[tommymorris]

I am curious what type of malt others are specifying in Bru'n Water and other water calculators for Special Roast, Brown malt, and other lightly colored (relatively) roasted malts. Bru'n Water for example allows "Base Malt", "Wheat/Oat", "Crystal Malt", "Roast", and "Acid Malt".

For a basic English Porter recipe with Brown malt as 10% of the grain bill, I set the malt type for the brown malt to crystal.  Choosing roast drops the PH a lot and gives a red box warning on the brown malt color.  I haven't measured the actual PH of my mash. I haven't done that in years, but the resulting beer tastes fine.

[mabrungard]

The problem is that some darkish grains can present acidity that IS proportional to color and then there are others that present high acidity similar to Roast grains.  It's all dependent upon what the maltster did in producing the grain.  In my experience, if the maltster mentions anything like roast in their grain description, then consider that it is more likely to display the "Roast" acidity and it is probably better to model the grain as Roast in the program.

One thing that helps moderate the unknowns of these quasi-roasted grains, is that they are typically used in small proportion to the overall grist content.  That helps reduce their impact one way or the other.

[tommymorris]

The problem is that some darkish grains can present acidity that IS proportional to color and then there are others that present high acidity similar to Roast grains.  It's all dependent upon what the maltster did in producing the grain.  In my experience, if the maltster mentions anything like roast in their grain description, then consider that it is more likely to display the "Roast" acidity and it is probably better to model the grain as Roast in the program.

One thing that helps moderate the unknowns of these quasi-roasted grains, is that they are typically used in small proportion to the overall grist content.  That helps reduce their impact one way or the other.

Thanks. I might try a small mash on the stove and measure the PH.