Tell Me Your Top 5 Specialty Grains

[raven19]

All,

Keen to know your most popular/favourite 5 (or more if that is the case) specialty grains that are in your AG recipes and grain stores at home.

I have done a number of searches and could not find a similar topic.

This shall help me start my specialty grain library to go with my base malts.

Cheers!

 

[Zwickel]

at stock:

200kg of Pilsener malt
50kg of wheat malt
50kg Munich malt I
10kg Corne/Maize
2kg acidulated Pilsener malt




Prost :icon_cheers:

 

[manticle]

I haven't brewed enough to say these are the definitive 5 - they are just 5 that I regularly have on hand and use.

Dingeman's Biscuit Malt (this is lovely)
Joe white chocolate
Joe white light crystal
Joe White Black malt
Joe White Roasted barley

Of these I regularly use the choc, crystal and biscuit in anything of colour. Black and barley are reserved for stouts and my upcoming planned porter.

 

[Effect]

carapils
crystal medium
crystal dark
choc
roast


edit: I wanted to put down some wheat and munich, but they are base, not specialty

 

[mje1980]

No particular order

Pale choc
Choc
Any/all of the weyermann caramunich's
Vienna ( ok this is a base grain, but mostly i use it as a specialty )
Melanoiden ( dont use it often but very handy )

Manticle i just got some dingemans biscuit, what do you think of it, and what style/s does it suit?, i was thinking of doing a simple blonde ale, and adding some in, so i could see what theflavour contribution was. Either that, or use 3-4% in a bitter?

Cheers

P.S i brew 90% bitters.

 

[Maple]

Biscuit
Caraaroma
Carafa II
Black patent
Pale chocolate

This is purely because I consider the following base grain:
Rye
Munich I & II
Vienna
Rye
Ale
Pils
Rye

 

[manticle]

No particular order

Pale choc
Choc
Any/all of the weyermann caramunich's
Vienna
Melanoiden ( dont use it often but very handy )

Manticle i just got some dingemans biscuit, what do you think of it, and what style/s does it suit?, i was thinking of doing a simple blonde ale, and adding some in, so i could see what theflavour contribution was. Either that, or use 3-4% in a bitter?

Cheers

P.S i brew 90% bitters.

The biscuit gives a distinct nuttiness. I bought it because I love dubbels and it was available in a bulk buy and I got excited so I got 25 kg. Not sure how wise that is for specialty malts as I only ever use a max of 200g in an average recipe. However I'm not sorry I got it - it's lovely.

I guess I see its place more in darker coloured ales but I don't think it would be out of place in something golden or amber or maybe even a pilsner to complement the breadiness. Kind of just musing there but I think I might give it a shot.Anything that relies on malt character could benefit in my slightly uninformed opinion. Not something to be overshadowed by loads of late hopping I reckon.

I'd go the bitter route and keep the other malts to one or two that you're already familiar with and a single hop type. Kind of like a SMASH & SPEC??

 

[mje1980]

Cheers mate!

 

[manticle]

Interested to see what you reckon when it's done.

 

[haysie]

Weyermann acidulated #1
Melanoiden #2
Special B #3
Barret Choc #4
Carapils #5



Bairds Choc

 

[Fourstar]

Carafa Special II
JW Caramalt
Weyermann Carared
Weyermann Carapils
Weyermann Caraaroma
JW Roast Barley


I would have Munich in there as my favourite base supplement malt, but unfortunatly its a base, not a specialty.

 

[Muggus]

Really haven't played around enough with specialties to have favourites unfortunately.
But i''m certainly a big fan of alternate wheat varieties...crystal, chocolate, roasted. Find they produce far different flavours to the barley varities.

And I do love dark crystal and caramalt...as much as i've used light/medium crystal in the past, i think those days have gone.

 

[chappo1970]

Biscuit
Caraaroma
Carafa II
Black patent
Pale chocolate

This is purely because I consider the following base grain:
Rye
Munich I & II
Vienna
Rye
Ale
Pils
Rye

Great minds Maple! :icon_cheers:

 

[Mantis]

JW Caramalt
Rye
Caraaroma
Chocolate
Caraamber

Rye rocks :icon_chickcheers:

 

[Thommo]

No particular order:

Amber - In most of my Pale Ales
Carafa II - Great for colour adjustment with subtle impact on flavour
Caraaroma - LOVE this one.
Carapils - use it in most of my lagers (which I don't brew enough of)
Caramunich - Prefer it over Crystal

In number six I'd have Choc Wheat. No idea why, just like it.

And tbh there are still too many that I haven't tried.

 

[parrja]

When I started out I got a lot of milage out of the following:

"Bulk" Base Malts:
Pilsner
Ale
Wheat

Specialty grains and lower quantity base malts
Munich
Crystal
Chocolate

This covers (no doubt imperfectly) a lot of styles.

 

[warra48]

Crystal, light, medium & dark
Chocolate
Caraaroma
Carahell
Caramunich II

There are others I have, but these are the most used.

 

[benno1973]

Pale Choc
Caramunich II
Brown Malt (mmm...)
Carared
Carafa Special

 

[Muggus]

Is Munich really considered a specialty or base?

It would be well up on my list, but i'd consider it more of a base grain than specialty.

 

[dj1984]

Base malt same as Vienna.