How do I know which category I should enter my grains as?

Grain classifications are fairly easy in Bru'n Water. Here is how to consider the classifications and make your decisions:

1. Acid Malt is easy. Its been acidified by natural or sprayed-on lactic acid. Sauer, Sour, or acid malt designations mean that the setting should be Acid Malt in Bru'n Water.

2. Roast Malt is almost as easy. That is a malt or grain that has been kilned to a substantial degree and it probably has some roasty characteristics. A minimum color rating of about 180 Lovibond helps separate the roast malts from other categories.

3. Crystal Malts and Base Malts can be tougher to differentiate. The good thing is that the acidity characteristics of either malt category is similar and the difference in the pH prediction will be minor. Crystal malts are slightly more acidic than base malts of the same color rating. The big differentiator is that base malts are fairly light colored while some crystal malts can have much more color. Crystal malt color peaks around 200 Lovibond for Special B malt.

4. Base Malts have diastatic power and can convert starches to sugars. Since kilning can destroy diastatic enzymes, base malts tend to have limited color. The maximum color rating for base malts is around 10 Lovibond.

Bru'n Water users can always get a guide to malts by hovering their cursor over the Grain Type column heading on the Mash Acidification page. The pop-up comment has a summary of grain types. Although there is some overlap in the color ratings for Roast and Crystal malts, the difference should be obvious. Crystal malts are focused on contributing sweetness while Roast malts are focused on contributing roasty flavors.