Talking about the effect of roasting on malt and coffee

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Wine is called liquid bread, mainly because beer is rich in nutrition, rich in a variety of amino acids and vitamins, and has a certain amount of calories, this is because ethanol, sugars and amino acids in beer are all high-calorie ingredients. But have you ever had beer with the taste of solid bread?

Beer and bread are also a perfect match

In fact, in many traditional parts of continental Europe, beer is full of bread and baked aromas. The two most famous styles are M ä rzen and Munich Dunkel from Munich.

M ä rzen is a malt-flavored German amber salad with fresh and rich toast and bread aromas, while Munich Dunkel is another dark pull with deep fermentation, rich layers, malt sweetness and typical toast aromas. These two kinds of beer also play an important role in the Oktoberfest every October.

Focus on beer

Where does the smell of bread in beer come from? It has to be mentioned that Munich malt (Munich Malt), M ä rzen and Munich Dunkel have a certain proportion of Munich malt in the formula. The name Munich malt does not mean that it is native to Munich, but refers to a specific baking method and the depth of malt baking.

Among the wide variety of malts, Munich malt falls into the category of baked malt (Kilned Malts), which means that the higher temperature when baking malt leads to a more obvious Maillard reaction, making the malt slightly darker in color and with pleasant biscuit and bread aromas.

Two typical medium baking aromas

If we look at all the brewing malts, there are dozens of categories of barley malt and wheat malt alone, all of which have been baked.

When malting, in order for the wheat to produce saccharifying enzymes, it is necessary to provide a warm and humid environment for the wheat to germinate, and when the wheat is full of enzymes, the wheat has to be dried to avoid excessive consumption of starch in the wheat. In the process of baking and drying, the baking plant will control the temperature, time and other factors to make the malt show a different flavor.

According to the technology and characteristics of malt, malt can be simply divided into four categories, in addition to the above-mentioned baked malt (Kilned Malts), there are basic malt (Base Malt), caramel malt (Caramel Malt), deep-roasted malt (Roasted Malt).

All kinds of malt

In the process of malt baking, two key factors affecting the flavor are Maillard reaction (Maillard reaction) and caramelization reaction (Caramelization).

Coffee fans must be familiar with these two browning reactions, and yes, they are the same chemical changes as the two important stages of coffee roasting.

Maillard reaction refers to a series of degradation and polymerization of amino acids and reducing sugars in the process of continuous heating, just like the process of baking aroma at high temperatures such as toast, roast meat and fried steak. Caramelization is in the high temperature between 170-205 degrees Celsius, sugar changes due to dehydration, resulting in color deepening, aroma into caramel, toffee and other odors.

Roasted coffee

Compared with malt, coffee beans are much more complex seeds. It is known that there are 300 chemicals in raw coffee beans before roasting, but thousands of chemicals are produced after complex degradation and polymerization during roasting. What is interesting is that so many substances produced individually do not smell like coffee, but when mixed together, they become the so-called coffee flavor.

In fact, coffee flavor is produced by a mixture of furan compounds (Furans group of compounds) and pyrrole compounds (Pyrazines compounds, Maillard reaction). Yes, coffee taste is roasted.

Many people like coffee because of its warm taste.

Looking back at the deep-roasted malt (Roasted Malt) of the four malt categories, this type of malt has a strong coffee / cocoa flavor because it is the most thoroughly roasted. Beer with deep-roasted malt naturally has a coffee flavor, just like Porter / Stout / Schwarzbier and other dark wines.

Among the foreign friends I know, the top two favorite drinks are coffee and beer. Their direct reaction to a cup of dark beer with a strong coffee flavor is usually "Wow, very nice!"