Crystal Malt

My new favorite brew is a Caramel Amber. Before that it was a caramel Maerzen...(also fairly amber).

I see very little crystal of any lovibond used on this site, and when it is, it seems to be less than a pound in 5 gallons. Also, there is very little commercial brew with a distinct caramel note.

Am I a freak? Wouldn't be the first time. But, most of my family and friends drool over my caramel brews like they are the best thing ever.

What's your view?

I like crystal myself - the nutty flavor is great. I'll probably be using it in many of my future beers. I'm imagining a nutty porter or something...

I use small amounts of 10L and 20L in APA/IPA/IIPA's to accentuate the base malt and try to balance things out (granted my balanced is not most people's definition of balanced). I use 60L in my Amber and 90L in my Porters and Stouts and will use small amounts of 60L+ for color adjustments in malt focused beers.

I use it in some. Many of my brews are very simple and contain one or two malts.

i use them all of the time. they give me body and a little complexity to some of my brews.

A little caramel note in an IPA is a wonderful thing Ohio. Something you don't see too much commercially.

I use it wherever I feel it's appropriate for what I'm trying to accomplish. I have recipes with a fair bit of it and recipes that have none. Aside from base malt I don't have any malts that I feel have to be in every beer.

i try to use 10 20 and 40L for a certain hint of sweet maltiness in my paler beers, and 60L in my porter recipes for color and flavor...120L is ending up in two beers I'm making soon, so I'll try to get a sense of whether I'll use that for flavor/color more.

cheezydemon said:

I see very little crystal of any lovibond used on this site, and when it is, it seems to be less than a pound in 5 gallons.

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Interesting, I tend to see the opposite...what I'd consider over-use of crystal. Could be I'm overly sensitive to it (and thus "see" it more), because I've come to realize that I don't like a lot of my early recipes because they have too much crystal. I think it's really easy to go overboard with the sugary sweetness from the low-lovibond varieties, and overkill the dried-fruit aspects with the higher L's. For example, I look at your Crystal Maerzen recipe and my teeth start to hurt a little.

j/k

I can't think of many recipes where I'd see more than a pound of crystal and say "yeah, that looks about right".

But this is why we brew. Drink up, and enjoy

I love crystal malt. Right now I have 15, 40, 60, 80, and 120 on hand, and I use them when it's appropriate. It's easy to use too much if you're not careful. I pay attention to various published sources (like Ray Daniels' book, and the Classic Beer Styles books) for guidance on how much to use in a given recipe.

cheezydemon said:

I see very little crystal of any lovibond used on this site, and when it is, it seems to be less than a pound in 5 gallons. What's your view?

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I think that's because you are a Crystal meth-head
It sounds like you like it so much you want it to be the dominant flavor in your brews. Many others use it a a compliment to the flavor profile. Any more than 1 lb in 5 gallons and it starts to dominate the scene.

I keep 120L onhand for my Ordinary Bitter. I use 7.5% and along with marris otter and some munich malt, it gets 8.4 SRM. I mainly use it for color, but come to think of it, I think it adds nicely to the flavor too. I'm thinking of doing a mild with it soon as well, where I'll probably use more, along with some treacle, but I haven't taken the time to come up with a recipe yet.

I agree with Bike N Brew and blacklab. I often see recipes that call for too much crystal IMHO.

Its easy to understand why people want to use so much since "base" malt is perceived as being bland and flavorless (which it is anything but) and crystal is so yummy.

If I look at a recipe and see that crystal is more than 8 percent of the grist bill then I start to get suspicious (unless its a style, like mild, where more crystal is warranted).

Right on! And of course tastes change. I may be over-compensating for the lack of caramel beers I see available.

Obviously it can't go in any recipe, and it would get old if that is all you drink. But no Joke, people love this stuff. The Maerzen and my "session" amber:

3 lbs Amber DME
2 lbs 2 row
1.3 lbs crystal 80L

1 oz tettnang

.....Is a crowd favorite too.

It is good to see that people use it a good bit in their own recipes.

I'm still shocked at the Texas Brown that TexLaw brewed with three (3!) pounds of crystal malt.

I tend to use a bit of crystal in most "house beer"-type recipes, but I'm usually in the half- to one-pound range. I'm generally a fan of somewhat drier beers, stuff that's overly sweet doesn't really do it for me. I like stuff with a lot of MALT, but but not a lot of malt SWEETNESS (Jamil talks about this in the dopplebock episode). Even my dopplebock only used I think a pound of Caramunich.

It's just a preference thing - although I certainly wouldn't be putting crystal into EVERYTHING, as it's got to be appropriate for the style. No crystal malt in a German Pils!

If you're using somewhat darker crystals like 80L, they're a bit less directly sweet than some of the lighter ones. Your Marzen might seem sweeter if than was 1.3# of Crystal 40L.

I made a small batch using nothing but steeped crystal malts to get a "feel" for what each has on it's own. a batch for each type of Crystal I stock. IIRC, I used 1 pound per half or three-quarter Gallon of water (maybe a gallon, it has been a while since I did it and I didn't keep any notes). Pretty sure I used Kent Goldings for bittering and fermented them out with Nottingham, I think.

As I recall they were all palateable. I don't think I would do it again but, none of them were a drain pour.

One of these days I plan to make a small batch date wine too.

the_bird said:

If you're using somewhat darker crystals like 80L, they're a bit less directly sweet than some of the lighter ones. Your Marzen might seem sweeter if than was 1.3# of Crystal 40L.

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Too true, there is a lot of subtle difference in the different degrees of lovibond.

80 seems to be my L of choice, but they all have their place.

A "caramel" is not good if that is all you are drinking, but if I have 4 styles on hand, I think I will always have a caramel in there.

the_bird said:

I'm still shocked at the Texas Brown that TexLaw brewed with three (3!) pounds of crystal malt.

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For some reason, high percentages seem to work in NutBrowns. I imagine this has a lot to do with what expectations you have from a given style. NutBrown to me should be nutty, malty and have a back end bitterness. The key, I feel, is balancing the bitterness and what you do with your mash temp that makes it work or not. That all being said, iirc my recipe has around 2 lbs of Crystal type malts in a 5 gallon batch. But that is the highest I have ever used, I believe.

I like most crystals and related malts.......

I've got an amber that uses 40 and 120, victory and 2-row, very tasty.

Crystal seems to really be lent to browns or ambers.
I like a little in porters and some stouts as well.

I use crystal 40 in about 2/3 of my recipes. It is undoubtedly my most used specialty malt.

the_bird said:

I'm still shocked at the Texas Brown that TexLaw brewed with three (3!) pounds of crystal malt.

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I cut that in half for my last beer, my American Hybrid thing, and it works pretty well. Of course, I also went and added a pound of amber malt, so I'm not sure how much different it really is. I had another last night, and it was still good.

I do tend to add some sort of crystal in some amount to just about everything I brew. It might be a handful of CaraPils, or it might be three pounds of medium crystal. Of course, there are some beers where crystal has no business whatsoever.


TL