Calculating gravity points of steeped specialty grains and adjuncts

[Kegory]

Does anyone have any simple ways to calculate the gravity points of steeped specialty grains, e.g. chocolate malt, roasted barley, and adjuncts such as peanut butter powder?

If I'm understanding it right, roasted barley doesn't add any fermentable sugars (it's not malted) but it would add to the gravity. Is that right?

Peanut butter powder looks complicated: sugars, salts, proteins. Any suggestions on calculating gravity points and fermentability?

[Pale Man]

I'm pretty sure you get fermentables out of roast barley. 

[Kegory]

Thanks, @Pale Man

I wasn't having any luck googling it but now I've found a table in How to Brew with Typical Specialty Malt Steeping Yields (from 120g in 1L at 71C for 30 mins). It says chocolate malt is 200 PKL (it also has entries for pale chocolate and dark chocolate) and roast barley is 225 PKL. I understand results will vary depending on the fineness or coarseness of the crush and other factors but at least that's a starting point, or a ball park figure to work with.

I'm still not having any luck with peanut butter powder, though.

 

 

[Pale Man]

2 hours ago, Kegory said:

Thanks, @Pale Man

I wasn't having any luck googling it but now I've found a table in How to Brew with Typical Specialty Malt Steeping Yields (from 120g in 1L at 71C for 30 mins). It says chocolate malt is 200 PKL (it also has entries for pale chocolate and dark chocolate) and roast barley is 225 PKL. I understand results will vary depending on the fineness or coarseness of the crush and other factors but at least that's a starting point, or a ball park figure to work with.

I'm still not having any luck with peanut butter powder, though.

 

 

I wonder if you'd treat that similar to sugar? Not sure.

[Shamus O'Sean]

8 hours ago, Kegory said:

Thanks, @Pale Man

I wasn't having any luck googling it but now I've found a table in How to Brew with Typical Specialty Malt Steeping Yields (from 120g in 1L at 71C for 30 mins). It says chocolate malt is 200 PKL (it also has entries for pale chocolate and dark chocolate) and roast barley is 225 PKL. I understand results will vary depending on the fineness or coarseness of the crush and other factors but at least that's a starting point, or a ball park figure to work with.

I'm still not having any luck with peanut butter powder, though.

 

 

I agree with @Pale Man.  Look at the sugar weight in the ingredients table and factor that into your recipe.  Even if you just add that weight of sugar to the recipe to mimic the influence of the Powdered Peanut Butter.  I think Powdered Peanut Butter is more about flavour though.

[Otto Von Blotto]

23 hours ago, Pale Man said:

I'm pretty sure you get fermentables out of roast barley. 

Roasted barley isn't malted, so there won't be any fermentable sugar in it. If there is it's negligible. It will add gravity points however. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Otto Von Blotto

[Pale Man]

2 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Roasted barley isn't malted, so there won't be any fermentable sugar in it. If there is it's negligible. It will add gravity points however. 

Ok no worries Otto. The only reason i stated that is when added in Brewfather, it adds alcohol percentage. Otherwise I wouldnt know one way or the other.

Does it not convert in the mash with the rest of grain? Very interesting topic. 

[Pale Man]

I stand corrected @Kegory  due to the high temperatures in roasting, roast barley has low fermentable sugars left. 

Always learning in this game.

https://beersmith.com/blog/2022/09/22/roasted-malts-in-beer-brewing/

[Pale Man]

15 minutes ago, Pale Man said:

Ok no worries Otto. The only reason i stated that is when added in Brewfather, it adds alcohol percentage. Otherwise I wouldnt know one way or the other.

Does it not convert in the mash with the rest of grain? Very interesting topic. 

I'll answer my own question, you cant convert whats not there.

[Kegory]

32 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Roasted barley isn't malted, so there won't be any fermentable sugar in it. If there is it's negligible. It will add gravity points however. 

Thanks. I thought I'd read that but it's hard to be sure what sticks and what gets mixed.

[Pale Man]

1 minute ago, Kegory said:

Thanks. I thought I'd read that but it's hard to be sure what sticks and what gets mixed.

Good point to put forward. You dont use much roast in any beer. Only for taste, and colour, so why does Brewfather add ABV in a recipe?

[Kegory]

Regarding the gravity points of peanut butter powder, I think I've come up with an experimental method to determine it.

If I dissolve 10g of peanut butter powder in 100ml of distilled water I should be able to measure the gravity and multiply it by 10 to arrive at the PKL. Or am I missing something?

[Kegory]

2 minutes ago, Pale Man said:

Good point to put forward. You dont use much roast in any beer. Only for taste, and colour, so why does Brewfather add ABV in a recipe?

How much ABV does it add?

[Otto Von Blotto]

It's why it's called roasted barley rather than roasted malt. It's unmalted barley that's been roasted dark so yeah, no fermentable sugar in it of any consequence

[Kegory]

6 hours ago, Kegory said:

Regarding the gravity points of peanut butter powder, I think I've come up with an experimental method to determine it.

If I dissolve 10g of peanut butter powder in 100ml of distilled water I should be able to measure the gravity and multiply it by 10 to arrive at the PKL. Or am I missing something?

Any thoughts on this method of determining gravity points @Otto Von Blotto

[Kegory]

According to users on another forum peanut butter powder is mostly insoluble and therefore won't have any significant impact on the gravity of the wort.

The amount of soluble material is so small that apparently the method I proposed above would work in theory, in practice the increase in gravity would be so small that it would be very difficult to discern it from a hydrometer reading, less than 1.01.