Sodding 'CRYSTAL'

[mashweasel]

Gents,

Every time I research a recipe of any kind from an UK brewery and they use some type of crystal malt then always say 'crystal' with no color indication. It seems like its standard practice. Do you guys find the same thing? Is there one that seems to be used more than others like most of the style around here is the Simpsons Medium, Dark and Extra Dark. Its bloody infuriating!

[Bryggmester]

Err, crystal means bog-standard crystal. It is possible to get lighter (and possibly darker) crystal malt but I can't see the point. I suppose it must be annoying if you have a particular recipe you have to stick to.

[delboy]

Bog standard is 120 EBC or 60 Lovibond.

[oblivious]

I think the standard know is 55-60L

[Graham]

I thought Graham Wheeler mentions somewhere that his recipes assume 80 L crystal but I can't seem to find it, I did find this written by him though.

Crystal malt in Britain, without further qualification, is deemed to have a colour of 150 EBC, (about half of that in Lovibond).

The "Standard" Medium colour varies slightly from producer to producer.

French and Jupp 140 EBC
Faucett 130 EBC
Warminster 145 EBC
Pauls (Greencore) 160 EBC
Bairds 150 EBC

It is fairly new to have different colours of crystal available from the same maltster, perhaps influenced by microbreweries or even American influence. In the old days there was just the one standard crystal from each maltster.

[steve_flack]

Can I add Tuckers who quoted their crystal to me as being 125EBC.

[mashweasel]

Thats what I thought. Crystal used to be standard in that each maltster had a slightly different color seemingly around 140EBC (~70L). That makes much more sense when I plot out the recipes. When I tried to use 110 EBC it just wouldn't come out right. Thanks a ton guys.