I have an event coming up and I wanted to brew a fairly generic blonde ale for it. Most recipes I've found call for some 10L or 15L crystal. I have some 40 on hand and was wondering if I could use proportionally less of it to get to about the same place. I punched the numbers in to get to the same SRM and I'm ok with it not tasting exactly the same, but will it lead to a poorly designed beer? Does the scale work like that, i.e. 1lb of 10L = .25lb 40L? Probably not gravity contribution wise, but maybe flavor and color? Any other things I haven't thought of? Thanks.
The lightest crystal malt I have used is 20. I think that 4oz of C40 is roughly equivalent to 8oz of C20 for what you are talking about. For example 10# Maris Otter and 4oz vs. 8oz of crystal malt is not very much crystal relative to the total amount of grain (don't feel like calculating percentages), so I don't think it would really matter. Where it would matter is trying to convert between something like C120 and C40, since those have very different flavors. To answer your specific question, I don't think I would assume a linear relationship between C10 and C40, maybe 4oz of C40 == 10oz of C10 hope that helps
0.25 lb of c40 will give you some color and probably keep you in style guidelines (assuming 5 gallon batch). However, it will taste different than 1lb of C10. Frankly, I think 1 ;b of crystal is too much for this style -- it will be too sweet IMO. I expect I would prefer 0.25 lb c40 to 1 lb C10
The varying Lovibond crystal malts provide varying color contribution and varying flavor profiles. Using 0.25 lbs of 40 L Crystal may provide a similar color to 1 lb. of 10 L Crystal but it will not mimic the same flavor contribution. Cheers!
I don't think a crowd pleaser will be won or lost in deciding which crystal to use or how much crystal to use. Err on the side of going a little heavy on the crystal, rather than letting the hops bite anyone. (Christ, did I just say that?) Anything under 80L is going to be a sweet malt and you'll be fine using any of them. I think you'd be fine skimming a little off the 40L and going with that. I hope you're not using a full pound. 1/2# or a little less sounds right for a blonde.
@pweis909 The .25lb 40L vs 1lb 10L was not specific to this recipe, just a general question. Most recipes were in the .5lb of 15L range. I was planning on doing 4oz of the 40L, like @wspscott suggested. Maybe a little more (like 6oz), because, as @inchrisin mentioned, this beer isn't all for me. Thanks for the responses.
One needs to know the crytal malt character. Read the differences in the 10L and 40L. http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Caramel.htm#10L
