How to adjust recipe to substitute some specials base malts

[kstiglich]

Hi,
I lived in Peru and have been brewing for a couple of months with certainly good results.... 8 or 9 brews of experience, all of them all-grain.

I have been improving my equipments with temperature control, kegs, CO2, etc...

Now, I have been studying different recipes but many of them consider including acidulating malts, carapils malts, munich malts, biscuit malt, aromatic malt, etc..

The problem is that locally, I can only found the following grains;

Pilsen base malt 2 -row
Pale Extra base malt 2-row
Caramel 20ºL, 40ºL,50ºL, 60ºL, etc...
corn grits

So, many times, I have to replace those special malts, and I would like to know if they only add unfermentables, how can I replace them? I know I will not achieve the same results that using the exact malt, but I have no access to them locally, and I want to replicate some clone beer as close as possible, therefore I would like to know how to adjust a recipe. For example;

Heineken clone recipe
8.0 lbs 2-row pilsner malt
5.0oz acidulated malt
4.0oz CaraPils malt
2.4lbs corn grits
2 tsp Irish moss
0.41oz Magnum (60 min)
0.13on Saas (15 mins)
3qt. starter lager yeast
-------------------------------------------
In that case, I have the pilsner malt, but acidulated and Carapils malt...

I understand that acidulated helps reduce PH of mash, but I can use lactic acid to achieve a lower PH, so the question is if I can avoid this ingredient, of I have to use lactic acid and consider any part of this 5.0oz weight of malt, increasing the pilsner malt, e.g. in 3 oz or something else, because I believe that the acidulated malt should have some proportion of fermentables sugars, right?

In the case of Carapils malt? I have no idea... should I just consider 4.0 oz more of pilsner malt, or what else can I do to simulate the effect of those carapils on my recipe...

Any help on how to replace any additional special malt would be appreciated.

 

[prpromin]

It seems like you have the aciduated malt figured out. At 5oz, if it were me, I'd probably just skip it. For the Carapils, you could substitute Crystal 20. It won't be exactly the same, but it should be close enough.

EDIT: Regarding replacing specialty malts, it's going to vary by recipe. There will be some flavor profiles that might be tricky to replicate without the same ingredients. In general, you should be able to find a similar malt, but you'll probably find a difference in side-by-side tasting. Of course, since every aspect of brewing can effect the end result, you'd probably be hard pressed for an exact clone anyway. I guess what I'm saying is there's no harm in brewing a perfectly good beer that's your take on a commercial example. I'd concentrate on brewing the best beer I can with the ingredients available to me.

Cheers.

 

[LesIsMore]

Lactic acid would work in place of the acidulated malt. As far as carapils, my first thought was something like wheat if it's available. Caramel 10 would be better if you have that available, but some 20 might work if you have no choice. With the specialty malts, some will be hard to replicate. This might be a little bit extreme, but maybe you can look into toasting your own malts. Just learn what the specialty ingredients add as far as flavor, etc and figure out what you need to do to replicate that flavor. Here's a quick write-up on how to do that.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter20-4.html