How much Munich & Crystal in IPA?

[guyfrombrussels]

Hi guys, how much Munich and Crystal 20 should I put in my IPA. I plan to brew 11l of beer with 1.5kg of DME and 1kg of 2raw pale ale. I was thinking about putting half of a kilo of each. Is it too much? Thanks

 

[wilserbrewer]

Really depends on what type of IPA you like, some are more malty sweet, while others are dry.

I think I prefer to drop the crystal entirely, and say a pound of Munich.

DME quite often has various specialty grains on it already, so one is really just guessing without additional info.

 

[Horseshoot]

It's all about taste. I use about 12% caramel malt and about 2% biscuit malt in my IPA. Some would argue that this is too much. But, it still falls within the guidelines, and both hopheads and non-IPA people seem to enjoy my IPA.
Experiment and see where you like it.

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

I, personally, find that "taste" is a bit hard to nail down when talking to others. Your sweet may be my dry. And, we like what we like and sometimes have trouble describing it. I have started to think more about color. If the commercial IPAs you like are very light in color, like straw in color, you probably like your IPAs dry. If so, eliminate the the crystal. If the IPAs you like are darker, leave the crystal in.

I assume your Munich is Munich 10, not something darker than that.

Myself, I like both styles. I have a very dry one fermenting right now. In the past, some of my favorites have had 20% vienna and 4.5% C-20.

 

[Calichusetts]

I go all over the place in this area. I find a lot of people on here like dry IPAs with little to no caramel malts. I love em. Often doing several in layers (c20, c60, c120, etc) and probably my favorite IPA I've made had a pretty hefty addition of munich and caramel malts.

As you can see by these posts, its really up to personal preference, I don't mind sweeter beers as much as others. You need to think if you want dryer or sweeter, darker or lighter, and finally, a hop bomb or a more balanced beer. Trial and error will get you the rest of the way.

 

[Horseshoot]

I go all over the place in this area. I find a lot of people on here like dry IPAs with little to no caramel malts. I love em. Often doing several in layers (c20, c60, c120, etc) and probably my favorite IPA I've made had a pretty hefty addition of munich and caramel malts.



As you can see by these posts, its really up to personal preference, I don't mind sweeter beers as much as others. You need to think if you want dryer or sweeter, darker or lighter, and finally, a hop bomb or a more balanced beer. Trial and error will get you the rest of the way.

Agreed. I really enjoy the maltier feel.

 

[JaimeTheLimey]

Personally I use as little as possible to achieve the color I want. But then again I like a dry IPA. I also find that when the hops begin to fall off the crystal comes through much faster with larger amounts, and starts to head the direction of a barleywine.

 

[bigscotty]

i just finished a punk IPA using marris otter pale malt 4.5kg and 500g of vienna malt, most of the recipes i have seen are predominantly pale malt with small additions of some other malts such as the vienna or caramalt.

 

[bobbrews]

In regard to crystal malt, top-rated commercial American IPAs/IIPAs tend to use anywhere from 0% to 6% on average. And it is usually light crystal or C10-C40. Reason being is that too much of that caramel sweetness and nuttiness can reduce drinkability and detract/take away from the hop character.

If using Munich, I would opt for Light Munich over Dark Munich. A hoppy amber ale like Troegs Nugget Nectar uses a combo of Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich Malt in decent %'s. For a pale IPA, I would imagine that Munich can start to darken things up a ways and become distracting malt-wise once you rise above 18-20%.

 

[mblanks2]

In my IPA's I like less than 5% of each. As stated above though it all goes back to personal preference.

 

[GRBC]

Remember that your DME already has a portion of crystal. I would start with less (< 5%) and add a little more next time if you think your beer needs more sweetness. You can get malty flavor without sweetness by using small amounts Vienna, Munich, victory, etc. instead of crystal.