Grain Alternatives

[_jon_]

Does anyone know of a nice, concise and easy to read grain alternatives chart? I have seen about 20 but none seem to contain all the information.

I find so many recipes online that call for American 2-Row, and I've found that a standard pale malt is a good alternative.

I now buy my malt from geterbrewed, as I think the quality is there.. and I've seen the grain substitution chart on their website, but it doesn't have a lot of the malts I'm used to seeing on it.

What would be your "go to" grain in place of "American 2-Row". I see a lot of crystal 20 etc, which seem hard to find. Brewers Friend tends to call things "German xxxx" or "Belgian xxxx", where as the websites tend to go by manufacturer.. which in cases like weyermann is easy to work out it's German.. but others aren't as easy.

I think I spend way too much time stressing about what grains to use for a given recipe than is necessary.

 

[Bigcol49]

I think I spend way too much time stressing about what grains to use for a given recipe than is necessary.

Hi!
Exactly! Unless you are trying to clone a beer just use the closest that you can. Many homebrewers design beers based upon what they have "in" at the time

 

[marshbrewer]

To be fair, I would love a comprehensive one of these :)

 

[Ciaran12s]

I've just bought whichever malt matches the colour as the one the recipe calls for. I may be doing it wrong but it's worked so far.

 

[MyQul]

This is quite a good one https://www.brew.is/files/malt.html

A couple of things to remember is that we use use EBC and American's use Lovibond (L) which are different. So Crystal 20 (L) is 51.9 EBC for us in the UK when you're looking on UK homebrew sites to buy

A second thing to remember is that some malts are brand names. For example carapils which is made by briess where carafoam is made by weyermann but are quite similar and can be used interchangeably

 

[strange-steve]

This is quite a good one https://www.brew.is/files/malt.html

I use the same one all the time :thumb:

 

[marshbrewer]

This is quite a good one https://www.brew.is/files/malt.html

A couple of things to remember is that we use use EBC and American's use Lovibond (L) which are different. So Crystal 20 (L) is 51.9 EBC for us in the UK when you're looking on UK homebrew sites to buy

A second thing to remember is that some malts are brand names. For example carapils which is made by briess where carafoam is made by weyermann but are quite similar and can be used interchangeably

Thats spot on, thanks!

 

[MyQul]

I forgot to add, to convert from L to EBC I use this conversion calc

https://www.brewtoad.com/tools/color-converter

 

[svenito]

Here is another chart that has a few other brands on it

http://www.torontobrewing.ca/skin/frontend/default/torontobrewing/images/info-sheets/grain-subs.pdf

 

[_jon_]

Thanks for the advice and the links. I'll bare that in mind and check out the comparison charts.

 

[Clint]

Hmm brew toad. ..I had a problem previously trying to use their website site (won't try that link) it locked my phone and requested I click the link to continue...which I didn't! The only way to unlock the screen and get rid of it was to hold the volume+ and home button down together...this enabled me to shut it down. Everything is fine since but I'll avoid their site. Not saying it's dodgy but sharing my experience. ...

 

[Sadfield]

I wonder if there is scope for setting up an open access, site spreadsheet, collating data from the different forms online.

Most of the confusion come from Americans and Germans not naming things correctly. [emoji6]

"Inspiration is the impact of a fact on a well-prepared mind" Louis Pasteur

 

[_jon_]

Nice idea, like a forum collaborative spreadsheet.

 

[MyQul]

Hmm brew toad. ..I had a problem previously trying to use their website site (won't try that link) it locked my phone and requested I click the link to continue...which I didn't! The only way to unlock the screen and get rid of it was to hold the volume+ and home button down together...this enabled me to shut it down. Everything is fine since but I'll avoid their site. Not saying it's dodgy but sharing my experience. ...

Ive never tried to access the site on smart phone, mainly because I dont have one (smart phones are the Devil's slave chain as far as I'm concerned ). I do like the recipe data base on brewtoad, though.

 

[Sadfield]

Nice idea, like a forum collaborative spreadsheet.

Threw something together HERE.

 

[_jon_]

Threw something together HERE.

Nice one :) Thanks.

 

[MrRook]

Making as close a sub for any one grain if fine, if you can, but I don't sweat it. Either way I know I'll end up with good beer.