How much crystal is too much Walt?

[DrumaKeg]

I am thinking of brewing a batch tomorrow. Extract and grains. I have carapils and crystal 60. I see that most people recommend only 10% crystal in a grain bill. I have 6.5 lbs of light extract so how much if the crystal should I use. I don't want to get loads of maltiness to the beer. I have Columbus, centinal and Amarillo to use as hops so would like them to shine through in the final product. So how much crystal should Walt use? All help appreciated.


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[billl]

It really depends on what style of beer you are brewing. If you are going for something like a pale ale, then 1lb is pretty "standard".

The 10% is probably a bit misleading to you though. That guideline is 10% of fermentables, not 10% compared to weight or extract. eg if you are getting 40 points/lb from your extract, then 6.5*40 = 260. You are only going to get 25ish points from 1 lb of crystal. Total points = 260+25 = 285. 25/285=8.8% of the sugar in the wort coming from crystal.

 

[WayFrae]

I think it depends on manufacturer but approximately 0.75lbs LME/0.6lbs DME= 1 lb of grain. I am not an expert and I am just getting into All-grain so take this with a grain of salt: I would use maybe 0.5lbs of each which would be around 10% of the total grain bill.

 

[stpug]

Extract generally already contains both carapils and crystal malt, so, IMO, a 0.5 lb of C60L will be plenty of specialty grain for the style of beer you're after. Now you just need to figure out when you'll add your hops and how much

 

[DrumaKeg]

That was my thinking about . I'm going for a pale ale. The last 2 brews I have done ( only 2) gave a caramel sweetness to them which is just a bit overpowering but I used 120 and then 120 with 60 caramel malt. I'm hoping by reducing the Ecb values of the malt to 5 for the carapils and 60 that the caramel sweetness will subside and the hops will come to the fore?


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[stpug]

Aside from what I posted above, you may want to consider a subtle/moderate gypsum addition to help influence the hop presence. Without knowing your water profile, I would guess that 1-2 tsp of gypsum per 5 gallons would get you in the 175±50ppm range which will help with creating a drier finish (by drying the tongue) and allow the hop bitterness and flavor come through a bit more.

 

[Yooper]

I am thinking of brewing a batch tomorrow. Extract and grains. I have carapils and crystal 60. I see that most people recommend only 10% crystal in a grain bill. I have 6.5 lbs of light extract so how much if the crystal should I use. I don't want to get loads of maltiness to the beer. I have Columbus, centinal and Amarillo to use as hops so would like them to shine through in the final product. So how much crystal should Walt use? All help appreciated.


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It depends on the style of beer you're making. Some beers should have 0% crystal malt, while others (like ambers) can easily have 15% crystal malt

In your case, for a pale ale, I"d use 1 pound (total) of the crystal 60L and/or carapils. With the crystal malt 60L, you don't really need any carapils at all, as they do the same thing for body and head retention. Carapils does it without flavor, but the crystal 60L will bring some caramel notes to the beer so I'd go with 1 pound of 60L and skip the carapils (and your extract probably has a bit of carapils in it anyway).

 

[DrumaKeg]

I'm a newbie to brewing so leaving out adjusting the water at the moment. I take all my water from a 5 stage RO filter system so I'm assuming that it good.

As for the hops I'd gladly take on board any recommendations. I'm thinking of dry hopping this batch in a secondary. I might sub in some sugar too to dry it out. What do you think?



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[DrumaKeg]

It really depends on what style of beer you are brewing. If you are going for something like a pale ale, then 1lb is pretty "standard".

The 10% is probably a bit misleading to you though. That guideline is 10% of fermentables, not 10% compared to weight or extract. eg if you are getting 40 points/lb from your extract, then 6.5*40 = 260. You are only going to get 25ish points from 1 lb of crystal. Total points = 260+25 = 285. 25/285=8.8% of the sugar in the wort coming from crystal.

Cheers billl. That makes sense to me now. I used to think it was by wt so I was thinking of only using 3/4 lb of the crystal in my brew based on wt. Thanks for the clear explanation. Much appreciated. If I use 1/2 and 1/2 of the two crystals To add to 1lb should still be under 10% but I'd increase the flavor complexity?



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[DrumaKeg]

Should have said I'm trying for an ipa that's more hoppy than malty. I hope I have the right hops. LHBS ran out if safale 05 so got 04 instead. I hope this wont make affect the final outcome I'm hoping for a dry hoppy ipa?



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[DrumaKeg]

It depends on the style of beer you're making. Some beers should have 0% crystal malt, while others (like ambers) can easily have 15% crystal malt

In your case, for a pale ale, I"d use 1 pound (total) of the crystal 60L and/or carapils. With the crystal malt 60L, you don't really need any carapils at all, as they do the same thing for body and head retention. Carapils does it without flavor, but the crystal 60L will bring some caramel notes to the beer so I'd go with 1 pound of 60L and skip the carapils (and your extract probably has a bit of carapils in it anyway).

Would the use of carapils reduce the residual sweetness? Or am I over thinking this? Is it more important to add the right amount of the right hop types at the right times to get the desired low malt ovour with a lower body and nice hop flavor?


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[DrumaKeg]

Would a combo of crystal 60 and carapils add to complexity?


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[Yooper]

Would a combo of crystal 60 and carapils add to complexity?


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No. Carapils would add nothing in combination like that.

If you want a dry crisp IPA, definitely go with lower amounts of crystal malt, and in 40L. I'd suggest NO carapils or crystal malt if you want a dry crisp IPA, actually. My favorite recipe doesn't use any crystal malt, and instead would use some biscuit malt or victory malt or toasted malt. If you don't want caramel sweetness, then stay away from crystal/cara- malts.