I love the duality of malt.
For many brewers, it appears to be an afterthought. “I’m focused on my yeast,” says the lager brewer. “This new hop variety is perfect,” says the IPA brewer.
On the other end of the spectrum, many dark-beer brewers seem to adopt the “more is more” approach—it’s so easy to add another line to that recipe and hand it off to the miller, convinced that such-and-such grain will be the secret ingredient that makes a beer beautifully complex, like a golfer convinced that the shiny new driver is the answer to their prayers.
Getting the most out of your grist isn’t about leaning into other ingredients or piling on the grains. The best results come when we think through the realities of what our malts are, how they interact with the rest of our ingredients, and how we put them to use.
Mindful Malt Management
There’s innate value in using malts intentionally. That starts with knowing your products, then choosing the right tool for the job.
How do we learn about our malts? First, get to eating those grains—because they’re all different. Don’t assume that just because they’re labeled identically they have the same flavor.
“The same Lovibond malt can be vastly different from brand to brand, especially when you’re talking about anything darker than pale base malts,” says Matt Medley, director of brewing operations at Incendiary in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Incendiary, incidentally, won gold at the 2023 World Beer Cup for both its Porter and its Schwarzbier, and Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® editors named the latter one of their Best 20 Beers of that year. So, Medley and his team might know a thing or two about darker malts.)
When you see “40°L Crystal” on the label, Medley says, all that really tells us is that the maltster roasted the barley to an average level of 40° Lovibond. Within that batch, there will be a range of roast levels around that number, and each maltster’s process and equipment are going to yield different products. So, the best way to know what flavors you’re getting—besides brewing with it—is to have what Medley calls a “brewer’s snack” and just munch on a few grains.
Once you’ve tasted them, you’re in a much better position to choose the best malts for what you want to accomplish. Remember that it’s not just about hitting a target SRM for a particular style.
“Malts aren’t just for color—they’re like the spices of the brewery,” says Kelly Montgomery, co-owner and head brewer of Cincinnati’s Third Eye Brewing, a serial medal-winner for their darker beers.
“Take Crystal 80°L,” Montgomery says. “It’s got this awesome caramel, toffee, and dried-fruit thing going on. If I’m brewing an American amber ale, Briess Crystal 80°L gives me that nice, clean caramel-and-toffee vibe. But if I’m going for a Northern English brown, I love using Simpsons Medium Crystal for its rich, nutty character. And then there’s Thomas Fawcett’s Dark Crystal Malt—that one brings this beautiful burnt sugar and deep red hue that just makes a beer look and taste luxurious.”
That flavor-focused approach progresses right up the Lovibond scale. As Montgomery says, moving up into the higher crystals—say, 90–100°L—adds more burnt sugar notes. Heading into the 120–150°L range—what I often call “bridge malts” because they straddle the caramel-roast line—we start adding not only dark caramel and burnt-sugar flavors but also stone fruit, molasses, and campfire flavors.
Like Medley, Montgomery says it’s important to try and then trust rather than just making label-based assumptions. “Each maltster has their own spin, so don’t be afraid to experiment and find out which one speaks to your brew,” he says.
Nothing embodies the “house flavor” of the bridge category for me quite like Briess Extra Special Malt, with its woodsy, fruity, marshmallowy flavors—proof that complexity doesn’t have to be complicated. (More on that to come.)
Then we get to the chocolate malts—say, 300°L-plus. Dark? Yes, obviously. But which is best for your beer? It depends: What you use should be tied to what you want to get.
“Briess Chocolate Malt [at 350°L] is my pick for a smooth, classic chocolate-and-coffee backbone,” Montgomery says. “But if I need something with a bit more punch, Simpsons Chocolate Malt [450°L] has that intense cocoa-nib vibe. And for a deep, authentic chocolate flavor, Thomas Fawcett’s Chocolate Malt [390–450°L] is unbeatable—perfect balance of chocolate and a hint of coffee.”
Paler chocolate malts represent another set of tools. Pale chocolate barleys and adjuncts—such as chocolate wheat and chocolate rye—can spear specific flavors that help define a darker beer style.
Crisp’s Low Color Chocolate, Montgomery says, “is fantastic for English milds or brown ales, when you just want that subtle cocoa and nutty sweetness. But if I’m brewing a porter and want a true chocolate essence without the acidity, Thomas Fawcett’s [English] Pale Chocolate Malt is my choice—it adds that deep amber color and pure chocolate flavor that takes it to the next level.”
I’m also an evangelist for chocolate rye—and not only, as Montgomery suggests, in dark saisons or black IPAs, where the earthy, subtle flavors are built into the styles. I also use it when I want to get “dark” flavors without the roast we get from other chocolate malts. Like Weyermann’s Carafa Special malts, chocolate rye has the added advantage of being huskless; without that roasted husk, the flavor profile tends to bring chocolate, coffee, and toasted-nut flavors without tasting burnt.
So, know your ingredients, choose them with care, and you’re well on your way to a great grist that delivers on the flavors you want.
Getting Complex, Thoughtfully
“Complex” malt flavor is a feature in many style descriptions. But how do we create complexity?
There are a couple of key knobs we can turn here: the quantity and the type of ingredients. Neither is a surefire route to great beer, and a brewer should be flexible in using either or both.
Suppose we’re making a pale beer. We can’t pull deeply from the toasted-roasted malt well because that quickly drags our beer up the SRM scale—getting darker and darker in color—even if we can restrain the flavors of those malts. So, one option is to use darker malts… but with a light hand.
“On the lighter beers, sometimes we’ll do something like 5 percent of a low-SRM malt to add a little something extra,” says Medley at Incendiary. “For example, there is 2 percent Caramunich in our Italian pils.”
Conversely, you can also select low-Lovibond malts that independently impart complex flavors. For example, floor-malted pilsner can impart more prominent grainy, earthy flavors than standard pilsner malts. Likewise, a dash of something like honey or biscuit malt can have an outsized impact on complexity without darkening the beer too much.
In darker beers, we’re largely free from having to worry about going too dark on the color. However, that introduces a new risk, and it’s one known to any kid who’s ever colored in a space with all the crayons: If we throw everything at the recipe to create complexity, we are likely to muddle our flavors beyond recognition. So, if you’re going to go with a multigrain approach, you should do so conscientiously.
“My favorite trick for building complexity in dark beers?” Montgomery says. “Layering. Don’t just rely on one or two malts—mix it up. A bit of crystal 80, some crystal 120, maybe a touch of Special B—it all adds up to layers of caramel, dried fruit, and molasses. Throw in Carafa Special III for a smooth roast—just enough of each to give depth without being harsh.”
What we don’t want is our specialty malts competing with each other or taking over so much of the grist that we lose drinkability.
Can you go with just one complex crystal or chocolate malt? Possibly. Paler chocolate malts, for example, trade the sharp cacao punch of a 500°L roast level for the preservation of a wider range of flavors. It’s always going to come down to what you need, what your chosen ingredients can provide in terms of flavor, and how your grist presents as part of a larger recipe.
Putting It All Together
Grain might be (literally) the heaviest part of your recipe, but it’s still just a member of the team. It’s important to consider how ingredients interact and how your process influences those interactions as well as the character of the final product.
First, your malts add both flavor and sugars. With a lighter-colored malt, you get greater potential for fermentable sugars, which increase ABV while lightening the body. Darker malts behave differently because the kilning process has rendered more of their sugars unfermentable.
“I think about roast malts and their impact on final gravity,” Medley says. “Most of the protein and sugar in those are fused, and they offer very little fermentable sugars, if any at all.”
Sugars, after all, turn to alcohol—an important contributor to a beer’s flavor and texture. We should be cognizant of its role in the final profile.
Hops
Then there are hops. With a darker beer, Montgomery says, “you want hops that play well with dark malts. Fuggle, Saaz, East Kent Goldings—all are great for adding some earthiness that lets the malt shine. If I need more ‘oomph,’ Willamette has that floral, earthy character, and Northern Brewer gives a nice woodsy touch.”
But don’t sleep on classic American citrus hops, either: They often play well against the chocolate notes of dark malts.
For whatever varieties you use, though, be sure to match the intensity of flavors of both hops and malt. If you’re producing a grippingly sharp stout, it’s probably not the time to be subtle and reach for the Hallertauer Mittelfrüh.
Yeast
Yeast also come into play, depending on whether you want to showcase the malt or contrast it.
“English ale strains like Wyeast 1318 are fantastic for bringing out fruity esters,” Montgomery says. “If I want it clean, US-05 works well.” For richer beers, White Labs WLP002 English Ale or Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale contributes “a lovely malt richness,” he says, while Wyeast 3787 Belgian High Gravity “adds dark-fruit notes that are perfect for Belgian styles.”
Yeast can also have surprising effects that transform the perceived malt flavors in a beer, Medley says.
“I heard in a CB&B podcast about how Augustiner yeast can impart a certain maltiness to recipes,” he says. Another example: “I recently started working on revamping our light American lager recipe. I didn’t put any German malt in it. … Fermented it with 34/70, and the thing came out of the centrifuge tasting like a German leichtbier.”
Water
That leaves us with one more key ingredient: water. Here, we’re both adjusting chemistry and application in the mash. Dark malts tend to lower the pH, so careful adjustments may be necessary.
“I like to keep my bicarbonate levels higher to buffer that,” Montgomery says. “But not too much, or you’ll get a chalky taste.”
The salt ratios matter, too. “For our malty stuff,” Medley says, “we typically adjust the water to get calcium in the fermentor and balance out the sulfate- to-chloride ratio to a 1:1.”
Montgomery says he uses those additions to emphasize certain flavors. “For stouts, I lean toward sulfate to give the roast some bite. Or, lean toward chloride if you’re trying to tamp down the roast.”
Mashing
Finally, let’s consider the mash. If your goal is a rich, chewy beer that really showcases your crystal and chocolate malts, a high mash temperature—say, 156°F (69°C)—is what Montgomery recommends. The reverse is also true: If you’re shooting for the drier, starker flavor of an American stout, for example, then you may want to keep things in the standard 152°F (67°C) range, or even a touch lower.
One last tip: Montgomery says that he “conditions” his darker malts. “A little water on the malt before milling keeps the husks intact,” he says, with the goal of avoiding tannin extraction. That keeps the beer smoother and less harsh—an important feature of great porters and dark lagers.
Think It Through
We all know brewing is a physical task—sometimes too much so, as anyone scrubbing a stubborn kettle stain can attest.
Malt, however, rewards thoughtfulness, creativity, and sound choices. While it may at times seem like an afterthought (in lighter beers) or a can’t-overdo-it essential (in darker beers), it’s neither.
Malt is the backbone of every beer, and thinking through how you’ll use it is one of the best ways to build a perennial favorite.
