I can get Best Malz products more easily than Weyermann so that’s what I tend to use, although I’m not completely satisfied by BM’s Munich malts. Their light Munich (6-8L) is too light for my tastes, but their dark Munich (8-12L) is too dark and intense - Weyermann Munich II is “just right” but much harder for me to get.
There’s an old topic https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=4971.0 where Gordon, Denny, Kai, and others chime in with a lot of great information about the different types of Munich malt. The general consensus seems to match my own experience, which leaves me with two questions:
Has anybody tried blending BM’s light and dark Munich malts to produce something more similar flavor-wise to Weyermann Munich II?
I like light munich for light lagers or ales where I want some malt character without too much color or sweetness. I use Schill munich malts which I think are rated for an average of about 6 and 9L so similar to Best I would assume.
I would think you could probably get close to your desired results by going 50/50 between the two types. May take a few batches and some tinkering to get where you want.
There was a thread not too long ago when someone had a question about crystal malts. The local store was out of C60 (for example, I forget what it was) and the clerk told him just to mix C40 and C80.
The consensus here was that it is NOT true - that you would just get both the C40 and C80 flavors but not the C60. I would think the same would hold true of light and dark munich, not that it would be a bad beer though.
Perhaps round 2 here will end differently than round 1 though…
Blending light and dark munich might get you the right color but not the same flavor. You might create an awesome flavor profile out of the two but it won’t be identical to what you’re trying to find. Mixing grain isn’t like mixing two food dyes. It’s like mixing beer. If you mix a saison and a stout together you might get the color of a brown ale but it’s not going to taste like a brown ale. It’s going to taste entirely different even if the color is the same as a brown ale.
I also believe Best Dark Munich is a little intense. I bought a sack last year and brewed many 2.5 gal batches of Dunkle and Ofest with it and found I needed to reduce the amount on my recipes to lighten them up a bit.
Lately I’ve been playing around with Best Red X and I’m going to try substituting it for the Munich in my recipes, I really like the flavor and color of this malt.