# Advice Please - Light Munich As A Base Malt



## mark_m (18/8/10)

Hi All,
After a bit of advice or some opinions.
I'm mainly brewing pale ales in double batches, my "go to" grain bill has been:

9kg ale malt
2kg light munich
.6kg light crystal
.2kg wheat malt

with a variety of hopping schedules.

After a rush of blood to the head during the late '09 bulk buy, I'm overstocked with Light Munich by about 25kg.

Any suggestions for a recipe using LM as a base malt?

What sort of malt profile would you expect from going down this path?

Thanks in advance.

Mark.


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## jakub76 (18/8/10)

How about a Vienna Lager.

When researching Vienna Lager recipies I read about a number commercial examples that use Munich Malt as a base and often no Vienna Malt at all.


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## manticle (18/8/10)

Altbier
German lager
Kolsch
Bock
Doppelbock
Marzen

Anything that warrants a bit of malty breadiness. Worse malts you could be stuck with.

Did you look up specs for munich malt? Websites for malts will suggest styles - plenty of info already out there on this.


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## Stubbie (18/8/10)

Munich Dunkel,

Pretty much 100% Light Munich except for a touch of carafa or choc (1-2%).


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## goatherder (18/8/10)

I've used munich II as a base before, lots of melanoidins, perhaps a little over the top.

The light munich would work as a base in plenty of styles. Fest, vienna, bock or dunkel lager come to mind using munich as the majority of the base malt, use the search button for some recipes. Try a schwartzbier with 50:50 munich and pils for the base, with some carafa for colour. 

One thing to watch is the diastatic power of the malt, a measure of the strength of the enzymes used in mash conversion. Munich malt is quite low compared to vienna or pils malt, which may lead to reduced conversion efficiency. I've had this happen when using munich II large quantities in particular. Be prepared to mash a bit longer, or an easier option may be to include 10-20% pils malt. Further info on DP is here: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Under...Diastatic_Power.


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## seemax (18/8/10)

There are a few pale ales using 100% munich or vienna - example is the Victory Hop Devil IPA, I tried it with mild success.

Personally I would try a Munich Lager, 25IBU of your favourite noble hop (eg Saaz) and fermented with one of the wyeast lager strains.


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## under (18/8/10)

Im hearing good thing about a 100% munich I bill and hopped to around 60ibus @10min


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## Fourstar (18/8/10)

Munich Dunkel is the beer of choice for 100% Munich.

if you are wanting to make an ale of sorts, you could use it as your base malt for almost anything you want breadcrust chatacteristics or some unique complexity that helps it stand out in the crowd e.g. as most of your base in a pale ale or the base in a brown ale etc.

Even if you split it 50:50 with your base malt it shouldnt be too overpowering in most instances as long as you balnce out the extra malt flavour with abit more hops. It would be good for some pseudo English German Bitters! :beerbang:


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## mje1980 (19/8/10)

Yeah, under is right, i tried a 10 min IPA with 100% munich. Was delicious.


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## jayse (19/8/10)

Not all munich is equal, one thing to note is if its JWM munich your talking about then its a different question, if your talking about weyermann then all is good.


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## Fourstar (19/8/10)

jayse said:


> Not all munich is equal, one thing to note is if its JWM munich your talking about then its a different question, if your talking about weyermann then all is good.



IIRC, JW Light Munich is darker than Weyermann Munich I. or is it JW Dark Munich is Darker than Weyermann Munich II?!?

I'll vote for both.  

As a personal preference, i prefer Weyermann Munich over JW Munich purely because the intesity of the malt flavour is milder and cleaner. If my palate memory serves me correctly when i used to use JW Munich, it also attributed some bitter/astringent qualities when used in higher %'s.


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## mje1980 (19/8/10)

Yep, wey munich in the beer i tried. Yummmmmmmmmmo


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## argon (19/8/10)

Stubbie said:


> Munich Dunkel,
> 
> Pretty much 100% Light Munich except for a touch of carafa or choc (1-2%).



+1 for a Munich Dunkel... can be done with 100% Munich malt. chuck in some noble hops and a nice German lager yeast... couldn't be easier


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## drsmurto (19/8/10)

Overstocked with munich malt.

I don't understand this phrase.


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## reviled (19/8/10)

Weyermann munich is good, but if you want a really awesome Munich malt try and track down some Global Munich, its on par with the weyermann Munich II colour wise I think, but ive definately converted from weyermann to Global, seems to be a little bit beefier :icon_drool2: 

I brewed a smash with Global Munich and 150gms of Amarillo, it was absolutely devine!! 

And im the same as Smurto, allways have Munich in stock in my brewshed


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## therook (19/8/10)

Octoberfest

55%Vienna
45%Munich 1

Sensational

Rook


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