What to do with munich malt

I've been trying to get 10# of munich from the LHBS here in vegas. Long story short, he's got a 55# bag coming with my name on it. He offered to split the bag with me for a smoking deal but besides making a lot of Dead Guy Ale, are there any favorite recipes out there? I thought about doing a barleywine or something with it. I have a 30gal mash tun.

A Munich Dunkel or a Schwarzbier would be a terrific use of a lot of munich.

Mmmmm, munich. Maibock. Time to make it now, too.

I found a good schwarzbier recipe. What about a Rauchbier? I know they would traditionally use alder smoked malt but don't know much else.

Maybe not on the rauchbier. I don't like them so much I'd want to drink 5 gallons.

You can do a Munich SMASH. Munich Northern Brewer is a great one.

I like to add Munich to IPAs.

McGarnigle said:

You can do a Munich SMASH. Munich Northern Brewer is a great one.

I like to add Munich to IPAs.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about an IPA, but would probably only use about 2# in a ten gallon batch. Generally I keep my character malt in the 5-8% range. What percentage would you suggest?

My favorite brew to do with Munich is Altbier.
I do 50/50 Munich/Pilsner for the base grains and add in a pound of homemade brown malt (oven roasted 2-row) for a little more color and a 1/2 pound of crystal to help bring out the malt.
Use a kolsh yeast and keep IBUs under 40

mredge73 said:

My favorite brew to do with Munich is Altbier.
I do 50/50 Munich/Pilsner for the base grains and add in a pound of homemade brown malt (oven roasted 2-row) for a little more color and a 1/2 pound of crystal to help bring out the malt.
Use a kolsh yeast and keep IBUs under 40

Click to expand...

I just happen to have a couple packs of Kolsch yeast. And US hallertau. What temp do you use during fermentation? Also, at what temp and for how long (approximately) do you roast your 2-row to make brown malt? Which crystal do you prefer? I keep crystal 60 here all the time.

I put Munich in all my IPAs...fantastic color and flavor!

My mash temp was 152f, fermentation temp was 68f


Looks like I put the recipe on my trial version of brewers friend:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/print/9372

On this recipe I attempted (experimented) to make my own brown and crystal malt out of Munich, turned out great.
I don't see any reason you couldn't just skip these additions and just go 50/50 though.

Calichusetts said:

I put Munich in all my IPAs...fantastic color and flavor!

Click to expand...

Do you have a favorite proportion?

Double_D said:

Do you have a favorite proportion?

Click to expand...

8% gets me to about 7 SRM. I LOVE IT!

Oh, put Munich in EVERYTHING! Or, just about.

It's great in IPAs, APAs, and American ambers. A little in Jamil's Evil Twin (or Yooper's Evil Twin, a total ripoff of his recipe) is beyond great. My house pale ale's last version was 18% Munich.

An all Munich beer is great, too! A German ale or lager, or even a Munich/amarillo SMaSH.

Munich is like a maltier maris otter. It's "warm" and malty, and gives you a reddish-amber color. A porter or bock with Munich malt is fantastic. But so is stout. And of course the Oktoberfests and Maibocks!

A little Munich seems to make it into almost all of my recipes. IPAs, anything German, Belgian Tripels and Dubbels, Hefes, Oatmeal stout, Browns, etc. It adds an nice toasty maltiness to any recipe.

I remember reading something interesting about Munich...because it's kilned more than most base malts, many compounds responsible for phenol formation are destroyed. So if you brew a hefe or Belgian with high proportions of Munich, expect the clove/spice/phenol character to be subdued. My own anecdotal evidence confirms this.

Apparently I've been missing out! Now to start writing this into recipes... I might be interested in a house pale ale if it had 18% munich also, any tips?. And maybe that's what my porter has been missing.

I buy Munich by the 55# bag and as suggested above use it in many styles.

Double_D said:

Apparently I've been missing out! Now to start writing this into recipes... I might be interested in a house pale ale if it had 18% munich also, any tips?. And maybe that's what my porter has been missing.

Click to expand...

Here's my House Pale Ale:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/da-yoopers-house-pale-ale-100304/

Now, for the question- which Munich malt are you getting? They have US Munich (Briess?), and then of course Weyermann which is German. And Weyermann has two kinds of Munich.

Munich malt is a "malty" malt, if that makes sense. Not sweet, but very malty in flavor and aroma.

My last beer I brewed was Munich based porter. 11lbs Munich, 8oz crystal 80 & chocolate, and 4oz black malt. Fermented with WLP002, it turned out pretty good. I might be a little bias but I drank it side by side with bells and odells porter and I think mine is better

Yooper said:

Here's my House Pale Ale:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/da-yoopers-house-pale-ale-100304/

Now, for the question- which Munich malt are you getting? They have US Munich (Briess?), and then of course Weyermann which is German. And Weyermann has two kinds of Munich.

Munich malt is a "malty" malt, if that makes sense. Not sweet, but very malty in flavor and aroma.

Click to expand...

It's breiss or great western. Does that change anything?

I used Munich in an IPA recently http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/Midnattssol-IPA.html

Here's the recipe for an Amber with Munich as the base malt that I brewed a while ago http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/Amber-Ale.html

Thanks! The amber looks really good. I've been playing with my IPAs and using <10% character malt. Would you suggest switching out a portion of base malt for munich (maybe up to 25%) or only use it as a character malt?

Double_D said:

It's breiss or great western. Does that change anything?

Click to expand...

Yes it does. I've never used Briess Munich, but I've heard it's more of a crystal malt; not really a true Munich.

Never used GW either, but I've heard that one is solid.

TyTanium said:

Yes it does. I've never used Briess Munich, but I've heard it's more of a crystal malt; not really a true Munich.

Never used GW either, but I've heard that one is solid.

Click to expand...

Oh man I guess I'll have to see what comes in then. The owner of the LHBS was at one of the micro breweries in town when he put the order in... he couldn't remember which it was.

If it's the Briess should it be treated as a character malt only?

I use munich in:

Bock (82%)
Blond (15%)
Tripel (5%)

Koffie said:

I use munich in:

Bock (82%)
Blond (15%)
Tripel (5%)

Click to expand...

Belgian blonde or a light american style ale?

It might only be their dark Munich, the 20L...check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/briess-munich-malt-170863/

TyTanium said:

It might only be their dark Munich, the 20L...check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/briess-munich-malt-170863/

Click to expand...

That's not really that comforting..

Double_D said:

Belgian blonde or a light american style ale?

Click to expand...

If you must put a label on it: Belgian
70% pils, 15% munich, 15% pale
Styrian Golding during the boil, Saaz and 10 grams dried orange peel.
Fermented with La Trappe yeast.

TyTanium said:

Yes it does. I've never used Briess Munich, but I've heard it's more of a crystal malt; not really a true Munich.

Never used GW either, but I've heard that one is solid.

Click to expand...

Don't worry! The Briess is fine. I've used it, and it's fine. It's different than the German malt a bit, but it's still recognizably Munich malt. Briess makes three different Munich malts that I know of, and all would be fine as a base malt.

Yooper said:

Don't worry! The Briess is fine. I've used it, and it's fine. It's different than the German malt a bit, but it's still recognizably Munich malt. Briess makes three different Munich malts that I know of, and all would be fine as a base malt.

Click to expand...

Oh good! Glad to be wrong in this case.

TyTanium said:

Oh good! Glad to be wrong in this case.

Click to expand...

Well, it's not that same as Weyermann, so you're not really wrong. But it's not a crystal malt, and it makes a pretty good "instead of German" Munich malt.

Just to chime in on the 1st page mention of oven roasting malts in case the OP or others want to pursue that course. Homemade malts be they crystal, roasted, smoked, etc. need to be allowed to rest for a minimum of 7 days, preferably 10 -14 days to allow them to 'mellow' out. My understanding is if you use them right away you get some harsh off flavors. FWIW I've played around with all of those except roasting to really dark colors and have LOVED every bit of it. Homemade crystal malts kick the teeth out, steal the lunch money, and generally abuse any store bought malt. It's so good I have to stop myself from eating it like candy!

Some awful good comments/suggestions in this thread. I enjoy munich and my next brew is a 43%/43% munich:dark munich (8 lovibond:15 lovibond) + a lb or 2 of 2 row for the other 14% of the grain bill for a 1.038 OG brew with Windsor yeast.

mredge73 said:

My favorite brew to do with Munich is Altbier.
I do 50/50 Munich/Pilsner for the base grains and add in a pound of homemade brown malt (oven roasted 2-row) for a little more color and a 1/2 pound of crystal to help bring out the malt.
Use a kolsh yeast and keep IBUs under 40

Click to expand...

That sounds awesome or use WLP036 Dusseldorf Alt Yeast

Munich 10L makes it into most of my recipes.

9% in APA
14% in IPA
20% in IIPA
26% in Red Rye IPA
19% in Porter
12-17% in Imperial Stouts

wiescins said:

Munich 10L makes it into most of my recipes.

9% in APA
14% in IPA
20% in IIPA
26% in Red Rye IPA
19% in Porter
12-17% in Imperial Stouts

Click to expand...

The red sounds good. What do you do for the color? Does it come from the Munich only? A little crystal 60? Or mellanoidin? And your IPA/IIPA, with some other character malt or just that and 2 row?

Double_D said:

The red sounds good. What do you do for the color? Does it come from the Munich only? A little crystal 60? Or mellanoidin? And your IPA/IIPA, with some other character malt or just that and 2 row?

Click to expand...

I'll also add some crystal to my hoppy beers in addition to the Munich. The red rye has a layering of 3x crystals in equal parts (20/40/60...I think).