Crystal Malt for a Barley Wine

[Cloud Surfer]

I have the choice of UK light/medium/dark crystal and Caramunich I/II/III and Caraaroma to use in a Barley Wine. I’ll probably use around 6% to 8% crystal malt, and choose from the darker end of the scale. Has anyone tried both the UK and German crystals in their beers, and have a recommendation about which choice I should take? Cheers

 

[AlexKay]

UK medium, absolutely! And slip in some DRC if you can. The German caramel malts are fine, but UK crystal is just great stuff.

Though lately I’ve been backing off the crystal in my barleywines and boiling for 3+ hours to make up the difference.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

UK medium, absolutely! And slip in some DRC if you can. The German caramel malts are fine, but UK crystal is just great stuff.

Though lately I’ve been backing off the crystal in my barleywines and boiling for 3+ hours to make up the difference.

Ok, I might go with the UK medium then which is 154 EBC. I really like Caraaroma, and I like layering crystal malts in a lot of my beers, so I might try 4% UK medium, 2% Caraaroma, some Munich II and the rest Maris Otter. I've done 2 hour boils in the past and might just stick with that again. Though I admire your 3 hour boil.

 

[Bobby_M]

I would stick to something like 1-2%. Barleywine just has a lot of built in malt character on base malt alone. Also, the longer you plan to age it, the less initial malt depth you need. The best BW I've ever made was 100% Maris.

 

[Miraculix]

I would stick to something like 1-2%. Barleywine just has a lot of built in malt character on base malt alone. Also, the longer you plan to age it, the less initial malt depth you need. The best BW I've ever made was 100% Maris.

I 2nd that. Don't go over board with crystal malt in a big beer. 3% is already plenty. That's probably as high as I would go, depending on the yeast. This plus 5 % to 10% invert number two or three.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

I would stick to something like 1-2%. Barleywine just has a lot of built in malt character on base malt alone. Also, the longer you plan to age it, the less initial malt depth you need. The best BW I've ever made was 100% Maris.

I hear you. Though I tried a Barley Wine in competition last year. It was 95% Maris Otter and 5% Dark Crystal with about 3 years bottle age. It was one of the best Barley Wines I’ve ever tried, and it made it through to the Australian Championship and did very well. So that’s a useful experience I’ve had.