Gluten Free Home Brewing Blog

Every so often, we hear from a customer who thinks the malt they received was mislabeled. This often happens when ordering Dark and Gas Hog rice malts, or Gas Hog and Pitch rice malts together. It can also happen with various Caramel millet malts, or even with buckwheat malt.

Most people think of kilning and roasting malt as a way to deepen color—but push the heat too far or too long, and the opposite can happen. After consulting multiple sources, including AI, I could not find any studies specifically documenting this effect in beer malt.

However, credible expertise from within the gluten-free malting industry shows that thermal degradation of melanoidins—the primary compounds responsible for malt color—can occur at excessive temperatures. Brewing: Science and Practice by Briggs, Boulton, Brookes, and Stevens (2004) highlights how closely malt houses must monitor roasting, noting that malt can even combust if pushed too far. While other food-science publications discuss pigment loss due to thermal degradation, it’s not a stretch to connect the two.

In the case of rice malt, it is possible for a malt that is darker than another to appear lighter. However, in the case of rice malt specifically, it is the hull, not the seed that may have reached the point of thermal degradation.

Key Takeaways:

• Sometimes malt may look mislabeled—common with Dark, Gas Hog, Pitch, or Caramel malts.
• Roasting deepens color, but too much heat can alter appearance.
• Thermal degradation of melanoidins can occur, especially in the hull, even if the seed remains fine.
• The key in roasting is finding the sweet spot: enough heat for color and flavor, but not so much that compounds break down.