Differences between Munich and Vienna

I had not much luck with the site search on this one, would appreciate a link. What is the differences, aside from color, in these malts. I'm speaking of the base malts, I use Wiermans (I know that is spelled wrong).

What I'm working on is my house ale. I've done three iterations so far, variations on this grain bill:

9-10# Maris Otter
2-4# Vienna or Munich
1/2-1# Cara Pils or some Crystal

I'm playing with the hop schedule a bit. Believe it or not toning it down to old fashioned IPA standards, like 40-50 IBU (I think that's right, right?), a bit less in the dry hop than 1 ounce next time.

Anyhow, I'm too few brews in to have a good grip on the differences in these two grains. My Papazian books don't offer much more than charts.

What are your thoughts on dialing up the Vienna/Munich on the grain bill while dialing down the M.O..

What really inspired this question is Octoberfast recipe (in the carboys, 10g) which uses plenty of both, making me wonder what each offers.

Thanks sorry for the babbling, bored on painkillers. Cheers

Here's a bit of description from a BYO article...may help

http://***********/stories/beer-styles/article/indices/11-beer-styles/1597-vienna-lager-in-exile

Northcalais40 said:

I had not much luck with the site search on this one, would appreciate a link. What is the differences, aside from color, in these malts. I'm speaking of the base malts, I use Wiermans (I know that is spelled wrong).

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Weyermann. Cool place; if you ever plan to be in Bamberg, make sure to contact them in advance to schedule a tour.

I would say that Munich and Vienna could be interchanged for what you are using it for. If you were doing a Vienna Lager or an Oktoberfest you would have to worry about the differences maybe. But it looks like you are using it more to add some maltiness to your ale, rather than the character of the malt itself. I would say you might end up with a slightly more fermentable wort if you use Vienna, slightly less with Munich. I believe that the diastatic potential is slightly higher for Vienna, lower for light Munich, and even lower still for dark Munich.

If you want to add a little maltiness, but keep your color lighter and your fermentability high go with Vienna.

If you want some big maltiness and darker color with a less fermentable wort go with Munich.

In my experience the fermentability between the two is negligible. The difference is that Munich is kilned a little higher than Vienna, that's pretty much it. Vienna does have more DP but either one has enough to convert itself and getting Munich malt to ferment out dry isn't any more difficult than Vienna.

Light Munich can vary a decent amount among maltsters; Weyermann Munich Type I (~6L and continental 2-row) is quite a bit different than Briess regular Light Munich (~10L and domestic 6-row).

they're both rich and flavorfull, but i feel like munich is more caramelly tasting, where vienna is more of a toasty cracker kind of malty taste. my 2 cents.

I'll report in ~ two months. I've got two batches of O'fest going. Everything was identical except one had 2/5ths of the grain as Vienna malt, and one had 2/5ths as Munich malts. The rest of the grains, hops and yeast were exactly the same. I'm looking forward to tasting these.

Subscribed. Can't wait to hear the results!

For more detailed info you can go here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart
To get even more detail click on each of the malt names itself. Generally, IMO munich lends a more malty and sweet character.

pjj2ba said:

I'll report in ~ two months. I've got two batches of O'fest going. Everything was identical except one had 2/5ths of the grain as Vienna malt, and one had 2/5ths as Munich malts. The rest of the grains, hops and yeast were exactly the same. I'm looking forward to tasting these.

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It's almost all gone These were 10 gal batches. ~19 went in one night. Most people preferred the Munich version. It was a little richer and fuller tasting. I guess that is as expected. The bitterness was on the low side for both batches so the malt came through quite nicely. Next time I'll do two Munich versions, but up the bitterness in one.