anybody used Special X malt 300 ebc

[An Ankoù]

An interesting usage is to blend Rauchmalz with Special B (60/40) to emulate the flavour of the traditional English brown malt, traditionally kilned over open fires.

This is straight from the Brewpaks guide to malt. I did it and posted some comments on this forum. After some 4-6 weeks it tasted awful, like trying to drink a smoky bacon sandwich without any HP sauce on it.
I tried another bottle during the week- 6 months later- and it's gorgeous. The smoke is just discernible and the whole thing has come together to make a lovely rich brown ale. Well worth doing, but it needs a long maturation on the bottle.

 

[peebee]

This is straight from the Brewpaks guide to malt. I did it and posted some comments on this forum. After some 4-6 weeks it tasted awful, like trying to drink a smoky bacon sandwich without any HP sauce on it.
I tried another bottle during the week- 6 months later- and it's gorgeous. The smoke is just discernible and the whole thing has come together to make a lovely rich brown ale. Well worth doing, but it needs a long maturation on the bottle.

Along time ago I came across this "suggestion", but was put off the idea (by MyQul IIRC) because I wanted to emulate a "porter" using only this emulated historical brown malt which would have involved significant, and potentially unpalatable, quantities of "Special B".

Sometime later I opted for a more complicated approach to emulating historical brown malt that worked out very well. I later discovered my approach was much like Meantime's approach when they used to make "London Porter".

The combination also had the advantage of NOT containing any foreign malt of dubious character (I'm not suggesting "Special B" is of dubious character, but the English translations of its qualities certainly are).

 

[peebee]

I'm going to be putting Special B and Special X head to head in test batches - anyone got any tips or notes on what they bring?

I had a taste of both and the X was almost like a roasted malt, like chocolate malt. The B had a glassy crunch like the nice DIY crystal malt I made and I liked eating it, unlike the X that was like coffee beans.

Any recommendations for additions - just base plus the malt or maybe also throw in some crystal or biscuit? It's the X and B I want to get the feel for though, obviously.

Cheers.

Look at my remarks about "Special X" above (#11). I think you'll really be missing a trick just concentrating on these "Special n" malts and ignoring some fabulous alternatives from this country. I don't understand this fascination with continental malts, perhaps it is the "American" "craft brewing" <sic> movement and British malt just isn't "trendy" any more?

 

[An Ankoù]

Not sure I agree with you, peebee. I think everyone's double-roasted malt is different and it's not a matter of being trendy. I would expect Dingeman's Special B to be different to Weyermann's Special W to be different to Bestmalz Special X otherwise why would they bother? My stock of Special B at the moment is from Castle Maltings in any case! I have 4 different colours of crystal malt ranging from 113 to 400 ebc and Crisp's amber at 50 and Thos Fawcett's amber at 100 ebc, not to mention all the cara-(gold, pink, red, clair, etc) malts. Use English malts to brew English beers, by all means, but experiment with the others. It's just like having more colours in your paint box. I've just made a version of Summer Lightning substituting Colorado Honey Malt for Crystal malt. Thor didn't send a bolt in my direction in disgust!! (It's not as good by the way, I just wanted to try it).

 

[Drunkula]

Look at my remarks about "Special X" above (#11). I think you'll really be missing a trick just concentrating on these "Special n" malts and ignoring some fabulous alternatives from this country.

I don't know anything about the terroir of malts. I was just shopping and thought "Yeah, I'll have a bit of that - it's on offer.... yeah, and a bit of that..."

I'm basically trying to build an internal ingredient reference so I can think flavours like I do with food and then hopefully pass that on in some way approaching a sensory way.

I'm interested in the blend for brown malt and wonder if mild or porter malt can also be cludged up, too, as I really want to make a mild.

 

[An Ankoù]

I don't know anything about the terroir of malts. I was just shopping and thought "Yeah, I'll have a bit of that - it's on offer.... yeah, and a bit of that..."

I'm basically trying to build an internal ingredient reference so I can think flavours like I do with food and then hopefully pass that on in some way approaching a sensory way.

Me too, and I've got a kilo of about 15-20 different ones to try in small batches. Trouble is that 15 small batches doesn't save much time on 15 full batches. Tried a rye lager and an oatmeal lager over the winter and they're just about drinkable after a gallon or two of Duvel shandy. So that's two to keep for the darker beers. I;ve got some spelt malt and some Bestmalz dark wheat at 18 ebc to try next in separate wheat beers.
So much beer. So little time.

 

[Drunkula]

Trouble is that 15 small batches doesn't save much time on 15 full batches

Tell me about it. I'm going to be doing carafa special II vs III vs pale chocolate and maybe some chocolate wheat and wondered if I could make up a base, do steeps and boils of the special grains and then mix into my demijohns.

Also doing some wheat tests - have the same dark wheat, Best Malz wheat, Castle wheat blanc and hook heat wheat. I Reckon only one of those will make a difference but whatever, I'm doing it.

 

[An Ankoù]

Tell me about it. I'm going to be doing carafa special II vs III vs pale chocolate and maybe some chocolate wheat and wondered if I could make up a base, do steeps and boils of the special grains and then mix into my demijohns.

Also doing some wheat tests - have the same dark wheat, Best Malz wheat, Castle wheat blanc and hook heat wheat. I Reckon only one of those will make a difference but whatever, I'm doing it.

I reckon you could do it that way, but then you'd need to take one of the malts and do one steeped and another fully mashed to see if there's any significant difference. Can't see why there would be, but you never know.

 

[peebee]

I don't know anything about the terroir of malts. I was just shopping and thought "Yeah, I'll have a bit of that - it's on offer.... yeah, and a bit of that..."

I'm basically trying to build an internal ingredient reference so I can think flavours like I do with food and then hopefully pass that on in some way approaching a sensory way.

I'm interested in the blend for brown malt and wonder if mild or porter malt can also be cludged up, too, as I really want to make a mild.

I'll try to get around to writing up the concept of "blending" a historical (diastatic) brown malt. It was written up 2-3 years ago but just needs some tweaking, the process should be good for diastatic amber malt too, and a "porter malt" if you can find a reliable description of what it might have been. Won't be any time soon, but it's blending from available malt not trying to make the stuff so it is only an idea of what it might have been like, not an authorative example of what it was like ('cos no-one can know that).

I need to get some thought going on it if I'm going to be in which a chance of having some this Christmas (needs at least 4-6 months maturing).

Hang on …

That took a bit of digging up! That's my 17th century style London Porter (guess if I was aiming for a "brown porter", I failed!). And it is sitting on the hand-pump from whence it came (one in the eye for the "Nitrogen" crowd). And no "Special <insert whatever letter here>" in this. Yeah, I do know a hand-pump is a bit of an anachronism for 17th century porter, but it was a bit of fun, and I'm sure there's plenty of other dodgy assumptions in it too.

As "mild" spent some of its history as "not a stale (aged) porter" I guess it is going the right way for mild. Although 7.5% ABV might not be what you had in mind!

 

[Haroldo Teixeira]

I usually use Special B in my Belgian Dubbels, but this month I tried Special X, using 3,4% of my Grain bill (less than my usual 5% with Special B) . Before mashing, while tasting the malt, I thought it was too roasty, closer to a light Coffee malt than the usual deep toffee from Special B. After primary, I had a huge roasted flavour that I didn´t like. Waiting for conditioning to check if it gets better.