Munich substitution

[stansoid]

Hey there,

I have a window to brew tomorrow after work. I am planning to make the Munich Helles in brewing classic styles.

Sadly, I am short on Munich malt. I ordered some, but it will not arrive in time.

The recipe calls for 240 grams of Munich malt. I have 100 grams leftover from my last brew of the helles.

I am wondering what I can sub it out with that I have on hand. I have a bunch of crystal 15. I am wondering if that would work as a substitute for the 140 missing grams. Its a pretty small addition to the beer.

The recipe is -

3650 gram Pilsner malt
240 gram Munich malt
130 gram Melanoiden malt

I also have melanoiden, carapils, carafoam, toasted wheat and various other crystal malts (45, 85, 120) on hand.

Any thoughts?

 

[Yooper]

Hey there,

I have a window to brew tomorrow after work. I am planning to make the Munich Helles in brewing classic styles.

Sadly, I am short on Munich malt. I ordered some, but it will not arrive in time.

The recipe calls for 240 grams of Munich malt. I have 100 grams leftover from my last brew of the helles.

I am wondering what I can sub it out with that I have on hand. I have a bunch of crystal 15. I am wondering if that would work as a substitute for the 140 missing grams. Its a pretty small addition to the beer.

The recipe is -

3650 gram Pilsner malt
240 gram Munich malt
130 gram Melanoiden malt

I also have melanoiden, carapils, carafoam, toasted wheat and various other crystal malts (45, 85, 120) on hand.

Any thoughts?

The only thing that would work may be a bit more pilsner malt and a bit more melanoiden malt to make up a Munich-like substitute. Definitely NO crystal or cara- malts would be anything like Munich malt.

 

[stansoid]

Hey Yooper,

Melanoiden I have lots of. It is a small addition and I am 140 grams (5oz) short. Any suggestion on how much melanoiden would be reasonable to offset the 140 grams of munich?

 

[Yooper]

Hey Yooper,

Melanoiden I have lots of. It is a small addition and I am 140 grams (5oz) short. Any suggestion on how much melanoiden would be reasonable to offset the 140 grams of munich?

Do you have any base malt at all?

 

[dmtaylor]

Try the toasted wheat and maybe 14 grams melanoidin. It may get you reasonably close.

 

[BigEd]

Any thoughts?

A real Helles is all pilsner malt so the lack of Munich is no issue.

 

[stansoid]

Do you have any base malt at all?

I absolutely have base malt. The recipe has 3.6 kilograms of pilsner as the base malt (about 8lb) and I have a few extra pounds of it on available.

I have made this a few times and it works out nicely.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Ive seen Helles recipes with carafoam, melanoiden, or carahell which seems similar to carapils from what I can tell. Melanoiden is usually around 1-2% and the cara malts normally in the ballpark of 5%. Ive seen caramunich in small amounts too but normally not regular munich. For what your doing I'd sub with carafoam.

 

[Yooper]

I absolutely have base malt. The recipe has 3.6 kilograms of pilsner as the base malt (about 8lb) and I have a few extra pounds of it on available.

I have made this a few times and it works out nicely.

Perfect! Use the pilsner malt to make up the short fall. It's the perfect basemalt for the recipe.

 

[hottpeper13]

I would use all pils to make up the missing munich and do a decoction mash. With the melanoiden in there you could do a mashout decoction,you don't need a rest just bring it to a simmer. I've done this 3 times and a 30 min simmer had the same flavor as 45 min. So it doesn't add that much time to a brew day.

 

[stansoid]

Thanks everyone - I think these are all good suggestions. Out of some type of postal miracle my order showed up a day earlier than expected, so I have my intended grain!

Update - Here is a picture of the last Helles I made being enjoyed in front of the Helles I am brewing. The cycle of violence continues... Thanks everyone!