Maibock advice

[iowabrew]

Last winter i brewed up Northern Brewer's Sustainor 2 Rye Maibock kit. It was delicious. Mostly 2-row with some rye, caramel wheat and chocolate rye. Lots of sterling addtions and fermented with 2124. This year i'm going to make it again, but thinking about subbing out the 2-row base with either all vienna or munich.

10lbs - Either Vienna/Munich (last year was 2-row)
2lbs - Rye Malt
1/2 lb - Caramel Wheat
1/4lb - Chocolate Rye
1/4 - CaraMunich I


How is the sub of veinna or munich going to change this beer? Obviously with that much Rye and hop additions it's a non traditional maibock, but the 2-row version was delicious, just looking for some feed back on subbing it out.

 

[zeg]

It'll be a bit darker and have a stronger (and different) malt flavor, though I don't know how noticeable that will be against the rye and caramel/chocolate malts. The other thing you might worry about is diastatic power, as both of those are more roasted, so have substantially less than plain 2-row. I think you should be ok, but it's something to double-check.

 

[iowabrew]

Talked to Mr. Dawson, the creator of this fine recipe, and he said he preferred the 2-row over munich or the like. Thinkin i'll just stick with non traditional ingredients throughout. If it aint broke...

I am currently just diggin vienna. Just kegged my vienna lager up and it is delicious.

 

[zeg]

I just brewed a PM batch of maibock using vienna malt, Munich LME, and plain light DME. Keepin' it simple (though strong; it turned out stronger than my doppelbock... not really intentionally)

 

[iowabrew]

I think keepin' it simple is what it's all about. Drew Beechum gave a talk called "brewing on the ones" that was fantastic and all about the over the top things new brewers do, when simplicity often yields the best results.

 

[zeg]

That was the idea. Everything I've brewed up to this point (I think) involved crystal malt and small amounts of this and that. Figured I'd keep this one as simple as possible, subject to being PM. I also wanted to firmly differentiate it from the doppelbock and bock that had preceded it.