Winter 2015 RCE JoeChianti / Foothiller: Buckwheat Porter

[Foothiller]

Given what Joe and I are trying in the current RCE, "Buckwheat Porter" is somewhat of a placeholder pending seeing how it turns out -- nice if it's a stout, but might only be a brown ale. My pairing with Joe is interesting in this one since Joe is celiac and my daughter is gluten-sensitive. She is 19 now, but when she turns 21 I want to be experienced in gluten-free brewing instead of just starting to learn. Buckwheat is a gluten-free grain (actually, a seed) that is supposed to have a nice nutty and toasty character. Joe is having good success with brewing regular beers but using Clarity Ferm to eliminate the gluten, so we may use a Maris Otter all-grain base as a known solid foundation. Then, we are planning to roast, and probably malt, buckwheat groats as specialty grains for character like chocolate malt and roasted barley.

An initial idea on which we are looking for refinements is, as a 2.5 gallon batch:
4 lb Maris Otter malt
1 lb "crystal 40 malt" from buckwheat
8 oz "crystal 80 malt" from buckwheat
4 oz "chocolate malt" from buckwheat
a total of 1 oz Fuggles and 1/2 oz Golding hops, in steps at 60-minute, 25-minute, and 2-minute boil times, since porter and stout are originally British styles
S-04 yeast

The descriptions above as crystal malt and chocolate malt are also placeholders since I don't have any better names for roasted buckwheat as specialty grains.

I am doing some tests as 1-quart batches to learn how buckwheat works in malting and roasting, to see if changes to the initial recipe are needed. I currently have 3 of these test batches brewing, and will probably do more before brewing the full 2.5 gallon batch. The reason for 1-quart test batches is that this produces two 12-oz bottles -- just enough to try the ingredients with little cost and no tears in throwing out a batch if something doesn't work.

Joe will probably add to this post, and I will add more as I see how these test batches work out, as well as later with the full batch. At a minimum, this is a fun learning experience with a different kind of fermentable.

[mashani]

That should be interesting. Buckwheat does have a strong flavor, which some folks do not like, and some bitterness. But I think I would like buckwheat better then sorghum - assuming it works.

[FedoraDave]

Be sure to keep us updated. This is a fascinating RCE.

[The_Professor]

...I am doing some tests as 1-quart batches to learn how buckwheat works in malting and roasting, to see if changes to the initial recipe are needed. I currently have 3 of these test batches brewing, and will probably do more before brewing the full 2.5 gallon batch. The reason for 1-quart test batches is that this produces two 12-oz bottles -- just enough to try the ingredients with little cost and no tears in throwing out a batch if something doesn't work....

I'd be interested to hear what you are trying with the buckwheat. I have made a little crystal malt from both raw oats and barley. I malted buckwheat once.

[joechianti]

I feel like it's Christmas or else I just hit the lottery with this pairing. Jim has incredible drive and creativity, and I only hope I can contribute even a fraction of what he does. Jim, please just know how grateful I am to be involved with this, and be patient with my lazy, procrastinating old butt.

I've fooled with sorghum and totally hate it. Unacceptable. Will not go there again. Before I was turned on to Clarity Ferm, I was gathering alternate grains to experiment with. Buckwheat was one, along with amaranth and quinoa, and maybe one or two others. I was still researching how to sprout and malt them when I discovered the CF, so that all fell by the wayside.

Now that Jim's enthusiasm and motivation is inspiring me, I hope I can rise to the occassion. My wife is a pretty good sport, but she's already putting up with my current brewing, yeast harvesting, vegetable seedling trays in the kitchen, fish tanks, etc. It's a constant struggle. She likes the house to be showroom nice, and doesn't seem to be at all impressed when I tell her I think living in a junkyard is fun.

I already have some alternate grain samples in the fridge, and as soon as I get my lazy butt in gear, I'll also post my luck, or lack of luck, here.

In addition to using a barley base grain to provide enzymes for the alternate grains, I had originally planned to use amylase enzyme from the LHBS. That may also make it into the experiments, either along with base grains or as a side-by-side comparison.

This is most likely going to be covering a long time-frame, due to so many unfamiliar variables to wade through, which works out well for both of us anyway, with work and family. I thought the same thing Dave said when Jim first proposed this to me. Fascinating. No matter how it turns out in the end, I figure it will at least be very interesting.

[Foothiller]

Aw, thanks, Joe. This should be interesting from both sides.

One thing I have tried so far as tests so far is to malt some raw buckwheat groats, using a procedure in a recipe that I found on a few web sites: soak the groats for 2 days, rinsing every 8 to 12 hours, then allow to drain in open air for 1 day to start the sprouting process, still rinsing every 8 to 12 hours, then keep in open air for up to another 2 days until the rootlets are up to twice the diameter of the groats, at which time they are baked at 200-250 F until they are hard and crunchy, tasting like Grape Nuts cereal. This worked, and sometime soon I will try that result in a 1-quart batch.

Other tests so far have involved the other form sold at my local Whole Foods Market, which is roasted buckwheat. One test tried to malt this, and neither Joe nor I are surprised that after the roasting process, they did not sprout. A 1-quart control batch uses 2 ounces of Crystal 40, milled and steeped as if I were mashing it, and 4 oz of light DME, as a comparison for the buckwheat. I was surprised that an iodine test showed a small amount of remaining starch in the Crystal 40 malt. A test using a 1-qt batch uses 2 ounces of the roasted buckwheat, milled and mashed for 45 minutes, and 4 oz of light DME. An iodine test showed a lot of starch that had not converted to sugar. These are fermenting, and I will bottle them next weekend to see the result after they carbonate.

Based on malting raw buckwheat, the recipe from the web sites starts with bringing the malted buckwheat to boiling, then adding it to a mash. Bringing the buckwheat would gelatinize the starch to make it accessible, but the amount of starch present after I tried mashing the roasted buckwheat suggests to me that the roasting process has already gelatinized it, like flaked oats would be. So another test has milled and mashed 2 oz of the roasted buckwheat along with 2 oz of Maris Otter barley-based base grain, and reduced the DME to 3 oz for a 1-qt test batch that I will bottle along with the others.

Yet another test is to see if I can make something like chocolate malt or roasted barley from the roasted buckwheat. What I have read is that chocolate malt or black patent malts barley to about 50% modification, dries it, then roasts it between 420 - 450 F for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the desired roastiness. So, I baked it in a toaster over in that temperature range, outside since I read that doing this indoors can make you unpopular with your family for a couple of weeks. A difference between barley and buckwheat was that the roasted buckwheat was dark brown and smoking a lot, after 15 minutes. I removed half of it, and baked the other half for another 2 hours at 350 F, when it was even darker but did not start smoking. What I have read is that you then let the dark-roasted grain rest for a month before using, so these samples are in paper bags for a couple of weeks. Then, I plan to cold-steep these, some chocolate malt, and some roasted barley, to see how the flavors compare.

In the best case, I hope to then be ready to try a 1-gallon batch with the combined ingredients, to see if the result is anything like porter, stout, or brown ale. If that goes well, we might be ready to try a larger batch in a LBK, LBC, or other fermenter. Of course, besides trading more emails with Joe, what I try will work in whatever experience Joe has in these processes. Even after the first batch, we might keep trading thoughts as we try other things. Besides seeing what we get from alternative grains, the goal is to get some good and innovative gluten-free beers.

If anyone has experience to offer, we'd love to hear it. I'll report more when I have it.

[The_Professor]

The procedure I use for homemade crystal malt (barley, oats) is from an article I found online. For crystal malt you want to mash the green malt (sprouted and ready to dry) then roast it at your desired temps. So roasting sugar rather than starch. Make sure the grain really is good and dry before aging it or you get rotten malt rather than aged malt.

I'll be interested to hear more about this as you progress.

[joechianti]

Well, I got a little time last night to do some fresh research. Tax season and getting ready for spring garden is really in my way for this right now. But I found a bunch of really promising articles on malting alternate grains, which I bookmarked so I can read in depth ASAP. Also found at least 2 vendors selling already malted alternative (gluten free) grains. It looks like there's better options out there already than there was when I looked last year. I will definitely share anything I find that is very useful. If Jim(Foothiller) gets me off the couch and working hard, he should get a Nobel Prize. But he has managed to get me interested. I'm excited just to see that malted gluten free grains are available for purchase now, let alone malting our own. I'll probably check on those prices and post here what I learn.

[Foothiller]

After various reading and tasting the test batches that I mentioned earlier, plus one more, it's time for an update. Joe and I decided to skip the Maris Otter since that would need the same Clarity-Ferm to get rid of gluten, just as if this were not trying gluten-free ingredients, and use malted millet instead, along with amylase enzyme. Having malted a few ounces of raw buckwheat groats, my additional test batch uses 50% malted buckwheat and 50% Maris Otter, to see if the result is drinkable with as much as 50% buckwheat.

The mashed roasted buckwheat batch had a pale color with SRM about 11, very cloudy, slightly more head than the control batch with Crystal 40 with better persistence, a medium herbal hop aroma and flavor like the control batch but also a medium raw-grainy aroma. The balance of malt & biterness seemed balanced but was dominated by a grainy and somewhat grassy flavor (which I have not found in barley-based beers), and it was believable that there was also a nutty character. It was not particularly sweet, but not dry either. Combined with other flavors in a Porter recipe, this could be an acceptable aroma & flavor, but may need to be a limited fraction of the total grain bill. I added the malted buckwheat groats test batch to see whether
this flavor is also in malted buckwheat.

The steeped roasted buckwheat batch had the same color as the mashed roasted buckwheat batch, cloudy but less so than the mashed roasted
buckwheat, and a similar head as the mashed roasted buckwheat. The aroma was like strong citrus hops, flavor started balanced but had a pronounced bitterness that hid the grainy and grassy flavor of the mashed roasted buckwheat. Just steeping the roasted buckwheat doesn't seem acceptable even in a full-flavored ale.

Using the raw buckwheat groats that I had malted, the aroma & flavor were mild, but had a medium grassy aroma & medium-low grassy/ vegetal flavor that I could excuse as DMS due to the short boil time that I use with the 1-quart test batch size. We will need to use an adequate boil time in the real batch. A medium-low citrus flavor came out more as the beer warmed, as a low hop aroma & flavor in the background behind the grassy character. This test had low malt, a medium-low nutty flavor, medium bitterness, and was cloudy like the roasted buckwheat had been. The color was pale (SRM about 6), and it had some head but less than roasted buckwheat.

Since we're thinking this RCE could be to produce a Porter, another test cold-steeped the roasted buckwheat that I had toasted at about 400 F, comparing to cold-steeped chocolate malt and roasted barley. The appearance was dark amber, with a rich ruby color when shining a flashlight through the glass, and with good clarity considering the dark color. The aroma had stronger roast than roasted barley, a hint of coffee, with no chocolate or nutty aroma noted. The flavor had strong roast, with medium-high coffee, and with no chocolate noted, very similar to roasted barley, with slightly less coffee.

Joe and I will compare notes some more, but I think we might be ready to brew this RCE's final recipe. Of course we'll post more updates.

[Foothiller]

After the tests that I reported earlier, it was time to order our grains and start brewing. I could claim that National Homebrew Day was a good occasion to get my RCE brew going (actually a weekend project, end-to-end, among other weekend activities: preparing the grain like making crystal millet on Saturday, then brewing on Sunday). But the reality is that I now had the ingredients, and we have family activities for the next 3 weekends. After a minor disaster that actually was a learning experience, my brew is now happily fermenting in a Brewdemon fermenter.

My minor disaster is that I know the amylase enzyme was in my shipment with my malted millet, but I couldn’t find it once I was brewing. So, I was cautious with mash temperatures, within ranges that I had found in various reading, to make the most of the enzymes in the millet and buckwheat. Millet and buckwheat supposedly both contain amylase enzyme, but their temperatures to gelatinize their starch is higher than the enzymes' active range, so my mash efficiency was lower than desired. But things still worked with just the natural enzymes. As a backstop, I have read that alpha-galactosidase enzyme (a.k.a. Beano) can convert starch to sugar, like amylase enzyme does but in a lower temperature range. I had bought some to test sometime, so I used that between the mash and the hop boil, to make sure any starch remaining in the wort was converted. I have seen advice that Beano in a secondary fermenter can make the beer totally dry, but it is destroyed at temperatures well below boiling, so I gave it a try here. My resulting OG = 1.039 is in the range for English Mild, the color is brown but lighter than porter, and this RCE recipe uses English hops, so maybe this will turn out to be an English Mild, rather than Porter as planned.

I might make sure adjustments in version 2, but it will be interesting to see how this one turns out. I had to step away for awhile as the wort cooled, and when I came back, our kitchen aroma was very nice.

For reference, the recipe has ended up: 4 lb pale malted millet, 1 lb crystal millet malt, 1.75 lb malted buckwheat, 0.75 lb roasted buckwheat, 0.25 lb dark roasted buckwheat (cold-steeped and added to mash), 0.5 lb rice hulls included in mash, 0.25 oz Fuggles + 0.25 oz Goldings hops in 60' boil, 0.50 oz Fuggles + 0.25 oz Goldings hops in 25' boil, 0.25 oz Fuggles in last 2' of boil, and Coopers dry ale yeast. I intended to include 1 tsp of Irish Moss in last 10' of boil, but forgot late in the evening. There are details behind each of the grains, so feel free to ask if I should add the detail.

Now to look forward to the result, to hearing how Joe's brewing goes, and adding more reports when it's done . . .