The Forgotten Sweetener Bakers Once Knew | Sweet Wort Recipe

Learn how to make sweet wort — the ancient natural sweetener made from diastatic malt that bakers once used before refined sugar existed. This traditional malt syrup, created through the natural enzymatic power of malted grains, adds real depth, aroma, and authentic flavor to breads, pastries, and naturally fermented beverages.

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Introduction | What Is Sweet Wort
00:38 Making Diastatic Malt for Sweet Wort
02:16 Mashing In | Acid Pause Step
03:06 Protein Pause Explained
03:42 Sugar Pause for Sweetness
04:02 Extracting Natural Sugars
04:41 Mashing Out the Wort
04:59 How to Store Sweet Wort
05:29 Making Liquid Malt Extract
06:00 Dehydrating Spent Grain

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Sweet wort, the sugary liquid extracted from diastatic malt, in today’s world serves as a foundation for brewing beer — but it isn’t its only purpose. Long before refined sugar, people made sweet wort for cooking, baking, and creating natural drinks. In this tutorial, learn how to prepare, preserve, and use it to bring old-world depth and aroma to your own recipes.

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Sweet wort, the sugary liquid extracted 
from malted grains, in today’s world, serves as a foundation for brewing beer. But 
it isn’t its only purpose. Throughout the ages, all people enjoyed sweets. And in a world 
where refined sugar didn’t exist yet, sweet wort was a magical liquid only some 
people knew how to make. Today’s tutorial is how to make that magical sweet wort 
from malted grains for cooking, baking, and making beverages and how to preserve it 
for a future use. To start, you will need any malted grain. You can purchase them in your 
local breweries or make your own. You will find a video on how to make it on my channel and the 
link to it in the description under this video. Wheat and rye malt will give you wort that 
actually tastes sweet and could be a great addition to your baked goods. Where barley malt 
will only provide fermentable sugars to feed yeast that we do not experience with our taste 
buds as something sweet and is used mostly for making beverages. To achieve different colors, 
flavors, and aromas, you can combine your base malt, also called pale malt, which has its 
enzymes still intact, with toasted malts, and fermented red rye malt. As long as toasted 
malts do not exceed 30% of total grain you use, higher temperatures that are used to achieve 
different colors also kill enzymes that we need to do all the work. Our task is to activate 
malt enzymes by introducing water and various temperatures to allow them to break down complex 
starches in the grain into simple sugars. To make that task easier for enzymes and faster for us, 
we will need to crack the husk and expose the endosperm without pulverizing the grain. You can 
use an adjustable grain mill or a coffee grinder. We are going to use one to five ratio. 
One part by weight of malted grain to five parts by weight of water. Today for 
demonstration I will use 1 kg of malted barley and 5 L of water. It will make 3 L 
of wort or about a liter of malt extract. Place 1 kilogram of cracked malted grain 
of your choice in a large pot and add 5 L of water at temperature of 40° C or 104° F. 
Mix it. Cover it with a lid in a thick towel or a blanket to retain temperature as much 
as possible and let it rest for 30 minutes. This is an acid pause that helps to lower acidity 
and is crucial for optimal enzyme activity. When time is up, remove your towel and the lid 
and on medium heat, bring the temperature to 55° C or 130° F. Always stir it to make sure the 
temperature is more or less consistent between the bottom of your pot and the top. This is a protein 
pause that activates enzymes responsible for breaking down large protein molecules into smaller 
peptides and amino acids. Turn the heat off and again cover your pot with a lid and a towel and 
let it rest for another 30 minutes. After 30 minutes on medium heat and continuously stirring, 
bring the temperature to 65° C or 150° F. This is a sugar pause and during this time enzymes 
will convert starches into simple sugars. Turn off the heat, cover it and let it rest for 1 hour. The 
next pause is when sugars will get extracted. On medium heat and continuously stirring, bring 
the temperature to 75° C or 167° F. Turn the heat off and keep it covered for 1 hour. At the 
end of this pause, you can do an iodine test to see if sugars were extracted. Take a small sample 
of your wort and add a drop of iodine. It should change color from brown to purple or indigo. If 
it didn’t, continue this pause until it does. To finish on medium heat and continuously 
stirring, bring the temperature to 78° C or 172° F. Cover it and let it rest for 20 
minutes. When time is up, strain it through a sieve and your wort is ready. The problem 
with wort is that it doesn’t keep well. Wort is most susceptible to bacterial contamination 
and oxidation immediately after it is made. Rapid cooling slows down these processes. You 
can make an ice bath to quickly bring the wort temperature down to a desired temperature to 
be used in your recipes. It can be stored in a fridge in airtight container with a minimal 
head space for a few days or you can freeze it. To make life easier, you can make liquid malt 
extract simply by reducing water in your wort. Bring it to a boil and gently simmer on 
medium heat until it reaches thick honeylike consistency. It will take about 2 hours. Malt 
extract can be stored in a fridge for up to 2 months or can be frozen. I freeze mine in ice 
cube trays with flexible silicon bottoms for easier removal. Leftover spent grain consists 
of cellulose, fiber, and broken down proteins. It can be incorporated into bread, cookies, 
and other baked goods recipes. Also can be used in soups, stews, and sausages, adding 
a very unique texture and enhanced flavor. It could be used wet. Simply freeze it into 
a thin sheets, so you can break off pieces as big or as small as you want for your recipes. 
Or you can dry it and grind it into a flour. To dry spent grain, spread it in a thin layer on 
baking sheet and bake at temperature of 80° C or 175° F for several hours, stirring occasionally 
until it is completely dry. The grain is dry when it feels completely dry to the touch and no longer 
sticks together. Once dry, the spent grain can be ground into a flour or stored whole. For long-term 
storage, you can freeze the dry grain to prevent spoilage. Making sweet wort is a laborous task, 
bringing unforgettable flavors and a great deal of nutrients. And if you’re wondering if it’s worth 
it, well, try it and you will know for yourself.