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Newsletter—Summer 2010
NEW! Midnight Wheat Malt
Velvety dark and enticing as the midnight sky, Midnight Wheat Malt is the third seasonal malt in our Maltster’s Reserve Series. Intensely deep in color, Midnight Wheat Malt surprises the palate by delivering subtle, smooth flavors, making it the perfect mate for Black IPAs, Schwarzbier and other dark beers longing for color without bitter or harsh flavors. Midnight Wheat Malt is made from Wisconsin wheat. It’s available now through the end of September. Characteristics include:
- 550º Lovibond
- Smooth
- No bitter, astringent, dry flavors or aftertaste
- Starts slightly sweet
- Mild roasted/chocolate/coffee flavors and aromas
- Finishes exceptionally clean
- Excellent for color addition with
subtle, smooth flavor
Recommended Beginning Usage Rates
- 1-2% Minor color adjustment with little to no flavor
impact in lighter colored lagers and ales
- 2-5% Adds color with subtle, smooth flavor in Black
IPAs, Dark Mild Ales, Brown Ales, Dark Wheat
Beers and Schwarzbier
- 5-10% Use in larger quantities for color plus mild,
smooth roasted/chocolate/coffee flavors to
dark ales, Porters and Stouts
Watch for more new seasonal malts releases in 2010, and visit BrewingWithBriess.com/Products/SeasonalMalts.htm for more information about Midnight Wheat Malt..
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Two Midnight Wheat Malt Recipes
La Vie d’Une Oie (10bbl batch): French for “The Life of the Goose”, this spicy ale was created by Goose Island Brewing Co.’s Chef and Brewmaster Jared Rouben in collaboration with Chef (and homebrewer) Paul Virant of Vie Restaurant. Paul later paired the beer with duck confit crostini.
- Malt
- 400 lb Briess Pilsen Malt
- 200 lb Briess Wheat Malt
- 100 lb Briess Pale Ale Malt
- 100 lb Briess Bonlander® Malt
- 50 lb ea Rye, Oats and Rice Hulls
- 25 lb Briess Midnight Wheat Malt
- Mash at 166° F
- Total boil time = 90 minutes
- 90 minutes: Columbus, 8 oz.
- Finishing: Ahtanum, 3#, and Sorachi Ace, 2#
- Dry Hop: Ahtanum
Dry Irish Stout (7bbl batch): Briess’ Technical Services Manager Bob Hansen developed this tribute to our newest seasonal malt noting, “The Midnight Wheat Malt adds an exceptionally smooth, non-bitter, dry roasted note to this stout.”
- Malt
- 220 lb Briess Pilsen Malt
- 32 lb Briess Extra Special Malt
- 18 lb Briess Midnight Wheat Malt
- 5 lb Briess Carapils® Malt
- Mash at 154º F
- Total boil time = 60 minutes
- 60 minutes: Fuggles (5.0% AA), 42 oz.
- Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast
- Specs
- IBUs ~ 21
- Color ~ 42º
- OG = 1.034
For Midnight Wheat malt recipes visit BrewingWithBriess.com/Products/SeasonalMalts.htm.
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Matt McClung nabs naming rights
 One look at Midnight Wheat Malt and you’ll see where it got its name from. Looking at it is like looking into the darkest of night skies. And its clean, smooth surface mimics night clouds reflecting bits of star and moon light.
Matt McClung of Schooner Exact Brewing, Seattle, Washington, saw it right away. One of the first brewers to pilot brew with this new malt, Matt dubbed it Midnight Wheat Malt as he checked it out during the brewing session with David Richter, Briess Division Manager-West.
So, we’re officially awarding naming rights of Midnight Wheat Malt to Matt. Thanks for pilot brewing with this new malt, Matt, and thanks for its name.
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There's more than one malt to color a beer
Once you brew with it you’ll see how effective Midnight Wheat Malt is at coloring with no bitterness. Other dark roasted Briess malts that offer color adjustment in varying degrees and hues with little flavor impact include:
- Black Malt - Also called Patent Malt. Available in whole kernel and preground.
- Maltoferm® A-6000 - Liquid Black Malt Extract. Produced in our 500bbl brewhouse and evaporated to 80% solids, this pure malt extract helps preserve the integrity of “all malt” beers. Available in 5-gallon pails. A little goes a long way.
- Maltoferm® A-6001 - The dry form of Maltoferm® A-6000. Packaged in 50-pound bags, it has a very long shelf life. Because it’s very hygroscopic, opened bags need to be stored in airtight containers or the product will clump or even liquefy.
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Insta Grains® Flakes = Brewers Flakes
When the next order of Brewers Flakes you receive from Briess is labeled as Insta Grains® Flakes, don’t worry. It’s the same product you’ve been purchasing all along, just with a new name.
Well, not exactly a new name. Briess has been marketing pregelatinized grains under the Insta Grains® brand since 1990. That’s when the late Roger Briess ordered the construction of a new plant to process pregelatinized grains: flakes in 25-pound bags for craft brewers and Insta Grains® grain ingredients for the food industry. Branding brewers flakes as Insta Grains® aligns these products with the characteristics of the brand—pregelatinized, all natural and made in the U.S.A. Insta Grains® Flakes for brewing include:
- Barley
- Corn
- Oat
- Rice
- Rye
- Wheat
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Rich Ellis is our new Division Manager-East
 Briess welcomes to its sales staff a personality many in the brewing industry know—Rich Ellis. A 15-year veteran of the brewing industry with experience in both production and sales, Rich was recently named Division Manager-East for Briess and is already contacting customers in his territory. Rich is
particularly interested in
working with all breweries in the Eastern states to identify solutions to malt distribution and freight issues.
Rich previously worked as technical sales manager at Gusmer Enterprises, a company he joined in 2003 as technical sales-brewing. Prior to that, he was an award winning brewer while Director of Brewing at Sudwerk Brewery, Davis, and Brewmaster at Sudwerk Brewery and Grill, Sacramento.
Rich received a Bachelor of Science Degree in fermentation science from UC-Davis. He is a member of the Institute and Guild of Brewing and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas, and a Board of Governors representative for the MBAA District New York.
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'Green beer' from Red Eye
An American-style wheat beer brewed with solar hot water heat was the featured beer on July 17 at Red Eye Brewing Company in Wausau, Wis. Brewmaster Kevin Eichelberger brewed the beer to celebrate Red Eye becoming the first brewpub in Wisconsin to install a solar thermal hot water system to pre-heat water for both the brewery and the restaurant. The July 17 celebration at the brewpub also featured a solar-themed pizza baked in the company’s wood-fired pizza oven by Chef David Lorio. Congratulations Red Eye!
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Sweet success for John and Jason
Congratulations to John J. Hall, head brewer at Goose Island Brewing Company of Chicago, and Jason Weissberg, general manager of Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats of Rehoboth, Delaware. Both men won a year’s supply of Briess Malted Milk Balls at the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago. Thanks to everyone who visited the Briess booth at the BrewExpo.
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Thanks for attending our Malt & Brew Workshop
On April 20 a group of 30 brewers and brewery employees from throughout the United States attended the first ever Briess Malt & Brew Workshop in Chilton, Wis. The event was so well received that we’re planning a SECOND ANNUAL Malt & Brew Workshop for 2011. Date TBD. Watch for announcements. And special thanks to our 2010 visitors for attending the first annual event!
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We're going digital! Sign up for electronic delivery
We’re going green which makes this the last print edition of Brewing With Briess. For electronic delivery click on the “Subscribe to Newsletter” link at the top or bottom of this page and complete the short form.
Subscribers will receive a link to the newsletter where it can be read online or downloaded as a pdf. All past issues of Brewing With Briess are posted on the Briess website under the “Pressroom” tab. We will not share your email or other
subscription information with anyone.
BTW, it’s been 14 years since the first issue of Brewing With Briess rolled off the press. That first issue featured an article on then-new Briess Pale Ale Malt. Since then we’ve not only continued to roll out new malts, but also to publish this newsletter on a fairly regular basis. Our intent has always been to help educate brewers about specialty malts. In most issues we focus on one malt or one malt style, exploring how its made and its unique characteristics, and offering tips on usage levels.
Going forward we will continue to share our technical knowledge in regular editions of Brewing With Briess, only now in a more environmentally conscious manner. We hope you stay with us!.
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