Crystal Wheat 3L: An American Malt Goes Belgian

By: Living a Stout Life

MMC (Malteurop Malting Company) developed Crystal Wheat 3L to revolutionize Hazy IPAs. This unique malt has done just that, but after some time in brewer’s hands, it has proved to be much more versatile than expected.

 

From its birth, Crystal Wheat 3L was intended to impart little color and a lightly sweet character to beer with hints of honey and subtle fruit notes, while maintaining a clean finish. All the while, it also improves head retention and helps maintain both flavor and colloidal (haze) stability, which can be two of the trickiest elements of brewing. This sounds perfect for a hazy/juicy IPA, and it is.

 

But craft brewers across North America quickly began utilizing Crystal Wheat 3L in any number of styles, creatively pushing the boundaries along the way. Kyle Sillers at Draught Works in Missoula, Montana, used it in a Juicy IPA collab that produced outstanding results.

 

“It sold great in the taproom. We were seeing it in the top couple beers (amongst 20 taps!!!) consistently over a long period of time, which shows it hit a sweet spot,” Kyle said.

 

Paul Mahoney at Launch Pad Brewery in Aurora, Colorado, was so enamored with Crystal Wheat 3L that, not only did he use it in his house West Coast IPA, he revamped his brewery’s year-round Hefeweizen recipe with about 40 percent Crystal Wheat 3L in the grist.

 

“With the Crystal Wheat 3L, it pops and resonates color throughout the beer. It’s an absolutely stunning beer when we pour it,” Paul remarked. “With that much Crystal Wheat 3L, plus the Bavarian Pilsen, it has that nice big frothy head on top that holds.”

 

Large craft breweries and small alike are embracing this new malt. Rachael Hudson, co-owner and head brewer at Pilot Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina, took Crystal Wheat 3L for a rather diverse ride right out of the gate. A self described nanobrewery, Pilot operates on a 3-barrel brewhouse. Rachael used the Crystal Wheat 3L in a stunning Belgian Witbier, while also creating a Sunflower Seed Blonde Ale with it.

 

Like Kyle and Paul, she noticed right away when brewing her Belgian Witbier the subtle sweetness that Crystal Wheat 3L imparts and how it tends to sit in the background, allowing the other flavor elements of the beer to shine.

 

“Crystal Wheat 3L provides grainy wheat flavors with a slight crystallized flavor that is ever so subtle, but … provides a supporting background to help showcase the yeast esters in the flavor and the citrus in the aroma.”

 

Though the malt looks rather dark to the eye, it holds true to its 3L designation in the glass. Unlike other crystal malts that impart much more of the color from grain to glass, Crystal Wheat 3L stays true to its promise of little color addition, while improving mouthfeel, head retention, and colloidal stability. And though it is wheat, it doesn’t impart the additional milky haze that a traditional flaked wheat adds to beer. Crystal Wheat instead supports the stability of that haze, adding a sort of translucent glow to it.

 

Just as Paul was quick to up the ante with Crystal Wheat 3L being a significant part of his Hefeweizen revamp, Rachael noted that the malt appeared well suited for usage at a higher percentage than the nearly 10 percent she used in her Witbier.

 

“Although this wheat is crystalized (and looks dark), it seems that the beer can handle a higher percentage of this malt than other crystallized malts, more in line with a normal wheat addition, style dependent of course. The color does not darken the way other crystal malts would.”

 

Though Rachael used the Crystal Wheat 3L sparingly (at about 5-percent of the grain bill) in her Sunflower Seed Blonde Ale, it still did some work in the beer, amplifying a smokiness that was imparted from the sunflower seed addition. Again, it did this without imparting much color to the beer, which is what you’d want in a blonde ale.

 

Pilot Brewing Malteurop Witbier

Grist

~51.6% MMC Pilsen

~38.7% Flaked Wheat

~9.7% MMC Crystal Wheat 3L

Hops

~ 60 min. – Chinook (13.7%) – 18 IBUs

~ 20 min. – Columbus (13.5%) – 2.2 IBUs

~ Add Orange Zest and Coriander in Whirlpool

Yeast

White Labs Belgian Wit (WLP400)

 

Pilot Brewing Sunflower Seed Blond Ale

(Fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)

Grist

~79.8% Two Row Base Malt

~9.0% Foam and body stabilizing malt

~5.9% Malted Sunflower Seeds

~5.3% MMC Crystal Wheat 3L

Hops

~ 60 min. – Columbus (13.5%) – 21.3 IBUs

~ 20 min. – Columbus (13.5%) – 2.9 IBUs

Yeast

White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

 

Pilot Brewing: a small brewery doing big things

As mentioned, Pilot Brewing is a nanobrewery in Charlotte, North Carolina. Rachael and co-owner and husband, Jeff, founded the brewery with a 3-barrel brewhouse (the Pilot system) and a 1/2-barrel experimental brewhouse (the Co-Pilot system).

 

The name comes from Jeff’s day job as an airline pilot. Rachael has long been a brewer, working for the likes of Left Hand Brewing and NoDa. Her experience at such renowned larger breweries helped form their idea of keeping it small and intimate when launching Pilot Brewing Company in 2018.

 

That doesn’t mean they are going small on the beer. Small batches, yes. But Rachael’s brewing prowess has earned Pilot multiple Great American Beer Festival and U.S. Open Beer Championship medals, amongst other honors, over the few short years they’ve been open.

 

And, as you can imagine, with such a small brewhouse and its modest co-pilot system, Pilot Brewing has a never-ending variety of recipes on tap and even more coming down the pike. So be sure to swoop on in the next time you are in Charlotte.