Has anyone heard of/tried this one yet? It is 11-13L and says that it can be used up to 100% of the malt bill, so I’m wondering if this is some kind of reddish Munich malt.
I was just reading about that on Best’s web site. At first I figured it was like Carared, but it’s not as dark, and the site says it can be used for up to 100% of the grain bill.
I was wondering if it was from robust barley which is a 6 row malting variety that supposedly provides a reddish color but according to Best malz site it is from summer 2 row and the color comes from the malting process. does indeed sound like a slightly darker munich.
I’m definitely tempted to use a large percentage of this in a Doppelbock once my current lagers are ready to repitch. I’ve loved everything I’ve tried from Best so far, and it’s nice to see good maltsters developing new products. We have a bazillion new hops out there to play with, its about time we start seeing new malts.
I brewed a 1-gallon SMaSH with this yesterday, and thought I’d post some thoughts.
I have some serious allergies going on right now, so my sense of taste is all messed up. Amazingly, my sense of smell is doing just fine, though. I smelled the Red X side-by side with several other grains, and it is almost a dead-on match in aroma with the “German Light Munich” malt I have from NB (not sure of the specific maltster - could be Best for all I know). Very bready. Vienna and Dark Munich were nowhere close.
The grain has an interesting look to it. The husk looks very much like normal Munich malt - the same light tan coloration. But the kernel inside is a pretty dark red-orange in color.
Again, my taste buds are pretty shot, but flavor-wise the wort seems what I’d expect from Munich - sweet and bready. In the mash and boil, it didn’t look much different than an all-Munich brew.
I was starting to get a bit disappointed. But then I poured the cooled wort into a 1-gallon jug and set it outside for a few hours to get down to lager pitching temps. When I brought it back in to pitch a lot of the break had started to settle out and the top layer was much clearer and dark. I shone a light through it, and the color was a deep garnet with orange tint. Quite impressive!
I’ll try to get some pics up later, but from what I can see so far, this is a really neat trick - Red Munich malt.
I am brewing a double red/amber ale tomorrow. I was planning to use Munich but they had Red X so I thought I would give it a try. The base is split with two row so it makes up about 47% of the total grain. The estimated SRM of the beer is about 17 so I am not sure how red it will actually end up. I have never done a beer with this value so I am not really sure what to expect…
FWIW, I didn’t click off the “Mashed” button when I added this to my recipe on Brewer’s Friend. As a consequence I only hit an OG of 1.042, when I was targeting the mid 1.050’s. I’m still planning on using this in a SMaSH Flanders red at a much higher gravity, so it will be interesting to see how red it would be at a higher gravity.
I’m trying it out right now. 5# Golden Promise, 5# Red X, 2oz Caracas II special. Mashing at 152° in distilled with balanced profile. 30g EKG at 60. Wyeast Irish at 55° with a ramp up as krausen falls.