Malts for Pale Ale?

[matt76]

Any thoughts about Munich, caramalt or light or medium crystal in a pale ale? Allow me to expand.....

I'm planning to brew a pale ale, unashamedly based on St Austell Tribute.....

Last time I had a couple of bottles of Tribute I got very distinct caramel/toffee flavours which I loved.....

There's a whole 27 pages on Jim's beer kit about Tribute - they are pretty unequivocal that it's 80% MO and 20% Munich malt - I believe them, I'm sure collectively they've forgotten more about brewing then I know!

I'm gonna ignore the suggested hops and use first gold instead as that's what I have in stock - I'm sure it'll be different but still make a nice beer.

Weird thing is when I read the description for Munich malt it doesn't quite fit with the flavours I get from Tribute.....

I'm considering instead 20% of either caramalt or light or medium crystal.

Any thoughts here? For sure the colour will be different, but what about flavour?

Ideally I will try all these malts and compare, but that'll take a while!

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Ben034]

Not sure about the Munich malt in Tribute but I definitely wouldn't use 20% crystal as a sub as I think it would likely be cloyingly sweet. Munich can be used 100% as a base malt so I wouldn't swap for the same percentage.

 

[Portreath]

I was at a charity tasting event a few months back held at the County Arms, Truro. We had a couple of guys from the St Austell brewery come over (one a cicerone) we talked about all of the beers, and I don't recall anything mentioned about munich. Having sunk more than my fair share of tribute over the years, I would deffo go with crystal or caramalt.
As an aside, I did get a free back of caramalt for guessing the ingredients of one of there other brews, must have been late in the evening as that part is a little hazy!!

 

[Sadfield]

https://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/beers-and-brewing/all-our-range/tribute

MO and Cornish Gold.

https://www.simpsonsmalt.co.uk/our-malts/cornish-gold/

Munich would make a good substitute. I'd think that the difference between munich and cornish gold is where the grain comes from.

https://www.simpsonsmalt.co.uk/our-malts/munich-malt/

 

[Keruso]

Any thoughts about Munich, caramalt or light or medium crystal in a pale ale? Allow me to expand.....

I'm planning to brew a pale ale, unashamedly based on St Austell Tribute.....

Last time I had a couple of bottles of Tribute I got very distinct caramel/toffee flavours which I loved.....

There's a whole 27 pages on Jim's beer kit about Tribute - they are pretty unequivocal that it's 80% MO and 20% Munich malt - I believe them, I'm sure collectively they've forgotten more about brewing then I know!

I'm gonna ignore the suggested hops and use first gold instead as that's what I have in stock - I'm sure it'll be different but still make a nice beer.

Weird thing is when I read the description for Munich malt it doesn't quite fit with the flavours I get from Tribute.....

I'm considering instead 20% of either caramalt or light or medium crystal.

Any thoughts here? For sure the colour will be different, but what about flavour?

Ideally I will try all these malts and compare, but that'll take a while!

Cheers,

Matt

Hi there are a few recipes for a tribute clone on the grainfather community site, they all have the roughly 80% MO and 20% Munich as the grain bill so I think you have pretty good advice for the grain. There are quite a few different types of Munich malt out there that will give rich malty flavors, so if I were making it I would use MO and Munich.

 

[Keruso]

Any thoughts about Munich, caramalt or light or medium crystal in a pale ale? Allow me to expand.....

I'm planning to brew a pale ale, unashamedly based on St Austell Tribute.....

Last time I had a couple of bottles of Tribute I got very distinct caramel/toffee flavours which I loved.....

There's a whole 27 pages on Jim's beer kit about Tribute - they are pretty unequivocal that it's 80% MO and 20% Munich malt - I believe them, I'm sure collectively they've forgotten more about brewing then I know!

I'm gonna ignore the suggested hops and use first gold instead as that's what I have in stock - I'm sure it'll be different but still make a nice beer.

Weird thing is when I read the description for Munich malt it doesn't quite fit with the flavours I get from Tribute.....

I'm considering instead 20% of either caramalt or light or medium crystal.

Any thoughts here? For sure the colour will be different, but what about flavour?

Ideally I will try all these malts and compare, but that'll take a while!

Cheers,

Matt

Hops tend to be fuggles, willamette, styrian celeia for what it’s worth best of luck.

 

[Clint]

I like Tribute...especially sitting by the sea in Cornwall watching the world go by....
Hops??

 

[peebee]

Don't hold your breath for "Cornish Gold". Brew UK have had it on their lists for eons: https://www.brewuk.co.uk/simpsons-cornish-gold-crushed-25kg.html. The "out of stock" mark doesn't change.

I've been thinking of using "Munich" in high proportions (100%) for a while. Several maltsters do UK "Munich" malt; different barley varieties no doubt but worth a try.

 

[matt76]

Thanks all;

The thread on Jim's beer kit is a few years old now - my suspicion is that at the time Cornish gold wasn't even notionally available then, hence Munich was used.....

Hops: yep, the hops in Tribute are pretty clear as @Keruso says. But I'm not really trying to clone it, i just want to make something similar so I'm happy to use what i already have in stock and match the IBU's (about 30 it seems).

For me Tribute is much more about the malt, hence the question about Munich/Caramalt/Crystal - it sounds like with Crystal i want to dial it back to around 10%???

I guess the question is really about other people's experience using any of these malts - part of me would be interested to try them all but it would be rather painstaking and time consuming.....

 

[Zephyr259]

I liked adding a bit of munich to my beers, my go to is Weyermann Munich II which is about 22 EBC and can be used 100%, added 20% of it to my bitter when I re-brewed it and it boosted the body and gave it a slightly honey flavour that wasn't in the first batch. Also took an extra month to really come into it's stride which was odd. I think i did do a side by side once with my family (I didn't tell them what I was looking for) and they could tell the difference.

The pale ale I have conditioning just now was 61% Golden Promise, 31% Weyermann Vienna, 8% Malted Wheat, sample at bottling tasted lovely and biscuity/toasty which is exactly what I was aiming for. I made a saison a while back with a similar grist but 15% munich II instead of the vienna, it was a very tasty beer but the hops and yeast were doing most of the work.

 

[Sadfield]

I like Tribute...especially sitting by the sea in Cornwall watching the world go by....
Hops??

Fuggles, Celeia, Willamette

 

[JonBrew]

Based on what you've said and what you hope to get out of this brew, I would be inclined to try using both Munich and some Cara malt. I'd be tempted to try 70% MO, 20% Munich or Vienna, and 10% cara malt. I've used cara malt I a lot of my beers and really like it - I find it brings a really light sweetness, I think you could use quite a bit of it without it becoming 'cloying' sweet.

 

[peebee]

Based on what you've said and what you hope to get out of this brew, I would be inclined to try using both Munich and some Cara malt. I'd be tempted to try 70% MO, 20% Munich or Vienna, and 10% cara malt. I've used cara malt I a lot of my beers and really like it - I find it brings a really light sweetness, I think you could use quite a bit of it without it becoming 'cloying' sweet.

I'd skip the Vienna (EBC9ish). It'll be swamped by the Maris Otter malt (EBC7ish) which also tends to be kilned higher than many other Pale malts. Go for the "Munich" malts, light (EBC25ish) or even dark (EBC50ish) but the latter is encroaching on Amber Malt (not that that's a bad thing).

Vienna is really only meaningful when your base malt is really light (EBC3 - 3.5, "lager" malt or extra pale malt). Unless you are adamant that you can taste the difference in different blends of barley varieties aunsure.....

 

[matt76]

Unless you are adamant that you can taste the difference in different blends of barley varieties aunsure.....

I'm adamant I can taste the difference between bitter and lager - is that the same thing?

 

[matt76]

Based on what you've said and what you hope to get out of this brew, I would be inclined to try using both Munich and some Cara malt. I'd be tempted to try 70% MO, 20% Munich or Vienna, and 10% cara malt. I've used cara malt I a lot of my beers and really like it - I find it brings a really light sweetness, I think you could use quite a bit of it without it becoming 'cloying' sweet.

Hmm... Yeah that's an interesting idea to try both Munich and Caramalt - might give that a whirl aunsure....

I had a flick through Hughes last night - typically he uses only 5% crystal, or up to 10% for Caramalt, more for Munich. There's probably a strong hint there regarding how much crystal for "normal" strength beers...

 

[Oneflewover]

Forgive me all the break material sample taken prior to recirculation at end of boil. Just brewed this with 20% Munich, 8% light crystal, a touch of wheat. Base was just ubiquitous pale malt though, not MO.