Knowing the properties of the various grains

[dpalme]

I have been searching for an answer to this for a while, and maybe my google search abilities have degraded with all the alcohol consumption I've been doing with the home brew but I haven't really found an answer to it.

How do you know what tastes or properties a particular grain will impart to a beer?

IE: What does crystal malt give or subtract from a brew? Or say a certain barley versus corn, or rice, etc.

If anyone can help point me in the right direction here I'd appreciate it. I know what I like but I'm wanting to know the science I guess behind the creation of a recipe.

 

[Ryfi]

This has some good info http://www.beercolor.com/malt_descriptions.htm

 

[mlakota]

http://www.beertools.com/html/ingredients.php

 

[dpalme]

Thanks guys I'll check them out

 

[Curtis2010]

The book "Beer & Ingredients....", cover shot attached, is an encyclopedic coverage of beer ingredients. I think they could modify the format to make it a better reference work (its really for reference not for reading), but there is a lot of info none the less. Available on Kindle.

Good recipe design books like the classic Daniels' "Designing Great Beers" can go a long way to building an understanding of how ingredients effect a beer. Now available on Kindle (hoorah!).

Software can make gauging the effects of ingredients much more convenient. The same formulas could be done manually of course, and would probably be a good learning experience, but jeez...much easier to use software. I use Beer Smith and like its style comparison graphs. They are updated dynamically so you can see the effects on various beer parameters (like IBU, SRM, Gravity...) as you tweak ingredients.

 

[Cyclman]

+1 on Designing Great beers, a must have brew book.

 

[dpalme]

Great resources guys thanks I'll Czech out the kindle books as well, kindle for iPad works great