Grain complexity can it be simpler?

[Damn]

Just starting to do partial mashes, trying a couple of different recipes. One of my local HBS has a simple selection of grains with out much detail. I would like to use this store as it is closer but their choices of Milled to order are limited to 6 grains. Namely "Ale, Choclate, Dark Crystal, Munich, Pilsner & Roasted Barley". They also have Wheat in 250g at what seems a reasonable price.

My question is can I swap one of the grains in my recipe into one of the 6 (7).

ie. 60L Crystal Malt Briess caramel = ??? ...........................Dark Crystal? or is this being to simplistic
or Pale Ale Malt = Ale malt?
Weyermann Carapils = ??
Pale Munich Malt = Munich?
Pale Crystal malt = ????
Pale Wheat malt = Wheat?

[warra48]

1. 60 L (L=Lovibond) Crystal Malt Bries Caramel is a light to medium crystal. Crystal, caramel, and cara malts are all essentially the same animal, just that different maltsters call it by different names. Dark Crystal will work, but you will get a little more of the roast character and somewhat deeper colour in your beer.

2. Pale Ale Malt is the same as Ale Malt.

3. Weyermann Carapils. Weyermann is a quality German maltster, and all their Crystal malts are prefixed with Cara. Carapils is a very light Crystal Malt.

3. Pale Munich Malt is indeed Munich. Munich comes in different grades of darkness, so Pale Munich is also called Light Munich or Munich I, depending on the maltster.

4. Pale Crystal Malt is just that. In my beers I tend to use a mix of different grades of Crystal, ie Light, Medium, and Dark to give my beers some complexity. Mix and match as you feel, it will all work.

5. Pale Wheat Malt is standard Wheat Malt, and used in Wheat beers, but often also as a small component in other beers. It is called Pale Wheat to differentiate it from Dark Wheat which is great for Dunkelweizens.

[tazcat]

Just starting to do partial mashes, trying a couple of different recipes. One of my local HBS has a simple selection of grains with out much detail. I would like to use this store as it is closer but their choices of Milled to order are limited to 6 grains. Namely "Ale, Choclate, Dark Crystal, Munich, Pilsner & Roasted Barley". They also have Wheat in 250g at what seems a reasonable price.

My question is can I swap one of the grains in my recipe into one of the 6 (7).

ie. 60L Crystal Malt Briess caramel = ??? ...........................Dark Crystal? or is this being to simplistic
or Pale Ale Malt = Ale malt?
Weyermann Carapils = ??
Pale Munich Malt = Munich?
Pale Crystal malt = ????
Pale Wheat malt = Wheat?

Warra has pretty well said it all and I would add that the supplier is offering across the board choices in a diminished form. It really boils down to what you want to create and investing in a grain mill would widen your choices.

[Bum]

investing in a grain mill would widen your choices.

I would suggest two things in relation to this. The first is that changing retailers would widen his choices far more. The second is that unless he brews a lot of beer really regularly, sticking solely to grain bought in bulk will severely limit his grain options.

Damn, just buy the grain you want from a retailer that will mail it out. Convert the postage cost to a per bottle cost and you'll see it doesn't even bear thinking about.