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Melanoidin Malt

I have wanted to write up a profile for this malt for a while. The name always caught my eye. My brain perceives it as “Maudlin” or “Melancholy” malt…such a sad malt…but it means something completely different. I present to you: Melanoidin Malt!

Melanoidin Malt is a type of malt produced by the Weyermann Malting Company. Melanoidins are desirable flavor compounds that are present in malts (especially German malts like Munich and Vienna). This specialty variety has been described as “turbo Munich”.

From what I have read, I formed this theory: Melanoidin Malt was developed to give homebrewers a way to get these big malty flavor compounds into beer without having to mash German malts. Historically to get melanoidins extracted into your wort, brewers would need to follow a decoction mash schedule…which is time consuming. I think this malt is kilned in a special way to give homebrewers the ability to get the flavors without the hassle.

Flavor: Intense malty flavor. Very aromatic.

Color: 23° – 31°L Promotes a deep red color in your beer

Body: Gives beer fuller body.

Use: Any Amber Lager or Ale, Any Dark Lager (maybe a dopplebock?), Red Ales for sure, and maybe Scottish Ales

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8 Comments

  1. I have yet to use this malt in any recipe, but I’m looking forward to it. Sweden’s second largest brewer Spendrups apparently use this malt for 40% of the recipe for a Red Lager, and I believe it can be used in small amounts to impart a red highlight to light coloured beer like Maibock too. It should be similar to English Amber malt and Briess Victory malt.

  2. Well a couple of side by side batches to compare Amber Malt, Biscuit Malt, Victory Malt and Melanoidin Malt may be inorder. Maybe as 1 gallon batches.

  3. Gary

    I use melanoidin malt in APAs and American IPAs. Can’t beat it for keeping the brew in balance with all those hops!

  4. Nick

    Just bought some melanoidin as a victory substitute in an APA with a fair chunk of dry hop – will report back with results in a month or so 🙂

  5. Doug

    I have been using Melanoiden malt to achieve a deep red color. For my 1st batch I combined it in a ratio of 1 to 0.75 Melanoiden to rye malt for steeping grains (extract brewing) more so to test the color. The color was a beautiful red but the rye was too strong to my liking, although it needs significantly more aging before i can really judge overall. The current batch is a mix of Melanoiden and Crystal 60L (near 5 to 1)with a little honey as I’m shooting for just IBU/SG of less than 0.4. Wort color was again indicative of a beautiful red.

  6. Ridgewood Brewery

    i used this in an amped up version of my IPA (HMF-IPA) called HMF-IPA 12 hop.
    i find that it nicely balances out the intense hop schedule with a nice malt backbone while not compltely dosing a great bitter with the malt.

  7. I used 1.5 lbs in a 1.070 Bier de Garde, now dubed Bier de Roho, as an experiment last Sunday. So far, I can see a huge red color in the fermenter and it’s still bubbling away. Will post a link to a pic when the beer is finishes primary and secondary.

  8. Yeah, let me know how that turned out. I used a pound in a harvest ale (homegrown hops) and WLP008. It brought a different kind of malty sweetness to the party. Pleasant but different. I wonder how it will work out with a different style and a different yeast strain.

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