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How Does Substituting one Crystal Malt for another affect the flavor?

Peter McQuillen

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If a recipe calls for Crystal Malt 60 and I substituted Crystal Malt 120, I know the color changes a lot but what about the flavor? Or are all of the Caramel/Crystal Malts about the same in the flavore department?
 
You will get both color and taste changes with darker crystal malts. I would have to either dig thru Palmers book or do some searching for the exact effect ... but I believe darker crystal malts will give you a more roasty caramel taste and perhaps a touch of raisin. But its been a month since I dealt with that question. I brewed a dark beer that wanted 3/4 lb of crystal 60 - but I decided to split that into 6oz  of crystal 60 and the same in crystal 120.

good luck
 
Thanks for the quick reply.  I have a copy of Palmer around here, I will look it up.

Happy brewing!
 
For those that don't have Palmers book, go get it!  In the meantime, the higher numbers on the crystal grains roughly translates to stronger caramelized flavors, coming from longer kiln times. 

The lower numbers from 10L to 40L may be sweeter, toffee and honey like, and the higher the number up to 120L and 140L gets increasing dark, raisiny, dark fruits, rummy, and what have you.  Briess has the full lineup from 10L to 120 or 140L, whereas most Euro maltsters have four or five, spread more widely, such as Caravienne (21L) to Special B (147L). 

I personally think the Euro's have substantially more flavor, I think because the base grain used is Maris Otter or their equivalent.  They're noticeably bigger and more plump. 
 
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