When a recipe just states 'crystal malt'...

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MarkMayf

MarkMayf

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Which one do you go for?

For example, there is the odd recipe in GH book that states a colour, but mostly it just says crystal.

What would you consider a middle of the road, average colour is?

The last lot I picked up, without much thought, was 140L. Which I'm now thinking is pretty dark!
 
A good question and one I've pondered myself while taking my few glugs into ag...I think you are correct...the higher the number the darker the colour rating in "L" ...lovibond...
My latest called for caramel crystal 30l...which I suspected was on the lighter side...I could only get 50l (I think)...so it had to do...but it will be fine!
Some suppliers don't seem to do all the range. Unless doing competition beers does it really matter?
 
For some reason in my head I had 150L as being the standard but given the other posts I am wrong.
 
MyQul said:
Personally I just assume it means medium, which I take to be about 60L
Click to expand...

That's what Graham Wheeler states in the BYOBRA book but when I look at some ales, e.g. old Peculier, I can't see how just the addition of a little black malt would add the additional toffee and caramel complexity that you get from that ale vs. one of the pale ones. :confused:
 
I always assumed medium crystal on the basis that this was the only crystal available for home brewers "back in the day".
 
foxbat said:
That's what Graham Wheeler states in the BYOBRA book but when I look at some ales, e.g. old Peculier, I can't see how just the addition of a little black malt would add the additional toffee and caramel complexity that you get from that ale vs. one of the pale ones. :confused:
Click to expand...

I not sure really. Perhaps taking out some wort during the boil and reducing it down in a seperate pan then adding it back?
 
If you look on the brewing grain substitute chart, Baird has a malt just called “ crystal malt” which is about 80L on the chart, could it be that the recipe you want to use is based on Baird grains?
 
I don't think it matters in most recipes as you never add very much. I've just done a GH recipe for English IPA and used crystal200 which is very much at the dark end. The result just looks like IPA, indistingushable from previous brews where I've used light crystal malt.
 
foxbat said:
That's what Graham Wheeler states in the BYOBRA book but when I look at some ales, e.g. old Peculier, I can't see how just the addition of a little black malt would add the additional toffee and caramel complexity that you get from that ale vs. one of the pale ones. :confused:
Click to expand...

In my version of BYORA there is crystal in the reciepe . But I may have discovered the answer - Invert Syrup. If Theakstons used invert syrup in Peculiar this can give you toffee and caramel flavours. If there's sugar in the recipe you have GW really mean invert syrup as when he wrote BYOBRA he through table sugar would be easier for HBers to get hold of - even though invert sugar is easy enough to make
 
I'm with the majority here going for 150 EBC / 60 L as my standard medium crystal.

MyQul: I did wonder if the reason Wheeler has to add black malt to so many recipes is because he's replacing invert syrup with white sugar. There's like 4 grades of invert sugar progressing from clear to black which would give the colour and some flavours.

I got a wee taste of my belgian brunette the other day as I had to replace the rubber bung, homemade candi syrup (the quick method with DAP) definitely adds some interesting flavours and a huge colour to the beer. When I get round to doing some of the BYOBRA brews I'm going to experiment with homemade invert sugar which has been darkened to varying degrees. First on the list is Old Tom.
 
Zephyr259 said:
I'm with the majority here going for 150 EBC / 60 L as my standard medium crystal.

MyQul: I did wonder if the reason Wheeler has to add black malt to so many recipes is because he's replacing invert syrup with white sugar. There's like 4 grades of invert sugar progressing from clear to black which would give the colour and some flavours.

I got a wee taste of my belgian brunette the other day as I had to replace the rubber bung, homemade candi syrup (the quick method with DAP) definitely adds some interesting flavours and a huge colour to the beer. When I get round to doing some of the BYOBRA brews I'm going to experiment with homemade invert sugar which has been darkened to varying degrees. First on the list is Old Tom.
Click to expand...

People expect certain beers to look a certain way. I've been doing a bit of research into Gales beers as I'm culturing up the yeast. Gales HSB is quite dark but it only has a couple of percent crystal in it (plus invert syrup) so has to be darkened with black malt to get the espected ESB type colour, else it would be a lot lighter than people would think
 

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