Talking about the taste of malt is one of those difficult to explain topics which keep beer drinkers searching for words. Most descriptions you see will say something like "Malt tastes malty". Not a lot of help here, if I knew what "Malty" tastes like I wouldn't be looking for a description.

So, first lets look at what malt is, and then see if we can find ways to describe the flavours it gives to beer.

Quite simply, malt is grain which has begun to sprout and then is heated and dried to stop the growth.

The sprouting process releases sugars and enzymes which are necessary to the fermenting process.

The temperature and length of heating time determines much about the final flavours produced by the malt.

Shorter roasting times produce more sugars in the malt and give sweeter fruit and bread flavours while longer roasted malts give more bitter "cooked" tastes.

Barley is the most common grain used for making beer, although wheat and sometimes rye is used in place of some of the barley. These grains will add many different tastes to the beer. For instance rye will add spicy or smoked tastes similar to what you taste in rye bread while wheat gives lighter tastes and provides more gluten to form a thick head.

Large mainstream brewers will use corn, rice, and many other sources of sugar to make their beers, mostly in an attempt to reduce and control any significant taste and give their product a bland sameness which passes for quality control.

Grain that has not begun to sprout will not produce much sugar and that is the main point of the malt, to produce sugar that the yeast can convert into carbon dioxide and alcohol. For this reason grains which have not sprouted but are still roasted or which are roasted for a longer period of time and at a higher temperature are used for their colour potential and to add specific tastes to the finished process.

Barley may be roasted unmalted for a roast coffee flavour, or roasted after malting for more of a chocolate, cocoa taste.

Basically malt provides the sweet, nutty, fruity, and bready tastes in beer.

Some of the sweet flavours you might find are honey, caramel, toffee, molasses or corn syrup. Among the fruity flavours to look for are raisin, berry, or date, and "warm" or bread flavours like biscuit or bread are all from the malt.