Hey Guys. Any advice on how much munich to use in a light bodied “summer” type ale. I plan to use some crystal as well but was thinking about subbing about half of it with munich. Definitely don’t want to overdo it but would like to add some complexity and light malt characteristics. I was thinking maybe 5% crystal, 5% munich.
My other thought would be to use Marris Otter as the base malt instead of basic two row to maybe achieve the same result.
I just did a light hoppy sort of summer ale with IIRC 30% munich 10L to 78% 2 row and 2% crystal 45 it turned out well. still malty but just enough to balance the hops.
og was 1.040 pitched wlp001 in 5 gallons and wlp545 in the other 5
001 Fg 1.008 545 fg 1.004
Can you confirm your percentages? I am a little confused. Should it be 20% munich instead of 30%?
math is not good to me. I will check my recipe tonight when I get home and let you know the exact %s
You are not going to notice 5% of munich. Not really. Munich is a base malt, not really a specialty malt. I mean, it is a specialty malt in some regards (you can’t make a bock or doppelbock without it), but you need to use at least 10%, and really upwards of 20% to get a real contribution. I often use if as 80+ % of my basemalt for some of my recipes.
+1 to above. If you are really concerned about body/‘lightness’ and allowing hops to shine, maybe consider using 20% 10L Munich and 10% 20L Munich. Breiss makes both.
+1.
I’ve made light bodied “summer” beers with 100% Munich. They turned out quite nice.
okay, back home and was I off
46.8% Pilsner
46.8% munich
the remaining split between C40 and c120 (cause that was what I had around)
i would stay away from Briess Munich. Plenty of good maltsters out there.
I agree with making it at least upwards of 20%.
I agree with most of the above posts. I think 20-30% is a good target range where you start to get a nice flavor contribution from the Munich. And if you like Munich, you can push it a lot higher, even in a light beer. The only time I would recommend that you keep the Munich under a certain amount would be for a really hoppy style like an APA or IPA. In that case once you start to go over 30% or so the Munich starts to compete with the hops. But even for something like a farmhouse or hoppy summer wheat beer I think you can get away with pushing the Munich up quite a bit higher if you really wanted to.
I haven’t tried the Bonelander (so?) Briess but it is supposed to be a lot more like German Munich. but I agree, for Munich stick with German maltsters. I prefer Best Malz Munich.
There would be nothing wrong with using 100% Munich for your Ale.
Thanks everyone. I have done a 100% Weyermann Munich I beer to learn exactly what it imparts. As someone mentioned I was going for an APA and the hops kind of got lost. It has turned out to be really good and I have learned a lot from doing that beer.
Recently I have been going overoboard with some of my ingredients even though my recipes have remained pretty simple. My all Columbus wheat completely backfired… I mainly just don’t want to overdo it so I am being extra cautious. It seems like for the beer I have in my head I will probably go with 20-30% Munich.
Off the top of my head I am thinking
70% two row
20% munich
5% light crystal/carapils
5% flaked oats
Magnum bittering
Amarillo flavor
Cascade flavor/aroma
OG ~1.048
IBUs 25
looks good.
Think about mashing fairly high (158ish) so it doesn’t attenuate too much. I think that’s a big key for session beers.
Thanks Mort. Mashing higher is something I probably would not have considered. I use US-05 exclusively and thought I would switch it up to S-04 this time around as well. I am not liking my lighter bodied beers with US-05 lately for some reason. I have been getting cidery flavors which could have something to do with the carb I suppose.
I really like Great Western Munich 10L for American styles. I use best Munich for continental styles.
For 10 gal…very easy to drink… smooth 5.25 abv
13.25 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 59.55 %
9.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.45 %
1.75 oz Pearle [8.90 %] (60 min) Hops 21.8 IBU
2.00 oz Saaz [3.20 %] (15 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
3 Pkgs Super American (White Labs #WLP060) [Starter 3000 ml] Yeast-Ale
og 1.052
fg 1.012
srm 14
ibu 29-30
Not to hijack this thread but I’m curious why you don’t recommend the Briess munich? Is it too bland? Not malty enough?
The “normal” Briess Munich is made with 6 row malt and to me has a weirdly grainy flavor. The Bonlander is 2 row, but I haven’t tried it so I have no personal opinion. Between Great Western and Best Munichs, I don’t have a reason to look any further.
Like what, your AmberBock clone? 