What's the british equivalent of Munich malt?

I have a porter recipe that I like that I'm trying to englishify. It calls for munich malt, which I can't find made by UK company. Is amber malt the british 'equivalent'?

I don't think amber malt is the same - amber malt won't convert so says t'interweb and can't be used as a base malt like munich malt. But then, I've seen porter recipes without German-type malts so maybe it isn't necessarily required. Rather than de-Americanise your recipe, how about something like this one?

recipes porter

This Durden Park version of Whitbreads Porter is on my to do list for Christmas.

I would think Marris Otter would work fine?

BrewMonsterHead said:

I would think Marris Otter would work fine?

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I don't think so. Maris Otter is a straight base malt. Munich is a little darker and a little more caramely. It can be used as a base, but needs a little help from some 2 row for diastic power if there are any other grains involved.

Wiki - munich malt

I kind of think there's not an equivalent- British malts offer their own range of flavors. You have pale malts, mild malts, amber malts, and brown malts, which give you quite a bit of flexibility, but none of them matches up neatly with munich. I'd think some brown malt would be good to get a similar effect, but not in a 1:1 substitution- I think Jamil uses half a pound in his brown porter, but I don't have that recipe on hand. So mostly maris otter, with a bit of brown malt will give you something authentically english in character, if different than using munich.

If you are using MO as your base malt, you can easily home-roast some to make brown malt which is right at home in a porter.

+1 on home roasting grains. It really adds some excelant character and bready/toastyness.

I don't believe there is a British equivilant, per se. Munich adds a great orange tinge that might be hard to match, even with amber malt.

If by 'englishify' you mean make more biscuity then I would try biscuit malt, or victory malt. Both are not british (belgian and american, respectively), but they add a very nice character as far as I'm concerned.

Sounds like you really want something made in the UK though, so either toast up your own 2-row, or use a Hugh Baird Amber if you can find it.

Keep in mind - even the brits use stuff from other countries - so it won't be inauthentic to use something like munich.