What Malts Should I Buy Tomorrow? Bewildered!

[PistolPatch]

I'm buying some grain in bulk tomorrow and have always been confused on malts and their names.

For example, my two main recipes have the following grain bill...

Brew 1 = 4.25kg Pale Malt + 850g Munich 1 + 430g Caraamber
Brew 2 = 2.12kg Pale Malt + 1.87kg Munich + 210g Caramalt

Obviously I need at least one bag of pale malt but what kind? Joe White, Barrett Burston or whatever?

I also have no idea of the difference between Munich and Munich 1 and some sites don't even list both these. And then there's Caraamber and Caramalt!

Can I substitute these for each other without severe penalty?

I really have no idea in this area at all and would love some help on what brands and grains I should get tomorrow.

Many thanks,
Pat

 

[MHB]

Hi PP

With the base malts I wouldnt be too worried; most of the big Ausie maltster's products are with in a hair of each other. Not to say some won't prefer 1 over the other but thats often just personal preference or experience.

With the coloured malts always look at the EBC, the bigger number is darker naturally, so for Munich:-

Munich is Light Munich is Munich1
Dark Munich is Munich 2

For CaraAnything you can usually think of it as a type of crystal malt
The CaraMalt I carry has an EBC of 40-60 (Jo White)
The CaraAmber has an EBC of 60-80 (Wyer)

So be a bit careful with those substitutions.

A lot of the problem is caused by people trade marking the names like CaraPilis CarraFoam same same. But like I said look at the EBC.


MHB

 

[Kingy]

Great questions PP and great answers MHB i was also confused on grains like this now i have some sort of idea and wont be ordering blind. (even tho im still learning) i can go to bed now ive learned something today

 

[tangent]

i go by the rule, English malts for English beers.
German malts for German beers.
Shame we can't get Belgian malts easily here.
When you think you have too large a collection of malts, slap yourself and buy more.
You're not a real brewer unless you have 5 kgs of caramunich 1, 2 and 3. Caraamber, carared, carapils, melanoidin, caraaroma. But i love German malts

My Oz malt experiences have been a little lacklustre other than the Cryer malts. Ie - JW have been very bland.... funny that.

 

[blackbock]

Don't tell me that Tangent, I just bought 25kg of the Pilsner...

 

[PistolPatch]

Ah! Thanks MHB. That clears up a hell of a lot for me - excellent! Be nice if there was a page listing all the grains with their various names like you have done above.

Top stuff,
Pat

P.S. Blackbock, I'll take 5kg of pils

 

[n00ch]

Gday PP,

If you actually click on "AG Download" in MHB's signiture there is a excel spreadsheet listing all of the malts he stocks (about 50 I think) and it shows their names and EBC.

No affiliation, just a page listing a lot of malts/info as requested above.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

This site lists a few common ones and their usage

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/w...page/Grains.htm

Might be worth constucting a list for the AHB Wiki

Cheers