Gladfield Crystal Rye Malt
specialty malt · Gladfield Malt · New Zealand
Rye wetted and carefully roasted into a crystal malt. Nutty, bittersweet caramel with a distinctly spicy finish — rye's pepper carried through the crystallising process rather than lost to it.
1 brew
About
Gladfield make this by wetting rye and roasting it carefully, so the sugars caramelise inside the grain the way they do in a barley crystal malt. What comes out is more complex than a barley crystal of similar colour: the nutty bittersweet caramel is there, but so is a peppery, spicy finish that is unmistakably rye. That spice is the reason to reach for it. In a beer whose yeast contributes no phenolic character of its own, Crystal Rye is one of the few places spice can come from. Gladfield rate it to 25%, though a few rice hulls are worth adding as the ratio climbs, since rye is husk-poor and can slow a lauter.
Specs
- Colour
- 50–80 EBC
- Extract (FD)
- 79
- Max usage
- 25%
- Moisture max
- 4.5%
- Diastatic power
- 0 °WK
Usage
No diastatic power — mash alongside a base malt. Effective from about 3% as a background spice note, and up to 25% where the rye character is meant to lead. Add rice hulls as the proportion rises. Pairs naturally with the Gladfield red malts, where its spice cuts the caramel sweetness of Aurora and Redback.