Tom Hampton

So, I decided that I wanted to brew some test beers to see how different types of Malt taste.  I started by making a beer base for a Pale Ale.  Then I divided the base into 5 separate batches and added 1/2 lb of 4 different types of specialty grains:

1. Munich 20
2. Honey
3. Crystal 40
4. Chocolate

I left one batch plain for comparison.  Below is a picture of all the little buckets, they’ve been fermenting in the beer/wine closet for a month, and are now ready to bottle up.  So, I bottled them in 1 1/2 gallon plastic bottles—a system called tap-a-draft, perfect for taking to parties.  Then I took some samples and put them in clear champagne glasses.

Here are the sample glasses up close:

  

Taste:

1. The Pale was surprisingly sweet.  It fermented out quite well…so, I’m not really sure why it ended up tasting slightly sweet.
2. The Munich had a slight roasty flavor to it, and was much less sweet.
3. The honey was also silghtly sweet and has the distinct aroma and flavor of honey.  The interesting thing is that there is ZERO honey in honey malt.
4. The Crystal is an odd carmel-y flavor, that I’m not really very fond of.  It works much better to “round” out flavors in a beer than as the main flavor note.
5. The chocolate had disctinct notes of chocolate and coffee with very little perceptible sweetness. Even though it was the “least fermented” of all 5.