Caramel Matls?

[Want2Brew]

Hey guys and gals, I’m a relative noob with 5 batches under my belt ( 3 AG, 1 PM and one extract with steeping grains). I am playing around with an amber ale recipe and have a question about caramel malts. I am using beer alchemy and I noticed that if I put in 1# of caramel 80 or 2# of caramel 40 I come out with the same color (makes sense so far rite?). So I guess my question is what will be the flavor/taste difference of one over the other? So far my lighter beers have been a little thin tasting or perhaps lacking body and mouth feel. So considering that, would there be an advantage of one of these strategies over the other to help give my beer more body? Here is the recipe and thanks for any help you may have to offer.


Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 11.00 lb
US Caramel 80L Malt 1.00 lb

Hops
US Centennial (6.9 % alpha) 1.00 oz Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Cascade (5.4 % alpha) 1.00 oz Pellet Hops used 20 Min From End
US Cascade (5.4 % alpha) 1.00 oz Pellet Hops used 1 Min From End

Yeast: US-05 SafAle

Mash 1 hrs @ 154/6
5 Gal batch

 

[sonetlumiere85]

Stick with the lighter caramels for your amber. There is a significant flavor difference between the different colors. Caramel 60 is actually an awesome choice for an amber, in my opinion. Caramel 80 is fine in a pale ale or bitter in small quantities, but when you want a malt that will provide most of the flavor, I'd go a bit lighter. Caramel 40 can be sorta boring and bland, I feel it doesn't quite have enough depth. Also, consider some other malts to give some depth, like Briess' Victory or Special Roast, or maybe Dingeman/Castle Biscuit malt.

 

[Want2Brew]

Ok, cool. So maybe some thing like this would be better?

10.5# 2 row
1# caramel 60
4 oz special roast malt
4 oz victory malt

 

[flyangler18]

Ok, cool. So maybe some thing like this would be better?

10.5# 2 row
1# caramel 60
4 oz special roast malt
4 oz victory malt

Have you seen the AAA article in the Wiki?

Looks like you are on the right track (based solely on Bob's write-up), though I'll admit not ever having brewed this style.

 

[Want2Brew]

No I had not seen that, thanks for the link. That helped clear a lot of things up.

 

[Bob]

Mmmm...Amber....



As a general rule, the darker the Lovibond rating on the Caramel/Crystal malt, the intense the flavor. 20L is more subtle than 80L, and you have to use more of it to have a flavor impact.

That's why the pros who developed AAA used a broad spectrum of Caramel malts: you get full body and intricate flavor combinations. Adding a small amount of a Brown/Amber malt - like Victory, Special Roast, or Biscuit - gives a different malty note than just Crystal/Caramel.

Use the Crystal/Caramel to adjust the flavor. If your brewing software indicates the color will be too light for your taste, consider adding just a hint - no more than 2 oz. in five gallons - of Roasted Barley. A dash of RB gives a beautiful red color and no detectable flavor.

Bob

 

[flyangler18]

Makes me want to get off my duff and actually brew an American Amber instead of waxing poetic about it!

 

[Dr Malt]

As others have mentioned here, caramel malt flavors vary with color. They go from a candy sweetness thru increasing caramel to a burnt sugar and rasin character. My recommendation is the next time you are in your LHBS, grab a few kernels of each and chew the malt noting the flavor. This is a quick way to get some idea of the flavor of different caramel malts.

As far as increasing the body of your beer, you need to adjust your mash to retain more unfermentable sugars. This increases your final gravity and the body of your beer. Without seeing details of your mash, I can not recommend a mash profile. However, generally higher mash temperatures result in larger and unfermentable sugars.

Dr Malt

 

[Want2Brew]

Thank you guys for all of your help, you have really expanded my understanding of this topic. I wish that I could do as Dr Malt suggested but unfortunately the closest thing I have to LHBS only has a limited supply of grains and they are all in pre-sealed bags. I'm thinking they would frown on me opening up the bags for a sample......lol Here is the recipe as it stands for the time being.

10.5# 2 row
1# caramel 60
4 oz special roast malt
4 oz victory malt

US Centennial (6.9 % alpha) 1.00 oz Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Cascade (5.4 % alpha) 1.00 oz Pellet Hops used 20 Min From End
US Cascade (5.4 % alpha) 1.00 oz Pellet Hops used 1 Min From End

Yeast: US-05 SafAle

Mash @ 154/6 deg

If all goes as planed I will brew this next weekend. I will keep you all posted as to how this recipe works out. In the mean time feel free to offer any more insight that you may have into this topic, I greatly appreciate it.

 

[Dr Malt]

Since you do not have access to a sampling of various malts to taste at your LHBS, I would suggest you begin creating a log book of malt flavors. Every time you brew with a different malt, chew some and record your flavor notes in your log book or computer log. Then when you eant to make a beer with a set of flavors, you can go back and select the malts with those flavors.

Just a suggestion.

Dr Malt

 

[mkling]

Personally, many of my favorite Ambers use a mixture of different Crystal malts. I think it lends much greater depth of flavor that using only one kind of Crystal. So you could use

.5 lb C80
.5 lb C40
.5 lb C15

and you'll get something much more interesting than using only one kind of Crystal malt. When I do this, I tend to space out my choices by at least 20L -- the difference between C40 & C30 doesn't really seem big enough to capture the taste complexity of several different Crystal flavors.