or "heading" as Faulkner called it. Well guess what? I've spotted Barclay Perkins doiung exactly the same thing. With SBS Stout. The one brewed on the 8th January 1929, to be precise. You can checke the brewing log entry to your right, if you don't believe me.

Though it wasn't the only form of primings. "Sweet" is, I believe, sugar-based primings.  Note, too, the typical Barclay Perkins technique of throwing a bushel or two of roast barley into the copper. I wonder if anyone else does/did that? Be interested to know what effect it would have.

More malt 1920-1939

Malt again. Apologies for being so repetitive. I'm making slow progress through "Brewing Science & Practice" by H. Lloyd Hind.

No jokes today. I can't think of anything funny to say about malt. If you can, let me know. There'll be lots more about malt in the months to come. Sounds like a threat, doesn't it?



Black malt
This was produced by roasting malt which had already been kilned in a revolving cylinder over gas jets. The aim was to roast the grains evenly and to avoid carbonising any. In practice, it was quite tricky to achieve. The carmelisation desired occurred at 445º F, but at just a slightly higher temperature, 480º F, carbonisation began.

Black malt was a standard ingredient in Stouts, but was also used in some other dark beers. Though not all brewers used black malt in their Stouts. Whitbread used chocolate malt and brown malt instead.


Roast Barley
When raw grain was roasted in a cylinder the result was roasted barley. This, like black malt, was mostly used to colour Stout. The flavour was not as rich as that of black malt, though it did aid head retention.


Amber malt
Two methods were used in the final stages of making amber malt, when the temperature was increased suddenly to darken its colour. One was roast it in a cylinder, similar to the way black malt was produced. The other was to use a kiln, raising its temperature by adding oak battens to the fire. This process gave the malt an empyreumatic (burnt) flavour considered superior to that of malt made using the cylinder method.

A small of diastatic activity was sometimes still present in amber malt. (Source: "Brewing Science & Practice" H. Lloyd Hind, 1943, page 275.) Diamber was a type of amber malt manufactured in such a way that it still retained most its diastatic power, around 26º Lintner.

There was a considerable variation in the colour of amber malt and some overlap between the darker versions and lighter types of brown malt.


Brown malt
As with amber malt, brown malt could be finished in a kiln or in a cylinder. The main differences with amber malt were a generally darker colour and a complete destruction of the diastase. Brown malt was falling out of favour, though London brewers still used it in their Porter and Stouts.


Crystal or caramel malt
Unlike roasted malts such as amber, brown and black, where kilned malt was heated in a revolving cylinder, crystal malt was made from green malt which had not been kilned. The malt was heated gradually to a temperature of 150º to 170º which liquefied the inside of the grain. As te process continued and the temperature rose higher, the grains began to roast. After two or three hours the grains were removed from the cylinder and as they cooled, the inside of the grains cystalised.

A far larger amount of sugar formed in grains, with maltose amounting for as much as 50% of its weight. Due to the presence of water in the grains, something similar to mashing, with the enzymes coverting starch to sugar, took place.

The colour of crystal malt varied even more than amber malt, as you can see in the table below.


Lager malt
There were two types of lager malt: pale and dark. The former, called Pilsen malt, had a colour of 2º Lovibond and a diastatic activity of 60-85º Litner. Dark Munich malt had a colour of 7-10º Lovibond and a diastatic activity of 30º Litner. Both types were made in Britain as well as being imported from the continent. Continental lager malts tended to have higher a nitrogen content and be less well-modified than British malts. The extract yielded was also slightly poorer.

Rather surprisingly, lager malt sometimes turns up in brewing logs. Not just in Lagers, but in British styles, too. As, at around 64/- a quarter, it was one of the most expensive malts, seeing it used in Mild is quite a shock.


Barclay Perkins September 11th 1936 XX, X
Amber____________3,68%
crystal____________4,82%
Dereham Californian__19,53%
Lager Kulmbacher____5,86%
Dereham MA________36,12%
Dereham MA NXOB___6,83%
Maize_____________12,86%
Garton No. 3 sugar____10,29%

Barclay Perkins had begun brewing lager in the 1920's and built a special brewhouse for that purpose. I suppose that explains why they would have lager malt lying around the brewery. Still odd to see it used in a Dark Mild, though.



Wheat malt
Because of the delicate nature of the grains, it was difficult to malt wheat without damaging them. As a consequence wheat malt tended to be under-modified and cause clarification and stability problems. For these reasons, it wasn't much used in Britain. Sometimes small amounts were added to the grist to aid head retention, something which still happens today with some Bitters.


Malted oats
Many Stouts contained a small proportion of malted oats. The amount was usually pretty small - often less than 1% of the grist. This wasn't just limited those beers called Oatmeal Stout. Most Barclay Perkins and Whitbread Stouts contained some oats. "Oat malt is used, mainly in oat malt stouts, for its flavour and nutritive properties." Given the miniscule amounts of oats employed, it's hard to see how they could add much flavour or nutrition.




Malt extract
Wort produced from very lightly cured malts was reduced in a vacuum pan to produce a concentrated syrup. Most malt extracts had a very high degree of diastatic activity, as much as 350º Lintner. They were used by brewers in a variety of ways. Of course, they were a source of fermentable material, but their high diastatic activity could also be of use in grists high in adjuncts.

Malt extract could be added either in the mash tun or in the kettle. Non-diastatic malt extract, added in the copper, aided head retention.