Malt: Cereally Delicious
In my salad days, I would ride my bike to the Friendly's in Sixteen Acres and get a chocolate malt with the money I earned doing chores that my older brothers were too smart to pick. (Five bucks for three hours of lawn work seemed like a good deal at ten years old.) The taste has magical powers. It made me feel, for five minutes, like there was nothing wrong in the world. That "malt" aspect made the shake so much better and was the best part for me. I assumed the malts being referred to were chocolate-covered maltballs being chopped up. While times have certainly changed, the process of malting both my drinks of childhood and adulthood has stayed the same.
Previously, we discussed hops, but now we tackle the yin to the hop's yang: malts. Malts balance the hops' bitterness and add the fermentable sugars needed to produce alcohol. The sugars left over from the fermentation process are responsible for sweetness and provide those roasted, caramelized, coffee, or chocolate flavors found in some of your favorite beers.
The process of malting is not complicated. Cereal grains are soaked in water and allowed to germinate. Once the sprouting occurs, the grains are heated to stop the germinating process. The simpler sugars created give rise to flavor, and the more complex sugars give rise to color. The benefit of this malting is allowing the insoluble starches in the grain to turn to soluble ones that will easily break down in the beer making process. It also creates some of the enzymes that help break down the proteins in the grains that control the head retention, clarity, and body (or mouthfeel) of your beer.
Base malts are light in color and flavor. They are the largest part of the total grain bill and usually are used because they create a large amount of sugars and enzymes. Most craft beers use these as a starting point, and add more robust malts to create the flavor profile. Wheat beers (hefeweizen, wit bier, etc.) usually use almost all base malts in order to create a light, yeast-flavored beer. Generic "Buttweisers" and "Swiller Lights" use base malts extensively (and along with various cheap adjuncts like corn and rice) to create beers that are light in flavor, very drinkable, and inexpensive. However, quality beer can also be made with 100% base malt. Pilsner Urquell, Duvel, Thomas Hardy's Ale, Lee's Harvest Ale and many of the Victory line are all base malt beers. Room 11 normally carries some offerings from the Victory line as well as a number of wheat-based beers.
Kilned malts are base malts that get increased curing time and/or time in the oven. These additions produce biscuity, nutty, and textbook "malt" flavors. Your favorite Marzens (you may know them as Oktoberfests), bocks, and brown ales have these flavor profiles. Starting today, The Black Squirrel will be featuring Fat Tire, which has great biscuity and toasty flavors that have received rave reviews all over the country. Check it out while it is around so you can see whether the incredible hype is warranted.
Caramel (or Crystal) malts are an interesting bunch. Instead of getting thrown in the oven like the kilned malts, they are placed in a "stew" and heated with a lot of moisture. The insides of the malts are liquefied into sugars, so when heated and dried, the result is crystallized sugars that have a very caramelized flavor. The flavors, which are correlated to their colors, can range from a honey-like sweetness to caramel-burnt sugar. Many British beers are known for caramel malt flavors. These malts add color and nutty, toffee, fruity notes to Fuller's ESB and London Pride, which you can find at Elephant and Castle.
Finally, roasted malts provide us with those coffee, burnt, and bittersweet chocolate flavors and aromas we love in our stouts and porters. Increased time in the kilns provide these flavors and are normally used sparingly as the flavors are quite overpowering. Obviously Guinness is the first beer that comes to mind when it comes to beers with roasted malts, but there are many other excellent dark beers out there. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald is an excellent porter with coffee and dark caramel favors. Duck Rabbit's Stout brings a lactose sweetness balanced with burnt malt dryness. Both can be found at the Capitol Lounge.
So the next time you're spending quality time with your favorite beer, enjoy the sometimes-overlooked malts -- and maybe even apologize for not realizing they were providing you with some of your favorite flavors.