# What Is "crystal" Colour



## Gout (29/4/04)

I have seen in so many recipes the grain "crystal"
for example in a aussie lager 100g crystal

what colour is crystal?

carapils
caramunich
all the way to dark cystals

is this a american term for a comon crystalmalt

I have JW caramalt 28 SRM


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## AndrewQLD (29/4/04)

Ben,

You will find that nowadays there are many "degrees" of crystal malt that you can buy ranging from the very pale to the very dark, the term crystal does not refer to the colour of the grain, barley grains are moistened and then "stewed for a set period of time causing the enzymes in the grain to convert the starches to sugar, they are then dried at various temperatures to produce the desired color.
This drying process "crystalizes" the sugars in the grain, hence the term crystal malt.

You will probably find that the recipes you are refering to are fairly old and were written prior to the boom in home brewing when only limited varities of grain where available.

P.S sorry if I have just repeated something you already new


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## Gout (29/4/04)

hey Andrew,
this recipe was realeased about a month ago, and crystal was all the detail they gave

I normally assume as its a light beer i use caramalt
but just wondered if there was a general rule that these guys use. if they stated the colour range then it makes it easyer but a plain "cystal" makes if hard to follow


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## AndrewQLD (30/4/04)

Sorry Ben, I am liable to ramble a bit when Ive had a few ales,

I think the answer to your question is that most HBS that don't specialize in grains stock 1 particular type of crystal malt that I think would be the Joe White crystal malt 140 EBC from Maltcraft.
I would assume that this is the malt sold to most K+K and extract brewers for tweaking there brews as it is mid range in colour and would give a good and noticable result.

Hope this helps


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