Specialty Grains (How much is too much and why?)

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McKBrew

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I am definately weak in some areas of recipe formulation. I know that too much specialty malt is not a good thing, and can find some information about why. Can anyone provide links to resources that discuss the negative aspects of over-doing it on specialty malts? There might be a good thread, but I couldn't find it with SEARCH.

Thanks
 
I hate to say it but I've never really seen such a resource. I usually use the little "Description" field in BeerSmith, it was pre-populated with some really good information, including "recommended percentage of grist" for each type of grain. Certain grains even say, for example, "3%-10% for stouts, 1%-4% for brown or amber ales."

Some - but not all - of the info is on individual info pages for each grain. For example, BSG posts rates for grains by manufacturer, here's Briess: http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/malt/briess.php

You can see that Pale or Wheat are OK to 100% but they recommend that Black Malt consist of 5% of the grainbill or less.

I think some of the numbers are a little vague. But it's a start. I've used this page a handful of times in formulating.
 
some grains will cause sparge problems, too much wheat without at least some rices hulls can cause stuck sparges to much rye, oats, rice, or corn can do the same. but I think all the other specialty barley grains are just an issue of flavor. the only other thing to consider is enzyme activity if you use to much specialty grain with a enzyme weak base malt you might have conversion problems.
 
In a mash, the main reason is enzyme activity. Other reasons are stuck sparges, strange flavors (Special B will turn your beer into plum wine), very high final gravities, reduced fermentables.
 
Cool. Thanks for the information. I knew one of the main issues was that a beer might have FG/residual sweetness issues, but wanted to make sure. I've been answering alot of posts recently where people have a ton of crystal and I wanted to be able to give them a good reason why it was too much.
 
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