Crushed Roasted Barley

Roast Barley imparts a dry, intensely roasted, coffee flavour and is used in Guinness style stouts and strong porters. It is normally used at levels below 1.5% of the grain bill to adjust colour and give a dry clean finish to a beer. If you want to make an authentic dry Irish Stout, then roast barley should be used. It is made from unmalted barley (making it distinct from Black Malt which is made by roasting malted barley). This creates a dry, grain-like flavour with hints of coffee, and produces a beer with a creamy white to off white head. It gives black colour with ruby highlights and the distinct, dry, roasted bitter flavour characteristic of Guinness. It can also be used in very small amounts for colour adjustment in other beers with little flavour contribution.

Roast Barley should make up 3-7% of the grain bill to give a coffee flavour in Porter and Stout and 2-5% in Nut Brown Ales.  Chocolate Malt or Black Malt is often used in combination with Roast Barley to obtain specific red or deep brown colours.

Roast barley can also be used in partial mash/extract brews. Simply steep the whole grains in the pan before to the boil for around 15 minutes in a muslin bag in water between 155 and 175 ºF (66–79 ºC).