grain ratio Base/specialty malts

In looking around the best I can figure is that the ration of base malts to specialty malts is that it(Speciality malts) should not exceed 20%. Most in fact seem to be around 10%.
Is that correct?
I know that victory malt is not considered a base malt but it must be mashed. Where does that fit in the equation? Is it considered on the base side or specialty side?
I know I've read about this in here before but I can't seem to find it.

The accurate answer is: it depends.

For some styles 10% would be way too much. Some styles could take more than 20%. Left hand milk stout, including the lactose, is less than 60% base grain but it also has some flaked stuff that I guess you could classify as specialty (or not).

Victory malt is a specialty malt. There are many different kinds of specialty malts, some can be steeped and some must be mashed.

Base malt is any malt that you can use 100% of to make beer. So, Munich malt, maris otter, US 2 row, etc, are all base malts.

Specialty malts are other than base malts.

Somebody needs a copy of Designing Great Beers from Santa. It is indeed different from style to style, though most probably do come in under 20% specialty grains, I think you'll need to differentiate crystal and roasted grains to have such rules make sense, and there are always exceptions. Desiging Great Beers is a great book on this exact count.

Thank you,
This question came up because I really like the malty ales while all my friends are extreme hop heads. As I was going through many of the recipes I noticed some were very high in specialty malts and I was just wanted a little clarification. By the way Elkdog I just ordered that book 5 minutes ago!

Awesome. I love that book. It's helped me understand how beer recipes "work" and my subsequent brews have gotten better for it.

elkdog said:

Awesome. I love that book. It's helped me understand how beer recipes "work" and my subsequent brews have gotten better for it.

Click to expand...

+1

it's the only brewing book I ever look at. it takes a little while to get used to the style of the book. It's a lot like a text book in the way data is presented to you, but once you get comfortable with the way the charts are presented, it provides a lot of information in a very compact way.

the history lessons covering the major styles are pretty interesting, too.

I absolutely LOVE that book.

I love this topic and hope to see it continue, because it’s something I struggle with. That is, pitting the proportions of base to specialty in my grain bill against mash temp against yeast personality, all in trying to predict my beer’s final body, alcohol and flavor.

Recipe design for me typically starts with a targeted style, followed by yeast selection, and then hours of fidgeting with my grain bill proportions, finally, hopefully, all balanced by mash temp.

As an example… Last week I brewed an oatmeal stout using Wyeast’s London Ale III strain. Expected attenuation = 71-75%.

I looked at Jamil’s recipe for guidance, and saw he uses 73% base malt. Feeling the need to call this beer ‘my own’, as I often do, I decided I wanted to push his recipe into a fuller, less-attenuable territory and this is what I came up with:

70% base English 2-row
11% flaked grains (1 lb of oats, 4 oz of barley)
11% mid-range crystals
8% chocolate/roasted

Mashed smack dab @ 153.

OG = 1.052

Assuming a proper amount of healthy yeast @ 70 degrees, what kind of attenuation do you all think (based on similar experience preferably) that I should be expecting? I know my proportion of specialty to base grain is on the high side, but is it SO high that I ought to expect the yeast to attenuate well below Wyeast’s predicted range? I’m sure Jamil’s recipe is great, but I’m also sure that 73% base malt is not some magical number mysteriously etched into the fabric of the cosmos opening the only doorway to total perfection. Clearly there are other ways to make great Oatmeal Stout. My struggle is, once you have your guideline, just how much tweaking is TOO much?

Of course the one true answer is just to keep brewing, taking notes and ultimately figuring out what works on my own. Yes I know. But what would be the point of homebrew chat forums then?