Add colour, flavour and character to your beer
Specialty and crystal malts allow brewers to build complexity into a beer by adding specific flavours, colours, sweetness and body to a recipe. While base malts provide most of the fermentable sugars, speciality malts are used to fine-tune the finished beer and create its distinctive character.
Crystal Malts
Fawcett Pale Crystal Malt and Chateau Crystal are used to add caramel sweetness, colour and body to beer. Crystal malts are particularly useful in ales, bitters, pale ales and darker beers where additional malt complexity is wanted.
They can contribute flavours ranging from light caramel and toffee through to richer dried-fruit characteristics depending on the malt and usage rate.
Caramel Pils
Best Caramel Pils provides caramel character while working particularly well in lighter beer recipes. It can add sweetness, colour and body without overwhelming the more delicate malt and hop flavours of the beer.
Chocolate Malt
Best Chocolate Malt is a dark roasted malt used to add deep colour and rich roasted flavours. It can contribute notes of chocolate, coffee and toast and is commonly used in porters, stouts, brown ales and other dark beers.
Black Malt
Fawcett Black Malt is a highly roasted specialty malt used primarily to increase colour and add intense roasted character. It is particularly useful in stouts, porters and very dark ales, where only relatively small amounts may be required.
Roasted Barley
Bairds Roast Barley is an important ingredient in many traditional Irish stouts and other dark beers. It provides the distinctive dark colour and dry, roasted character associated with classic stout, with flavours reminiscent of coffee and burnt toast.
Choosing the right specialty malt
Different specialty malts can be combined to build layers of flavour and colour. For example, crystal malt can provide caramel sweetness and body, while chocolate malt, black malt and roasted barley can create deeper roasted flavours and darker colours.
When using specialty malts, consider:
Colour – from golden and amber through to deep black
Sweetness – caramel, toffee and malt sweetness
Body – increased fullness and mouthfeel
Roast character – coffee, chocolate, toast and roasted flavours
Beer style – choose malts that complement the overall recipe
Specialty and crystal malts in Ireland
At Hooley Homebrew, our specialty and crystal malts Ireland collection includes quality grains for brewers looking to customise and improve their recipes. Whether you're adding caramel sweetness to a pale ale, building body in a porter or creating the rich roasted character of a stout, our specialty malts give you the ingredients needed to develop your ideal beer.
