Crystal in Greg Hughes recipes

[alsch890]

Hi there,
I tend to brew a lot of recipes based on those in the GH book. However recently I've come across a couple which state simply "Crystal malt" but without any indication of whether it should be 60, 120, 40, 10 etc. Anyone got any advice in that case of how dark to go? I was thinking 40-60 is about middle?
Cheers!

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi there,
I tend to brew a lot of recipes based on those in the GH book. However recently I've come across a couple which state simply "Crystal malt" but without any indication of whether it should be 60, 120, 40, 10 etc. Anyone got any advice in that case of how dark to go? I was thinking 40-60 is about middle?
Cheers!

I found that by checking the SRM value you can get close to what type of crystal it is by using Brewers friend recipe builder which will alllo you to add or remove all types of crystal malt and seeing if the SRM colour/value matches the style.
Im quite sure that sonsome has brewed that recipe and maybe able to give you a more definitive answer.

 

[Zephyr259]

I generally assume he means 150 EBC / 60 L since that seems to be a standard "medium" crystal, unless you're Crisp Maltings where it's your light crystal, their three crystal malts are all actually 1 step darker in my opinion.

When Greg asks for dark crystal I use something in the low to mid 200 ebc (80L ish) like Crisp medium.

Gerryjo's method is also a good plan.

 

[Zephyr259]

I generally assume he means 150 EBC / 60 L since that seems to be a standard "medium" crystal, unless you're Crisp Maltings where it's your light crystal, their three crystal malts are all actually 1 step darker in my opinion.

When Greg asks for dark crystal I use something in the low to mid 200 ebc (80L ish) like Crisp medium.

Gerryjo's method is also a good plan.

 

[The Baron]

Yes he means medium crystal around the 150 EBC /75 L . I am sure he says that somewhere in the book but I can not find which page number it is but somebody will pipe up with it before long I am sure

 

[Clint]

Will using other than the recipe change anything bar the colour? I'm not too bothered about colour and have brewed many with whatever I had and have managed to drink the lot without any ill effects.

 

[The Baron]

after trawling the web I came across this quote from somebody who has spoken to Greg Hughes
"After having a talk with Greg Hughes as there his recipes he said the 130 ebc was fine"
hope this helps

 

[Clint]

I wonder if it was like meeting the emperor from Star Wars...all black robes and stuff. Or just some bloke in a cardy?

 

[Cwrw666]

Will using other than the recipe change anything bar the colour? I'm not too bothered about colour and have brewed many with whatever I had and have managed to drink the lot without any ill effects.

I prefer a bit of brown in my beers so I've been using crystal 200 in all the Greg Hughes recipes. Difference in colour is only slight and I've never noticed any difference in flavour.

 

[The Baron]

well at least we have a norm or standard to work to. I am still of the opinion it does state somewhere in the book what EBC of crystal to use or I have dreamt it somewhere in my distant past

 

[Zephyr259]

Will using other than the recipe change anything bar the colour? I'm not too bothered about colour and have brewed many with whatever I had and have managed to drink the lot without any ill effects.

If there's a significant amount of crystal in the recipe then using a different colour should affect the flavour as the crystal malt changes flavour as it's made darker. Can we pick up the difference? Maybe not as it's likely quite subtle, especially if the hops are prominent.

 

[peebee]

Once you just got "crystal malt" and that was that. In recent years the expanding American home-brew market and "craft brewing" [sic] has massively expanded on "crystal malt", and we also got these alien colour codes measured in "SRM".

The switch to these "new" possibilities isn't exactly smooth in this country. About 150 EBC is what might have been straight "crystal malt", but as already mentioned, 150 EBC describes Crisp Maltings "light" crystal; for Warminster the "ordinary" or "medium" crystal malt is 135 EBC. Then there's "Caramalt" springing up everywhere (yes that is "crystal malt", "cara" for "caramel" which is another name for "crystal" in the malt world - at about 30 EBC). And "Dark" or "High Colour" at 200 EBC, and "Extra High Colour" at 400 EBC.

I'd say the colour of the malt does make a big difference to flavour (as well as colour) but you probably won't notice a difference between crystals coloured within 50-100 EBC of each other at the mid-range.

The UK market might have confusing, even conflicting, terms but it is worth getting the hang of and not do what many have done and buy (often inferior) continental and other foreign malts simply because the name is right. Even the famous "Special B" isn't a patch on the flavour of some UK dark crystal malts (200 and 400 EBC); "Special B" is "double roasted", yet another variation which is readily available from UK malt too.

 

[alsch890]

thanks for all the replies guys. I like the idea of pumping the recipe in somewhere and then working out which crystal based on the expected SRM, I'll give that a go when i get round to brewing one of those recipes. (Otherwise I'll just use whatever I have a bit of left in my growing bucket of odds and sods and adjust accoridngly).

@peebee I totally get where you are coming from because as although British I live in Czech Republic so I have to often work out first between the (often American) malts in a recipe to the more british variants that I am more familiar with, and then work out from there what I can get from the local "sladovna" here. They mostly stock all Weyermann here so caramunich, carafa etc.

If he is referring to around 60L that would be Caramunich II round my way I think. or 150EBC would be Caramunich III.

 

[peebee]

… If he is referring to around 60L that would be Caramunich II round my way I think. or 150EBC would be Caramunich III.

Interesting. Although the UK maltsters are quickly catching up with current trends and pushing high roasted pale malts (i.e. "Munich" malts) and I'm aware of what "caramalt" is, I've never thought of these "caramunich" malts being similar to standard UK "crystal" malts. Makes sense, I'll have to give these more exotic "cara" malts more thought when I see them in recipes.

It was the reason for my reply: I don't like the current tendency to source weird malt from abroad when a similar, sometimes superior, product is made in the UK but with a different name. Doesn't apply to you, I'd be equally daft trying to persuade you in a far off country to buy UK malt.