Weyermann SINAMAR and malt extracts: colour and wort from a can

What SINAMAR is

SINAMAR is a roasted malt extract made entirely from CARAFA SPECIAL. Weyermann brews it like a wort under the German Purity Law, then concentrates it under vacuum at 70 to 75 °C. It is debittered and filtered by a natural process, so it does not cloud beer. It contains no fermentable sugar and no alcohol.

Its job is colour. You can add it anywhere from the mash to the bright tank, which makes it the cleanest way to darken a beer without changing the grist or the fermentation.

The SINAMAR numbers and dosing maths

• Colour: 8,100 to 8,600 EBC (3,054.2 to 3,242.7 °L).
• Extract: 53 (by Brix).
• Specific weight: 1.13 to 1.28 kg per litre.
• pH: 3.6 to 4.9.
• Dose: 14 g (11.9 ml) per hectolitre raises colour by 1 EBC, up to about +90 EBC.

The dosing rule makes the maths simple. To move a 1,000 litre batch from 40 to 50 EBC you need 14 g x 10 hl x 10 EBC, which is 1,400 g (about 1.19 litres). A black lager from a pale base at +80 EBC in 10 hl takes 11.2 kg. We dose it into the bright tank by drawing off a few litres of beer, mixing the SINAMAR in a clean jug and pushing it back in through the racking arm, then recirculating before we read the colour.

SINAMAR ships in 5.9, 11.8 and 25 kg cans and a 1,180 kg container. The shelf life is 18 months unopened, stored dry between 0 and 30 °C.

What it does to flavour

Because it is debittered, SINAMAR changes how a beer looks far more than how it tastes at colour-correcting doses. That is the point. Use it when a batch comes out a few EBC light, when you want a Schwarzbier without extra roast or when you need several beers to match a colour standard batch after batch.

It is not a full substitute for roasted malt in a stout. You will get the colour but not the dry coffee finish. To judge it in your own beer, dose a measured sample in the lab, taste it against the undosed beer and scale up from there.

Weyermann's unhopped malt extracts

The extracts are concentrated wort. Weyermann mashes and boils each one as a real wort, clarifies it in a centrifuge, evaporates it and fills it hot under aseptic conditions. They contain no hops. Extract runs 72 to 79 (by Brix), about 75% on average. Specific weight is 1.35 to 1.42 kg per litre. Each lists a wort colour measured at 13 °P:

• Bamberg Rauch: beech smoked barley malt with some CARAFA SPECIAL, 30 to 90 EBC (11.8 to 34.4 °L). Built for Rauchbier.
• Munich Amber: Munich malt, 25 to 50 EBC (9.9 to 19.3 °L). Märzen in style.
• Vienna Red: Vienna, Pilsner and Melanoidin malts, 40 to 60 EBC (15.5 to 23.1 °L). A Vienna lager base.
• Munich October Beer: Vienna, Melanoidin and CARAMUNICH, 35 to 60 EBC (13.6 to 23.1 °L). Festbier in style.
• Bavarian Pilsner: Pilsner malt and CARAPILS, 10 to 20 EBC (4.2 to 8.0 °L).
• Bavarian Hefeweizen: pale wheat malt, Pilsner malt and CARAHELL, 10 to 20 EBC (4.2 to 8 °L).
• Bavarian Maibock: Vienna malt with CARAPILS and CARARED, 20 to 50 EBC (8.0 to 19.3 °L).
• Bavarian Dunkel: Munich, Pilsner and CARAMUNICH, 65 to 85 EBC (25.0 to 32.5 °L).

They come in 4, 10 and 28 kg packs with an 18 month shelf life unopened, stored dry between 0 and 30 °C.

Using extracts in a brewery, with a worked recipe

In a commercial brewhouse the extracts do three jobs. They correct original gravity at the end of the boil. They make priming and krausening wort for bottle conditioning or secondary fermentation. They make pilot batches easy, because you can test a hop or yeast without running a full mash.

Two sums are worth keeping. One hectolitre of 12 °P wort holds about 12.6 kg of extract (100 litres x 1.048 x 0.12), so at 75% you need about 16.8 kg of malt extract per hectolitre. And topping up a 10 hl batch that came in 0.5 °P short takes roughly 7 kg. Boil time after that depends on the hops you add, not the extract.

A worked 20 litre extract brew of 13 °P amber lager:

• Vienna Red: 3.00 kg (82%)
• Munich Amber: 0.65 kg (18%)

That totals 3.65 kg and 100%. For a black version, add 112 g of SINAMAR (14 g x 0.2 hl x 40 EBC) for about 40 EBC more colour.

Using SINAMAR and extracts in India

Both shelf lives assume storage below 30 °C, which an Indian summer storeroom can easily pass, so keep cans in the coolest dry room you have. Once a can is open, reseal it tightly and refrigerate it if you can; concentrated wort is a fine home for mould once air reaches it.

Labelling is the other question. Weyermann notes that under the EU rules SINAMAR has no E number and can be declared as malt extract. Do not assume that carries over. Indian food labelling and state excise brand or label approval rules vary by state and change, so check the current notification or ask a licensing consultant before you add SINAMAR or extract to a registered recipe.

Used well, SINAMAR and the extracts let you hit colour and gravity targets without changing the grist. Choosing when to fix the grist instead is a grist design call. The Weyermann malts guide shows how they sit alongside the grain range.