Substituting malts

[RandyAB]

Being a newbie and not having any experience with malts or knowledge of their particular individual characteristics it is difficult to choose a substitute if one or two are not available at the lhbs. Are there any resources to help choose in this scenario?

 

[Bensiff]

If you have a particular in mind you need to sub we can help from there, but as far as some list of possible substitutes I have never seen one for grain...for hops and yeast yes.

 

[kanzimonson]

I'm a big believer that the recipe doesn't make the beer, the yeast make the beer. You can practically throw any reasonable combination of ingredients into your wort and it will produce great beer SO LONG AS you take supreme care of your beer on the microbiological level. That means sanitation, proper pitching rates, and temperature control.

Once you have these three things perfected, then it's time to start worrying about minor ingredient adjustments so that you can win competitions.

 

[Bithead]

You can check the wiki malt chart & find something with similar SRM & other characteristics.

 

[RandyAB]

Thanks fellas. Thanks for the link to the wiki malt chart, that should make finding replacement malts easier. What about yeast substitutes? What resource do you guys use to find a replacement if one particular strain is not available?

 

[Bithead]

BYO has good charts for yeast & hops

 

[pkeeler]

I'm a big believer that the recipe doesn't make the beer, the yeast make the beer.

That is interesting, as I think, in general, the yeast have the smallest effect on beer taste. Hops and malts have a far bigger impact.

As for substituiting, you have to know what the malt is doing in the recipe. Any base malt can substitute for another base malt if the lovibond is bascially the same. If there is some highly kilned malt for flavor, then any of the other highly kilned malts (watch color again) can substitute. Substituting vienna for aromatic for instance. Caramel malts can substitute for each other in the same color range. Roasted malts at the same color can be generally substituted. If a recipe has a large amount of adjuncts for taste, that is going to be hard to substitute. But if it is for some other reason (head retention), then it can be done.

 

[RandyAB]

Thanks for the link Bithead. Very helpful. Thanks for your insights as well pkeeler. Also helpful.