I made this unique tasting malt while trying to make a Brumalt style malt from store-bought Pale malt. I can’t think of another name for it because brown bread with honey on it is what it tastes like. Brumalt starts out differently than pale malt so making it from a Pale is not actually possible. It’s steeped to a higher moisture content, germinated at warmer temperatures and has a stewing phase before kilning, but I was curious to find out what would happen if I soaked a pale malt till it had about a 50% moisture content and ran it through a kilning schedule that’s similar with an emphasis on activating the proteolytic enzymes. A good way to soak pale malt is to add just enough water so that it will be around 50% after absorbing it. This way no enzymes or sugars get washed down the sink. Make sure to keep it cool. After the malt absorbed almost all of the water I drained the excess and then stewed it for 36 hours on a tray covered with tin foil (8 hours 30-40C then 24 hours 40-50C). I then dried it at low temperatures 35-50C on a screen with a fan on for the first seven hours then off for the next 15. After 22 hours of drying it was down to its original weight so I cured it for 3 hours at 190F. What I noticed when using pale malt is that it dries faster than regular malt. Since it has been kilned once already the outer layers are now friable and allow an easier passage of moisture. Likewise, Pale malt also absorbs water faster than barley so it takes one steep of 12-14 hours to attain about a 50% moisture content or 24 hours using the absorption method.
Brewing Beer The Hard Way 
Demy
December 14, 2017 at 4:42 pm
A special malt! If I understand correctly, have you soaked pale malt in warm water for a protein break and at the same time increase moisture? I’ve never tried such a thing, what concrete effects did you notice about the flavor? Thank you
jfdyment
December 14, 2017 at 7:44 pm
Hey Demy, let me clarify that, I soaked it until it was about 50% then drained it and then stewed it. Thanks for pointing this out, I’ll fix this on the post. Actually a better way is to only add enough water so that it all gets absorbed. That way no enzymes or sugars get washed down the sink. So just add the malts weight in water minus 5% to account for what’s in the malt. Keep cool and stir occasionally for 24 hours, by then it should all be absorbed. The flavour is unique but I haven’t brewed with it yet. I can’t think of another way to describe it other than a rich brown bread, with maybe a hint of molasses to it and then some honey-like sweetness on top.
Demy
December 14, 2017 at 10:32 pm
Thanks for the explanation. The method of inserting only the necessary water is excellent. I noticed that all the toasted malts with a high percentage of humidity have a sweet taste, even if very dark. For example, I made an experimental malt, with green malt brought to a high temperature with pre-heated oven: the malt does not have time to saccharify (even if it takes place minimally) but has a sweet note. Another experiment I did is with barley (not malted), toasted until orange, gives the beer a dry note of intense biscuit … from here you understand a lot
the combination of wet / sweet and dry / biscuit. Do you have a similar feedback?
jfdyment
December 15, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Sounds like you made Brown malt in the first example. The sweetness will also be dependant on the level of modification. In my post about Melanoidin malts I used the analogy of wet bread dough in the formation of a crust which tastes different than toasted bread which is cooked when the bread is in a drier state.
Demy
December 16, 2017 at 9:17 pm
I agree! I have always found different (and few) information about brown malt: from pale dry malt, from wet malt, etc. difficult to orientate. Of one thing I’m sure: my point of reference is your blog, is undoubtedly the most accurate (based on real research and field tests). In my small way, I try to experiment and talk about it here!
jfdyment
December 16, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Thanks Demy! the book will be out soon, well it’s more of a booklet but I do have a section just on Brown malt and it’s three different forms, diastatic brown, blown and modern kilned brown (non-diastatic).