No, it's more highly kilned than say, pilsner malt, but it's not crystalized like crystal/caramel malts and can be used as a base malt.
Crystal malt isn't dried before kilning. It's placed while green in a kiln with no way for moisture to evaporate and held for a lengthy amount of time. The temperature is much higher than for base malts as well. Because it's wet while being kilned, it does form some fermentable sugars (premashed, and preconverted, so to speak) as well as some unfermentable sugars. After the "stewing" portion is over, it's allowed to dry out and so it is vented while still holding the temperature.
Munich malt is dried first, then is kilned at a bit higher temperature than pilsner malt, but maybe 20-30 degrees warmer, and not nearly as high as crystal malt.
I think you are completely missing my point........... Munich malt is put in a kiln green and wet, and held for as long as 48 hours, very slowly drying over that period of time. This varies only slightly if at all from how crystal is made. The moist air is recirculated and the temp gradually increased.
Munich 10 has a diastatic power of 40L........ enough to convert it. Of course much of the starch has already converted in the stewing process. I have been able to find no "real" data on Crystal 10. I'm curious enough that I may buy enough CR10 for a 2.5 gallon brew as a single malt just to see what I end up with.
My feeble brain says to me that a green stewed malt is a green stewed malt by any other name..... call it crystal, call it Munich......... it's still stewed green.
Here's a snip of the article on Munich Malt from Morebeer.com:
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The Road to Munich Begins in the Malthouse
To understand Munich malt and how it differs from ordinary pils or domestic six-row malts, we must first understand how it is made. Like all European malts, Munich malts are made by steeping two-row barley in warm water and nurturing it through a warm germination phase; the steeping is what begins the germination of the seed.
Some large modern malthouses germinate grain in large drums or in a tower system in which grain is steeped at the top before being dropped into germinating chambers below. Other malthouses use the Saladin box, a long rectangular device with a track for the malt turning machine, which walks up an internal lane, turning and aerating the grain. In classic floor makings, the wet seed is spread out to form a bed about 36 in. deep to allow the seed to sprout. Over a period of three to six days, the seed develops a rootlet and a sprout. Many brewers prefer malt made from floor malting and Saladin boxes because it tends to produce plumper and more uniformly sized kernels.
The chemical changes that take place during this phase are complex and involved, generally fixing the malts protein modification and enzyme spectrum. Beta glucans present in the cell walls are almost completely degraded, and roughly half of the total barley protein is hydrolyzed. This protein modification liberates free amino nitrogen (FAN) and amino acids, which are beneficial to many brewing reactions.
At the conclusion of the germination phase, the rootlets and sprouts are removed and sold as a secondary product for feed. The product that remains for brewing is referred to as green malt. All malt begins as green malt.
Green malt is kilned under carefully controlled temperature and time requirements to yield a particular malt that has specific color and chemical composition. Different styles such as pils, caramel, black patent, or Munich malt are made by varying the temperature and duration of the kilning or by allowing the malt to be steeped warm before final drying to bring out the sugars. Roasted malts, such as chocolate and black patent, undergo the same germination and kilning processes as do base malts, but are then placed in a special roasting drum. Pils malt is characteristically light-colored and high in enzymes. To make pils malt, green malt is kilned at 185 °F (85 °C) to yield a malt of between 1 and 3 °SRM (Lovibond).
Munich malts, on the other hand, are meant to be much darker, typically around 7 °SRM; they are also available in even darker versions of between 10 and 20 °SRM. To achieve these colors, the green malt is stewed under progressively higher air temperatures, which promotes a degree of saccharification of the malt before it is finally kilned at 212 °F (100 °C). The longer the malt is held at 212 °F, the darker the Munich malt will be.
In the beginning of the kilning process, green malt has considerable moisture content, typically in the 4550% range. Early in the kilning, this water content is reduced to 510% moisture over a period of roughly 2448 hours. In Munich malting, the moist air is recirculated in the kiln, helping to accelerate the production of amino acids and reducing sugars that will subsequently form coloring compounds through Maillard reactions. As the moisture content is reduced, the maltster increases the temperature until it reaches 212 °F, and it is held at this temperature for as long as 5 hours.
The combination of a long drying phase at a low temperature and a high kiln-off temperature is essential to creating Munich malts. At lower temperatures, the malt dries and forms abundant amino acids and reducing sugars. At higher temperatures, the Maillard reactions are favored. The chemical changes that occur during this stewing/kilning process including the production of melanoidins are essential to the nutty/malty/bready/toffee characteristics that Munich malt imparts to beer.
). Base, Munich, Vienna, Lager, Pilsner, toasted, roasted malts are malted and dried using various methods, whereas crystal and caramel malts are malted, converted and dried using various methods. It's the methods and subtle differences in handling that differentiates all barley products from each other, after which they are given a name that we are familiar with.
