Mixing lots of Crystal malts, opinions welcome

I have brewed lots of beers using crystal malts and 90% of the time a recipe uses one. Several times I have made a recipe using say C60 and C120 or something, but two at the most. I had an idea today to try a malt bomb with smooth flavor utilizing more of the "crystal spectrum". Something like this...

8# 2-row Pale
1# Crystal 20
1# Crystal 40
1# Crystal 60
1# Crystal 80


I am wondering 1) if anyone has tried something like this and 2) what the consensus of the outcome would be.

Edit: Also what the style it would be. I first thought of an American Brown Ale, but I can't find any recipes that match it's profile.

I once pitched into a small all steeped Crystal wort. I think I got s'thing in the ballpark of 40 to 50% AA. It was,

interesting.

Made me think of DFH. Definitely showcased the crystal but also showed me that specialty malts are the supporting actors to the real stars. Sometimes, they need only be extras to fill in the edge of the scene.

I would cut back on the Crystal. Maybe 1/2# each. It will still be VERY malty, just not 30% of the grain bill.

Cloying it seems to me.

A lot of my recent beers have had 10-15% crystal in them and I have recently decided that I will not go above 10% from now on with crystal. There is a point when you have too much body and even the lacing in crazy

HiGravShawn said:

I have brewed lots of beers using crystal malts and 90% of the time a recipe uses one. Several times I have made a recipe using say C60 and C120 or something, but two at the most. I had an idea today to try a malt bomb with smooth flavor utilizing more of the "crystal spectrum". Something like this...

8# 2-row Pale
1# Crystal 20
1# Crystal 40
1# Crystal 60
1# Crystal 80


I am wondering 1) if anyone has tried something like this and 2) what the consensus of the outcome would be.

Edit: Also what the style it would be. I first thought of an American Brown Ale, but I can't find any recipes that match it's profile.

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That's a ridiculous amount of crystal, it's 1/3 of the grain bill. As has been noted above all those unfermentables are going to leave you with a cloying flavor & body in the beer. Beyond that all those different crystals are going to blend together to make the equivalent of crystal malt mud, each one fighting the other for supremacy. Consider crystal malts to be like flavor enhancers in cooking. When you make a stew you don't use salt, pepper, spices and herbs in large quantities, just enough to get the influence(s) you want. Approach the use of crystal malts the same way.

Gotcha, thanks! I figured there was a reason you don't see more mixing of crystals.

I think instead I will try a SMaSH type series, but SMaS(ingle)C(rystal)aSH instead to learn more about individual crystal flavor.

HiGravShawn said:

Gotcha, thanks! I figured there was a reason you don't see more mixing of crystals.

I think instead I will try a SMaSH type series, but SMaS(ingle)C(rystal)aSH instead to learn more about individual crystal flavor.

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Well, I like "layering" of crystal malts. I like to use a mix of light and dark- for example, 8 ounces of 40L and 8 ounces of 80L in a pale ale. The thing is, too much crystal is too much. Use no more than 10% or so in pale ales, and no more than 20% in amber ales. So, with 8 pounds of 2-row, one pound of crystal of any variety is enough.

I will probably try something similar the original too as a malt bomb experient, but at lower levels. Something like...

10# Pale
8oz 80
6oz 60
8oz 40
60oz 20

Which would be like an american Amber at about 15% crystal with about 38 IBU.

Yooper_Brew said:

Well, I like "layering" of crystal malts. I like to use a mix of light and dark- for example, 8 ounces of 40L and 8 ounces of 80L in a pale ale. The thing is, too much crystal is too much. Use no more than 10% or so in pale ales, and no more than 20% in amber ales. So, with 8 pounds of 2-row, one pound of crystal of any variety is enough.

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Other than the respective color contributions...do you think the average joe can tell apart the flavor contribution of say C40 and C80?

I did 35% Crystal in a batch once...only once; didn't like it at all!

Naked_Eskimo said:

Other than the respective color contributions...do you think the average joe can tell apart the flavor contribution of say C40 and C80?

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Well the taste is described as candy-like toffee vs. pronounced caramel burnt sugar. Sounds pretty different, but I usually either use C60 in light ales or darker ones with lots of other malts so I need to experiment some before giving my $0.02.

In my experience, mixing crystals of rather different colors, like 20 and 80 or 40 and 120, gives a nice complexity without getting too muddy.

i use 6 lbs of caramunich with 6 lbs of 2 row in my munich madness beer.
very malty and is popular with my friends who like dark ales

Yooper_Brew said:

Well, I like "layering" of crystal malts. I like to use a mix of light and dark- for example, 8 ounces of 40L and 8 ounces of 80L in a pale ale. The thing is, too much crystal is too much. Use no more than 10% or so in pale ales, and no more than 20% in amber ales. So, with 8 pounds of 2-row, one pound of crystal of any variety is enough.

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I would just also like to point out that these %'s only apply to 2lovibond 2-row. If you are using maris otter or 3L Pale, you need to cut back further.

We use 3L Pale and made a beer with 12% caramalts and it was very sweet and cloying.

I have been mixing and blending lots of crystals into my brews recently. I think the concern over cloying sweetness and so on is vastly overrated. I recently brewed a 1.050 brown with over 2# of crystal that finished dry and not sweet at all...1.010 FG.

I will commonly blend 3-6 different crystals and am specifically fond of the brittish crystals and special B......

Crystal Malt isn't really going to give a malty flavor, more caramel on up to raisiny.....

If you want the maltiness focuses I would use a slightly darker kilned basemalt like Marris Otter and use a large percentage of munich. I think what many of us think of as malty flavor, including myself, can be achieve with base malt and munich.

Don't worry about it...variety is the spice of life.

It all sounds like more reasons to brew more beers

permo said:

I
...
If you want the maltiness focuses I would use a slightly darker kilned basemalt like Marris Otter and use a large percentage of munich. I think what many of us think of as malty flavor, including myself, can be achieve with base malt and munich. ..

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In my experience that's exactly right. Maltiness is much more a result of base malts like Munich or Marris Otter. FWIW, as an example, I find an IPA made with all MO as the base malt, plus say 9% C60, to be a bit too malty, whereas the same thing with all pale (plus the C60) is not quite malty enough.

by mistake I make a 2.5 galon batch with pale Ale Malt 5 pounds, Caramel 20L 1 pound and Caramel 60L 1 pound. is now fermenting, I have no idea how this will taste... any idea?