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Malt MiniMash as part of a wine?
I was thinking weird thoughts along a pathway opened up by Deafcone in a post he made in like June or so about experimenting with a chocolate malt in a wine or mead. The problem he was dealing with for bakers chocolate, is that you have to age out the bitterness. But, with a sweet wine, the balance is edged towards early consumption. Ageing out the bitterness shouldn't be necessary using a chocolate malt mini-mash, but I have not really run across folks doing that in wines, just some ciders. But then why not. Cider is just wine using a different base medium.
I was looking at Ninkasi's Ulterior Motive Wine Recipe (yes, I have ulterior motives), going for a sweet Chocolate Blackberry dessert type wine. Are there enough enzymes in the chocolate malt so as to not require other malts in the mash? Would the flavor profile from a wine yeast cause problems with the malt sugars? Just rambling here, so pipe in.
Interesting idea. Unfortunately due to the high kilning temperatures chocolate malt does not retain any enzymes. So if you wanted to convert it you would need to mini mash with a base malt; six row being a good choice due to its high diastic power. However I don't see why you couldn't just steep your chocolate malt to extract the color and flavor and not worry about the sugars from it, same as when used in steeping for extract batches.
I don't remember that post at all but now that you bring it up....I make a sweet stout alot and use a full pound of chocolate malt and I found the best way to get the chocolate flavor is mashing at 156 degrees. It might be interesting to try mashing a lot of chocolate malt and using the "wort" as a base for whatever wine you want to add it to. might try it in a gallon.
If i do i'll post it and update.
DC
andrew jensen wrote:
Interesting idea. Unfortunately due to the high kilning temperatures chocolate malt does not retain any enzymes. ... However I don't see why you couldn't just steep your chocolate malt to extract the color and flavor and not worry about the sugars from it, same as when used in steeping for extract batches.
Nor does it have any significant fermentable sugars left after kilning.
Just for fun, I am thinking about an experiment here, just way simpler that the Brewchez Mega-project. I want to think the whole thing through, so that I don't end up with unknown influences. Based on the Brewchez and Andrew Jensen comments, as well as my own understanding (but no real experience of my part), a steep would pull similar levels and flavor profiles of chocolate taste from the malt as compared to a mini-mash. The addition of six row to supply enzymes in the mini-mash will have a flavor impact, but just how big? Don't know, but I don't think it will be enough to worry about, but that is worth chewing on a little bit. So, my question is, can I do the experiment with six-row only on the mini-mash side, or do I need to balance the equation? If so, how do I best balance it? I'll limit the volumes to a gallon a side, so maybe four ounces per side on the Chocolate malt. Will those amounts be enough to do a mini-mash? Should be fine for a steep. Thoughts?
Brewchez was correct in stating that there are really no sugars in the chocolate malt thus you would not have any use for additional enzyme activity. So mini mashing it really would serve no purpose unless you are trying to add base malt characteristics. If that is the case I would forgo the six row and go with a two row due to in my opinion better flavor characteristics.
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