Types of Grain

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BillyRaygun

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I'm trying to wrap my head around all the different types of grain. Is there a website that explains the difference, who makes them, etc.

For example, on the paper bag full grains from the home brew store, I have three stickers indicating the types of grains I selected. They are:

1 lb #C6 Weyer C-Mnch III 1#
1/2 lb #C14 dingemans CARA 20 1#
1/2 lb #B2 Weyer Pilsner 1#

I'm trying understand these different types of grain, who makes them, what the difference between C-Mnch, CARA, Pilsner is, what the #C6, #C14, #B2 codes are etc.

I would like to understand these so I can properly setup my software program for my batch, but also just to understand grains in general.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hope your not using all of this for one small batch or something.
What you have is a german dark cyrstal munich malt and a british crystal malt. and german pilsner
I would get a catalog from Midwest brewing sent, they have all the descriptions of alot of most malts. You can also just scann throught them on their websites,i think they have the descriptions.
 
Misplaced_Canuck said:
What you're seeing is 2 things:

Homebrew shops order codes, and abbreviations for which malt it is:

1 lb #C6 Weyer C-Mnch III 1#

#C6 is probably the bin number from your brew shop
Weyer is Weyermann
C-Mnch III is an abbreviation for Cara-Munich III

M_C

Ok. So Weyermann is the grain "manufacturer"? If that's accurate, then I assume Dingemans is another brand/manufacturer of Cara 20? If that too is accurate, is there a website that discuss the differences between cara-Munich and cara 20? Or is that something I just have to figure out as I brew?
 
jonmohno said:
Hope your not using all of this for one small batch or something.
What you have is a german dark cyrstal malt and a british crystal malt. and german pilsner
I would get a catalog from Midwest brewing sent, they have all the descriptions of alot of most malts. You can also just scann throught them on their websites,i think they have the descriptions.

10/4 about the catalog from Midwest Brewing. That sounds like it will help. Yes, I'm doing a full boil (5 gallons) steeping with the grains mentioned. With my extracts, I'm targeting a bock style brew.
 
10/4 about the catalog from Midwest Brewing. That sounds like it will help. Yes, I'm doing a full boil (5 gallons) steeping with the grains mentioned. With my extracts, I'm targeting a bock style brew.

If you steep them longer you may get conversion of the base malt pilsner you have.You may as well utilize the base malt by simply steeping it for at least 45 minutes. Its basically a partial mash, using base grains and just steeping longer but you can also sparge(rinse the grains with an equal amount of170 deg water)after about an hour.
 
Best chart I have seen is here:

KotMF: Malt Name Comparison Chart

It tells you the manufacturers and what they call their grain types across the board.

This is a wonderful chart full of great information but I still have problems with grains. I find a recipe I like and it lists all the grains so I go to the lhbs to buy the grain I need but they are out of some of them and some of what they have is from a maltster not listed on the chart so I wander down the aisle and pick out a bunch of different grains for future brews. Hmm...Crystal 60 looks like it should fit a future recipe and so does Caramunigh III. Hmm... maybe I should pick up some dark caramel too. When I get home I look at the chart and find that all of these are pretty much the same with different names and its like that all the way down the chart, same specialty malt, different names. How am I supposed to know that I can't substitute Carafa II for Carafa III without really changing the flavor of my beer. What's the difference between Carapils and Carafoam? Sorry, just venting but it sure would be nice if there was a little more consistency.
 
I lump grain types by the adjectives. Example: when I see Cara, I associate it with body and head retention. The crystals are easy, higher number= darker beer. Use a pound of X-60, or say .75 lbs. of x-80. Anything with a German name goes in German beer types- which I rarely brew, so I rarely buy. Anything with a color appended to it (red wheat, black barley) I use when I want that beer type (wheat) that's a little darker than yellow- perhaps even an amber wheat. Base grains follow the same system: if I'm making an ESB, I use UK 2-row such as Fawcett. An APA gets US 2-row, or Canadian 2-row....close enough to the same thing. An Oktoberfest would get Munich everything, 2-row through whatever else goes in it. As you can probably see by now, I don't really set much stock in specific grains, and am willing to use something close, perhaps in a different amount- like the Crystal example earlier. As long as I can still get my numbers from the bill, I'm a happy hopper! And yes, I know this doesn't encompass all the grain types, and especially not the very specialty grains, but it works for my uses and is easy to keep track of for us new guys. Kyle
 
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