Brewers obsess over consistency. Whether you’re brewing your flagship stout for the hundredth time or dialing in a new seasonal release, you need every bag of malt to deliver the same color, flavor, and aroma. That’s where drum roasting makes a difference.
While many roasted malts from various suppliers may share similar color specs on paper, how they get there matters. At Briess, our maltsters, operators, and technical teams have spent decades perfecting the art and science of drum roasting to create flavor profiles that simply can’t be duplicated with other roasting methods.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
If you’re not sure what “drum roasted” means, let’s touch on that.
Drum Roasted Malt is roasted in a continuously rotating, horizontal metal drum roaster, where the grain is gently tumbled while heat is gradually applied. This allows kernels to roast evenly and achieve precise flavor characters (roast, deep cocoa, coffee, toast, and caramel notes), along with greater control over color and aroma.
Many brewers would say drum-roasted malt has:
- More layered, complex roast flavors
- A softer, rounder roast character
- More traditional profiles for classic beer styles
THE ONLY DRUM-ROASTED MALT MADE IN NORTH AMERICA
Here’s a fact many brewers don’t know: Briess is the only maltster in North America with proprietary drum-roasting capabilities.
It’s why Briess can produce specialty malts with signature flavor profiles that have become staples in breweries across the country. We’ll dive into a few unique malts that traditional kilning cannot produce in just a minute.
Briess started roasting caramel malt in 1953 when it had several “K-Ball” roasters installed right here in the Chilton, WI, Malthouse. Over time, more efficient drum roasters were installed in the 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, and eventually in 2014, bringing several malthouses back into full production.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN FOR BREWERS?
It means greater control over flavor development and more opportunities to create beers that stand apart in a crowded market. Let’s dive in…
FIVE BENEFITS OF DRUM-ROASTED MALT
1. More Uniform Roast
More uniform roasting means less variability from batch to batch. For you as a brewer, that translates to more predictable mash performance, more consistent flavor development, and greater confidence that today’s brew will match the last one.
2. Complex Flavor Development
Briess operators carefully control temperature ramps and hold times, which promote deeper Maillard reactions and caramelization, contributing to flavors described as:
- Dark chocolate
- Espresso/coffee
- Charred toast
- Molasses
- Burnt sugar
- Dried fruit
The result isn’t simply darker malt. It’s greater flavor depth. Brewers can build layers of these flavor characters without relying on higher usage rates or additional specialty malts.
Different roasting technologies create different flavor outcomes. Kilned Caramels are available and newer roasting technologies now exist, but Traditional drum roasting remains the benchmark for brewers seeking layered roast complexity and classic specialty malt character that may not be matched.
| Characteristic | Traditional Drum-Roasted Malt | Revtech Roasted Malt |
|---|---|---|
| Roast intensity | Bold, deep, sometimes aggressive | Clean, controlled |
| Coffee notes | Fresh espresso, dark roast coffee | Smooth coffee, less burnt edge |
| Chocolate notes | Dark chocolate, cocoa powder | Milk chocolate to cocoa |
| Toast/biscuit | Rich, layered toast | Cleaner, more defined toast |
| Burnt flavors | Likely at high roast levels | Usually minimized |
| Finish | Complex, lingering | Cleaner, shorter |
| Perceived complexity | Often higher | Often lower, but more focused |
Little known fact: The hidden superpower of drum roasting isn’t the drum itself.
The magic behind the drum is the operators’ and maltsters’ ability to manipulate time, temperature, moisture, and airflow to create flavor compounds that don’t show up on a malt analysis sheet.
Another known fact: Color isn’t flavor.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that roasted malts with the same color will taste the same.
A 350 SRM roasted malt from one supplier may deliver rich, roasted coffee and cocoa notes, while another might showcase smoother cocoa and toast characters. This happens because roast temperature curves, moisture management, airflow rates, and roast timelines can vary, even when the final color is identical.
Color is easy to measure; flavor is not, which is why our roasting operators, maltsters, and lab team must perform regular sensory analysis to meet specifications.
3. Versatile Specialty Malt Toolbox
Some roasted Briess products generate distinctive flavors that cannot be achieved through traditional kilning alone. These include:
- Special Roast® delivers signature tangy sourdough and bran-flake notes
- Extra Special Malt combines both caramel and dry roasted characteristics in a single malt
- Victory® Malt is a favorite for many brewers – at just a few percentage points of the grist, it can add layers of toasted bread crust, biscuit, and nutty character that help create depth without increasing roast intensity
- Carabrown® Malt is especially good for adding flavor, complexity, and color in Brown Ales, Porters, and Stouts, but also shines in Bitter, Pale, Mild, Belgian, Wheat, Bock, Oktoberfest, and Scotch Ale styles
“My history with Briess goes all the way back to 1995 when I used Victory® Malt for my first beer as a homebrewer. It’s my favorite malt of Briess to this day – number one. I love it. All the character it has in terms of biscuit and toast, and just the great color that it offers a beer. I used it in my first recipe, which is very nostalgic. I actually called that first homebrew, “Victorian Steam” beer…a California Common, by style.”
– Matt Potts, Owner and Founder of Destihl Brewery
4. Wider Range of Specialty Malts
A sample of Briess Malts our drum roasters can be utilized to make:
- Light Roasted Malts: Blonde RoastOat®
- Crystal/Caramel Malts (Caramel 10–120, Crystal Red® – 200 SRM, Caramel Vienne, Caramel Rye, Caramel Munich)
- Dark Roasted Malts: (Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Midnight Wheat, Black Malt, BlackPrinz®)
5. Superior Crystal/Caramel Malt Production
Some might be surprised when we say it’s not the drum that creates the magic flavor. The flavor comes from how moisture is managed inside the kernel before and during roasting when we raise the temperature, not just putting grain in a drum.
What does that mean? Starch will be able to convert and caramelization can begin inside the kernel before drying, producing the typical glassy, sweet caramel malt structure that kilns cannot create as effectively.
WHERE BREWERS NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE MOST
- Porters & Stouts: Richer chocolate and espresso flavor
- Brown Ales: More layered toast and nutty characters
- Oktoberfests & Bocks: Enhanced malt depth without too much sweetness
- Belgian Ales: Greater complexity and dried fruit notes
WHY ALL OF THIS MATTERS IN YOUR BREWHOUSE
Drum roasting is not just another basic manufacturing process; it’s a flavor-building tool.
It’s what gives Briess specialty malts their signature depth, complexity, and consistency. From caramel malts with rich sweetness to roasted malts packed with coffee and chocolate character, drum roasting allows us to create flavors that go far beyond what color alone shows.
For brewers, that means more opportunities to build distinctive beers with confidence, batch after batch.
And for Briess, it’s a tradition we’ve been refining for more than 70 years.