Munich malt varieties

[mrskittle]

I was shopping for some Munich 10 but my LHBS didn't have any. There was a variety of other Munich malts so I grabbed the one pictured. My basic understanding of Munich is simply the 10 20 and 30 , or light, medium, and dark varieties. Since I was looking for Munich 10 or light Munich, I grabbed the one pictured. Does it seem like a reasonable replacement? Furthermore, if anyone wants to explain a bit about all these different Munich malt, it would probably be appreciated by more than just me.

I very recently made the leap to all-grain brewing so I'm more interested now in all the different kinds of malts than when I was using extracts.

 

[Craigerrr]

I would say it is Munich 10, as the package says it is 7-10 Lovibond.
I couldn't help with any detailed information about Munich malts though. Interested to hear the answers you get on that.

 

[Bubba Wade]

I would say it is Munich 10, as the package says it is 7-10 Lovibond.
I couldn't help with any detailed information about Munich malts though. Interested to hear the answers you get on that.

I agree. There are parts of the Palmer book online with some good descriptions of the different malts. It’s a good reference.
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/what-is-malted-grain/malt-types-and-usages

 

[mrskittle]

I do have Palmer's book. I'll have to revisit some pages about the malt. I've also found this page on MoreBeer. I have to read through it again. https://www.morebeer.com/category/base-malts.html#Munich Malt

 

[mrskittle]

The MoreBeer article is really good but some of it gets over my head, and I even have a biology degree. Palmer gives a simpler explanation.

Essentially Munich malt is produced by a specific process slightly different than other malts. It starts out the same as other base malts but where 2-row or pilsner get dried and kilned in the low to mid 100's, Munich keeps going to the low 200's in a humid environment and then gets kilned to dry.

Where I'm still a little unclear is with the naming of the different varieties. I think the Munich 10,20, or 30 that I'm most familiar with is a naming convention associated with a particular maltster (or country?) All the varieties at my LHBS were imported and had slightly different naming conventions. At that point just paying attention to the Lovibond rating should guide you to the right place.