Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

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oceanic_brew
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Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by oceanic_brew » Wed Sep 06, 2017 7:18 pm

I've been using Hortons Ridge malts whenever I can for about the past year. I certainly love using a local malster and I have not noticed any issues with brewing some of my older recipes that I nailed down with other suppliers. Only great experience so far.

I can't comfortably say I'm in a position of ability in flavor analyses enough to say "it's great malt and has this, this, and these property's"

Anyone a little more experienced have anything to say? Perhaps I should do myself a favor and do some smash beers with what they have.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by CartoonCod » Thu Sep 07, 2017 10:21 am

I've noticed they've got a particular aroma and flavour to them. I made an all Horton Ridge beer for the last brewnoser beer exchange and you can see what other folks had to say as well.

http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... =4&t=10534

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by oceanic_brew » Thu Sep 07, 2017 12:28 pm

Hmmmm now after reading that I can definitely vouch for a little bit of that floral aspect but I've been mostly using Belgian yeast and a few that I'm not all that familiar with.

I suspect I would really need a low IBU, low late hop, minimal speciality malt, with a clean yeast side by side sample comparing similar varieties to the major suppliers to really get a sense of what the malt brings.

It's definitely a bit of a battle for Hortons Ridge bringing new malt to the table. I could tell a different yeast or hop immediately but I have a bit g a tough time from their 2 row to another in a batch.

Perhaps some day a few of us can do a few smash beers so we can compare Hortons to others.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by oceanic_brew » Thu Sep 07, 2017 12:30 pm

It would be very valuable to know what their malt brings to the table in building recipes, in a sense of continuing to suppor local

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by KB1138 » Thu Sep 07, 2017 5:02 pm

Well, as was mentioned is the Modernising Brewnosers thread, perhaps we could arrange a small beer exchange under those parameters. Or perhaps a few people can agree to brew a beer withing those specs and arrange a particular monthly meeting to taste and discuss them?
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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by GAM » Thu Sep 07, 2017 7:34 pm

I have not been a fan of the beer maid with HR malt. That said I was told they have changed there process and it does not have the distinctive smell/taste I did not like. I would split a bag 4 ways as a test if anyone wants in.

S

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by CartoonCod » Thu Sep 07, 2017 7:41 pm

Thats good to know Sandy, I wasn't a fan of that flavour either, although it seemed to get better with age oddly enough. I think I'll brew another batch of all horton malts one of these days (ie: next few months) but I'll just buy the grains from one of the local shops since I don't have the means to store grains.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by Hub Brewer » Thu Sep 07, 2017 9:12 pm

I wasn't part of the Xmas exchange last year so I didn't know someone had already brewed using all Horton malt. I just brewed a bitter for the exchange doing just that. I'll sample it next week and decide whether to keep it or brew something else. I did note a drop in my mash efficiency. At the very least I can comment on this thread about how it turns out.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by oceanic_brew » Fri Sep 08, 2017 7:56 pm

KB1138 wrote:
Thu Sep 07, 2017 5:02 pm
Well, as was mentioned is the Modernising Brewnosers thread, perhaps we could arrange a small beer exchange under those parameters. Or perhaps a few people can agree to brew a beer withing those specs and arrange a particular monthly meeting to taste and discuss them?
Let's do it. How does one go about officially doing that? Do a poll to gauge interest first?

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by mumblecrunch » Fri Sep 08, 2017 9:05 pm

oceanic_brew wrote:
Fri Sep 08, 2017 7:56 pm
Let's do it. How does one go about officially doing that? Do a poll to gauge interest first?
We had a great run of exchanges in 2015 (after the first Advent, I think) and it seemed to go best when people didn't worry about gauging interest and just went for it. Even if you only get 3 or 5 people involved that's 2 or 4 more beers in your sample pool than you would have had doing it alone. I recommend checking out the Exchanges Forum and reading the beginnings of the exchange threads; that'll give you a good idea of how things progressed. You could also reach out to folks who organized; Keith and Andrew Martin both come to mind as people who have handled the organization of one or more exchanges and I'm sure they've got some tips ("nobody leaves the exchange until everybody has all their beer" is a rule to live by...)

And for those who have never done an exchange I cannot recommend it enough. The ones I've done gave me some of the best feedback you've ever had and showed me a lot about how the same beer can present very differently to different people.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by oceanic_brew » Sat Sep 09, 2017 9:18 am

Great thanks!

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by Jimmy » Sat Sep 09, 2017 9:38 am

Personally, not a fan of the floral character of this malt.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by HoweFox » Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:35 pm

I remember that beer from the exchange and didn't like the floral character either. However, wasn't sure if people have noticed that in other beers made with malt from them or it was a one of. Might try my regular APA recipe with their malt to compare.

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by Celiacbrew » Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:52 am

I don't know that the malt tasted any better than any other malt I've used, but I also didn't pick up the off flavour the others did. This was maybe two months ago whereas the beer everyone is referring to would have been shortly after they opened. Maybe they have improved something in their process. Or maybe I'm not sensitive to the aroma those guys were picking up. For reference my beer was 100% pils German pilsner. I had a problem with sulphur so I bubbled CO2 through the finished beer so if the floral aroma is really volatile I might have blown it off. Probably not though because an ale fermentation would have blown it off if the CO2 did.
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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by oceanic_brew » Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:45 pm

Here's the exchange link if anyone is interested.

viewtopic.php?f=75&t=11191

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Re: Opinions of Hortons Ridge Malt

Post by HortonRidgeMalt » Mon Oct 02, 2017 2:34 pm

Re posted from exchange link:

Hey Guys,

Just getting to this this now, we have sent analysis to some home brewers, but must have missed you guys. It may be too late but I will put some information on our first batch of Vienna and Munich. For full specs of these malts, email info@hortonridgemalt.com

Munich:
Moisture ->3.46%
Extract Fine Dry Basis -> 82.46%
Extract Coarse -> 80.08%
Lovibond ->6.7
Friability -> 83.8%
Beta Glucan(mg/L) -> 86.6


Vienna:
Moisture ->3.67%
Extract Fine Dry Basis -> 79.92%
Extract Coarse -> 79.27%
Lovibond ->3.5
Friability -> 80.91%
Beta Glucan(mg/L) -> 65.47

I know the location is likely to be in the city for convenience of the majority of you being in the HRM, I would assume. We would love to have a group of you folks down and this would be a fun meeting to host, if you guys were up for the drive we would love to show you around as a group and hang out for a night at the Malt House. If not this time, we will try to organize something and do it on a day that is best for you all.

Good luck brewing everyone

-Connor Stewart
902-719-6258
stewartconnorf@gmail.com

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