Special B and amber mild

[badlee]

I am thinking of brewing a small batch this weekend,6 litres.

I was goung to go with :
70% pale
17% Spec B
3% pale choc
10% TF amber malt
15gr Hallertauer each at 60 & 20.
wlp550
Anglo-Belgian mild
I have never used Special B and wondered if anybody with expetience could give their view.
Cheers

 

[JonM]

It has a pretty darn intense flavor, so I'd say 17% is going to be overpowering.

 

[badlee]

Ok, cool.
How about I bring it down to 10% and add some caramuich and/or caravienna?

 

[porterpounder]

It's a nice malt to give some raisin, plum complexity to a beer like that, but 5% is probably going to be about the limit before it overpowers the other malts. That with the amber malt will be quite strong in the tapioca, raisiny, caramel flavors.

 

[badlee]

Hmmmm
Thanks
What to do?

 

[porterpounder]

No matter what you brew, it'll be beer. If you don't like the flavors, adjust one aspect at a time until you get what you want.

 

[badlee]

The amber malt is the "kitchen sink" aspect of the recipe. I could just do away with it

 

[Pekkales]

Special B has indeed very strong and distinct flavour. I had 5% in a Dubbel and the flavour was quite strong. Will be using less in the next batch, like 3%.

 

[sendai]

Depending on your efficiency and the OG you are shooting for, 17% could be anywhere from 12oz to 2 lbs. That's an enormous range!

Anyway, I'd start with half a pound and adjust on the next batch if necessary.

 

[badlee]

Half a lb in 6litres,no. I think you misread.
My batch size is about 1.7 gallons.
The OG I am shooting for is around 1.032.
I tend to get 78%

 

[sendai]

Yes, sorry. I was thinking in 5 gallon batches.

So use about 3 ounces then in 1.7 gallons.

 

[badlee]

Gotcha

 

[badlee]

I stumbled upon a blog where a guy used 20% Special B in two Saisons and he reckoned it was not even that much of a flavour contribution.
Beers got down from 1.055(ish) to 1.010

 

[TNGabe]

I stumbled upon a blog where a guy used 20% Special B in two Saisons and he reckoned it was not even that much of a flavour contribution.
Beers got down from 1.055(ish) to 1.010

That's the nice thing about brewing advice online. Whenever someone gives you good advice you don't like, you can usually keep looking and find bad advice you do like.

 

[badlee]

Nicely put!
Please do not think I was dismissing the good advice already given.
It has all been taken onboard

 

[badlee]

In my mind now,I am hovering at these amounts;
10% Spec B
5% amber
5% UK dark crystal
75% pale
1% roasted barley
4% flaked oats

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Special B is basically an ultra-dark crystal. I don't think you're going to get much of the UK crystal coming through. You might consider swapping percentages on those.

 

[badlee]

I had thought of that.
UK crystal at 10% and Spec B at 5%

 

[badlee]

This was the final recipe, apart from I could for the life of me find my amber malt and threw in some brown malt instead.

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
0.65 kg German - Pale Ale 39 2.3 73.4%
0.045 kg Belgian - Special B 34 115 5.1%
0.045 kg United Kingdom - Amber 32 27 5.1%
0.04 kg Flaked Oats 33 2.2 4.5%
0.09 kg United Kingdom - Dark Crystal 80L 33 80 10.2%
0.015 kg United Kingdom - Roasted Barley 29 550 1.7%
0.89 kg Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
10 g Hallertau Mittelfruh Pellet 3 Boil 60 min 15.13
15 g Hallertau Mittelfruh Leaf/Whole 3 Boil 20 min 12.49

Yeast
White Labs - Burton Ale Yeast WLP023
Attenuation (avg):
72%
Flocculation:
Medium
Optimum Temp:
20 - 22.8 °C


The original yeast I had planned to use was a cake that was left a little too long and I did not like the look of it.
The beer is now fermenting away at 20.5C and smells awsome!

 

[Bosh]

Special B is similar to Caraaroma which is pretty much my favorite specialty malt but goddam is the stuff strong.

 

[JKaranka]

This was the final recipe, apart from I could for the life of me find my amber malt and threw in some brown malt instead.

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
0.65 kg German - Pale Ale 39 2.3 73.4%
0.045 kg Belgian - Special B 34 115 5.1%
0.045 kg United Kingdom - Amber 32 27 5.1%
0.04 kg Flaked Oats 33 2.2 4.5%
0.09 kg United Kingdom - Dark Crystal 80L 33 80 10.2%
0.015 kg United Kingdom - Roasted Barley 29 550 1.7%
0.89 kg Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
10 g Hallertau Mittelfruh Pellet 3 Boil 60 min 15.13
15 g Hallertau Mittelfruh Leaf/Whole 3 Boil 20 min 12.49

Yeast
White Labs - Burton Ale Yeast WLP023
Attenuation (avg):
72%
Flocculation:
Medium
Optimum Temp:
20 - 22.8 °C


The original yeast I had planned to use was a cake that was left a little too long and I did not like the look of it.
The beer is now fermenting away at 20.5C and smells awsome!

It's a bit of a kitchen sink recipe that you can streamline but I'm still curious to see how it comes out.

 

[badlee]

I hear you on the kitchen sink.
I do not usually go for such a kid in the candy store recipes.
This "felt right". We will see if my gut feeling was spot on Or WAY off,lol.