I received a few crystal malts from an on-line retailer a couple days ago. The first thing I noticed was the the Briess crystal 40 they sent me was noticeably darker than the british crystal 50/60 that I received. Thought it was strange, so when I went to add them to my stock I noticed that the Briess crystal 40 was indistinguishable visually from the great western crystal 60 that I had, and definitely much darker than the crystal 40 that I had. Figured they were merely just mislabeled. I wonder with all the malts and hops being packaged how often this happens. It did not happen according to them.
According to the on line supplier," they have just recently switched to a new supplier and each maltster has a SIGNIFICANTLY different product labeled crystal 40". So now the Lovibond rating is unique to each maltster as well??