Munich v Vienna Malt

So I am just getting into brewing lagers (first one this weekend) and primarily want to focus on German lagers. My question/confusion is on differences between Vienna and Munich malts. My job is as an analyst and I am always googling and researching stuff so I spent a couple hours last night researching the 2 malts and their properties. And as expected, found lots of contradictory info. Also, the last time I was at my LHBS, I taste tested a little bit of each malt. Based on my tasting and research, here is what I came up with for the malts:

Vienna:
Light, soft grainy/malty flavor, with a subtle toffee/biscuit/sweet aroma

Munich
Darker than Vienna, more intense malty flavor, almost malty sweet flavor.

Also, my comparisons come from tastings of Vienna lagers (only have had 1), Marzens, and Dopplebocks. I get the grainy, malty, toasty notes in the Vienna lager and Marzen, and the more intense malty sweet in a Dopplebock.

Anyone with more experience to chime in on their thoughts and any corrections??

They are both identical until the final step in the kilning, in fact pilsner is also the same until the last kilning step. Obviously the lighter the kilning (pilsner malt) to the darkest (munich) increases melanoidin production which is what you are picking up as a more malty flavor. The bock is more intense in this flavor partly because of a greater proportion of darker kilned malts but also is often put through a several step decoction mashed and boiled for an extended period of time.

I'd say you've summed it up.

So in a 1070 beer I am planning, I have 5% lt. munich and 5% vienna. Would it be noticeable to just do 10% lt. munich?

david_42 said:

I'd say you've summed it up.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Thats what I figured, just wanted to clarify EVERYTHING I had read

Ryan_PA said:

So in a 1070 beer I am planning, I have 5% lt. munich and 5% vienna. Would it be noticeable to just do 10% lt. munich?

Click to expand...

I would doubt it, at only 5%. What style are you brewing? It may add a little complexity to the beer, but you wouldnt notice any large changes

It will start out like a really big blonde, but fermented in the primary with an abby ale, then dosed with bugs, oak and currants in the secondary. Not sure what style that is. Lets just say sour.