Glossary
Crystal malt
Malt stewed while still wet so its starch converts to sugar inside the husk, then kilned so that sugar caramelises into a glassy interior.
Also called caramel malt, caramalt, cara malt.
The full record
Crystal malt has its own catalogue entry with the detail this page summarises — causes, thresholds, related styles and evidence.
Crystal malt — Stewed and kilned malt that supplies caramel and toffee flavour plus unfermentable sugars for body and sweetness.
The stewing step is what distinguishes crystal from ordinary kilned malt: conversion happens inside the grain rather than in the mash, and the resulting sugars caramelise in place. This gives caramel, toffee and dried-fruit flavour plus unfermentable sugars that add body and sweetness.
Crystal malt is sold across a wide colour range, from very pale caramalt to near-black, and the flavour changes substantially across it. "Crystal malt" on a recipe without a colour figure is close to meaningless.
Commonly misunderstood
Crystal and caramel malt are used interchangeably by most of the trade, but some maltsters distinguish them by production method. Treat an unqualified reference as a category rather than a product.
Related
- Dextrin — The unfermentable material it contributes.
- Maillard reaction — The chemistry of its flavour development.
- Crystal malt — The catalogue record for the malt itself.
More vocabulary
Adjunct · Aroma hop · Base malt · Bittering hop · Black malt · Brettanomyces · Candi sugar · Chocolate malt · Dextrin · Dual-purpose hop
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.