Our last lesson focused on different levels of crystal malt. Now we’ll turn to the dark side. If you want to brew a schwarzbier, a porter, a stout, or even a brown ale, you’ll need some dark roasted grains because 120°L crystal malt alone can’t get your beer to deep brown or black. Well, strictly speaking, it could if the crystal malt were about 20 percent of the grist, but the caramel character would be overwhelming. Dark-roasted grains solve the problem by packing more color into a smaller package.
Different Shades of Dark
As a general cut-off, we’ll look at roasted grains that are darker than 300°L. These fall into two main families, split between regular grains and “debittered” or “dehusked” grains. As you’d expect, roasted grain can add wonderful tones of coffee and chocolate, but if you overdo it, they can be bitter, acrid, and acidic. The tannins in the husk contribute a lot of those negative flavors, so debittered grains offer a way to pick up more color with less flavor intensity.
That trade-off means that debittered grains aren’t always the right choice. It’s also good to note that the acidic nature of dark grains can be helpful for dropping the pH of the mash in all-grain brewing. That’s less important today, given that water treatment can address this, but it explains some of the traditional beer styles of certain regions.