Beer Forum

Brewing up a batch of american pale ale today with some malt a friend gave me. There's a new maltster in Alamosa, CO called , originally enough, Colorado Malting Company.
Right now I think they only have 2-row, but are probably going to expand the line up in the near future. Their web site is pretty lame, but here it is if you're interested
http://coloradomaltingcompany.com/malt/home.html

Hopefully their product is good, will be really nice to have a "local" maltster to go with the hops in the backyard.


I'm not putting a whole lot else into the beer, because I'd like the malt to shine through.
Here's what I'm planning (although I might cut back on the hops):



Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
Anticipated OG: 1.051
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Extract SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
83.3 10.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 42.00 2
6.3 0.75 lbs. Munich Malt Belgium 3.33 8
6.3 0.75 lbs. Victory Malt America 2.97 25
4.2 0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt America 2.22 2



Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.00 g. Galena Whole 13.00 25.6 60 min.
15.00 g. Amarillo Gold Whole 10.00 10.0 30 min.
15.00 g. Amarillo Gold Whole 10.00 3.9 10 min.
15.00 g. Cascade Whole 5.75 1.9 1 min.


Yeast
-----
WLP 800

I'll report back on how the beer turns out!

Cheers

Are you really using the Pilsen lager yeast for an American pale ale?

No, WLP 008. I'm not a morning person or morning typist apparently.

Where did you get your hands on this?

Specs from the Maltster:

MALT: FULL COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS
Physical Characteristics: Malt Type: Suspect 2 Row
Growth Count (%) Values XXXX Bushel Weight (Lbs) 43.50
Grain Quality: Values
Assortment:-
Values
Mealy, % 100 % on 7/64” Screen 74.0
Half Glassy, % 0 % on 6/64” Screen 22.8
Glassy, % 0 % on 5/64” Screen 2.6
% Through 5/64” Screen 0.6
Chemical Characteristics: PARAMETER VALUE
Moisture, % 4.6
Extract, % Fine Grind, as is basis 75.5
Extract, % Fine Grind, dry basis 79.2
Extract, % Coarse Grind, as is basis 75.1
Extract, % Coarse Grind, dry basis 78.7
Difference in % Fine - Coarse Extracts 0.4-0.5
Speed of Conversion, (Minutes) <5
Rate of Filtration Normal
Color of Wort, 0Lovibond 2.9
Clarity of Wort Clear
Diastatic Power –0db 207.64
Alpha Amylase (DU activity units, 20 0C), dry basis 57.9
Total Protein (T), % dry basis 11.79
Soluble Protein (S), % dry basis 5.22
S/T Protein Ratio [%] 0.443 [44.3]
Aroma Aromatic
Wort pH 5.86
Specific Reports Comments: Quality seems quite good. Check against other typical malt
manufacturers specifications for brewers malt.
Respectfully submitted,

Key values I take from that malt analysis are...

Difference in % Fine - Coarse Extracts 0.4-0.5: Means well suited to infusion mashing. Higher number would do better with a protein rest.

Speed of conversion of <5 min suprises me, most I've seen are in the 10-20 min range.

Color is a little on the dark side for a pils/pale ale type base malt.

Diastatic Power –0db 207.64: This is plenty, no worries converting just about any adjuncts you want to add.

S/T Protein Ratio [%] 0.443 [44.3]: This is highly modified malt and will do well with infusion mashing. It is on the high end of the scale for preserving body - you may get some thin beers with this base malt. Might want to adjust recipes for this maly by doing things like bumping up crystal malts or increasing mash temp a couple of degrees.

Yeah, I think I'd use this kinda like 6-row... to help out high adjunct beers, but maybe not as the sole base malt except for desirably dryer styles.

207 Lintner??? Holy Shit!!! (6-row is 160, others Pales are usually 120)

Update:
First off, thanks for the malt analysis and the takeaways. Good to know for future brews - hopefully we can get more of this stuff.

I had a low efficiency, but I'm going to attribute that to the fact that the malt came pre-crushed. The mill I've been using seems to generate a lot of fine particles, but gets me some pretty good efficiency. I was shooting for something like 6 gal of 1.052 wort and got closer to 5 gal of 1.050. Not complaining, but the fermenter just doesn't look that full.

BTW I did a single infusion mash at 152 followed by batch sparging. Everything went really well, and I shaved a lot of time of the brew day by using a pump to transfer to my boil kettle vs gravity. Heated the first runnings while pumping & had that stuff boiling by the time I started the transfer of the second runnings. 4 hrs for the total brew session.

Also, this stuff had some really nice cold break coagulation - the sample in my hydrometer jar was really clear with the goopy stuff at the bottom. There was about 2 inches of gunk in the bottom of the carboy and a pretty clear wort sitting on top right at the beginning of fermentation. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I added some gypsum and chalk to this beer (vs the last few batches) or the fact that I used different base malt (last few pale ales used Fawcett Maris Otter).

Where did you get your hands on this?

Got it from a friend in the Indian Peaks Alers who went down to the San Luis Valley a couple of weeks ago. Traded 10 lb of malt for a couple ounces of hops.