Malt Substitution

Today I was looking at a recipe that we will be brewing next weekend and saw amber malt on the bill. I've been brewing since 2006 and somehow amber malt never appeared in my brewing world until the last month or two.

A friend of mine made a dogfish head clone and used amber malt. I asked him to save me a handful of the malt so I could taste it. I sample each component of a beer from grain to glass and I'm always excited to taste another malt or smell new hops.

The short story is that this malt tasted something like victory malt to me. It's a little nutty and dark but not sweet. The other thing is that the brew stores around here do not typically stock this malt for some reason. Perhaps because this malt is underutilized? Well, now that I have a recipe that calls for this malt, I am looking for it. And, then I thought about substitutions.

When it comes to hops I am weary of substitutions. I remember as a new home brewer walking into Steinbarts in Portland and finding out that they did not have the hops I was looking for. They were quick to offer alternatives based on a substitution chart. Little did I know at the time just how different hop varietals can be. I now have a full appreciation for the differences in hops mostly because IPA is one of my favorite styles. But, what about malt?

I know the basics when it comes to malts in terms of base malt versus crystal versus roasted. The color ratings are helpful too. Overall all I think I understand malt, but the more I think about it I realize that I don't really know that much at all. It's a little crazy how much focus in brewing goes to hops and yeast. I recently became infatuated with water chemistry so the last frontier is malt for me.

Where is the malt book? How do you substitute malts? Hmmm.... I don't have the answers.... yet. I have a simple substitution chart that I found online, but I know there is a lot more to learn about malt. Stay tuned for a future series on understanding malt. Until then it looks like victory malt is a reasonable substitution for amber malt according to this chart.

 http://www.brew.is/files/malt.html