CaraAroma

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Guys, so I ordered some malts for some beers and one called for "aromatic malt". I Googled a bit and found a malt named "CaraAroma", and apparently it's what the recipe calls for. So I ordered 500g of this malt and it arrived today.

Oh my malty goodness my dudes. This stuff smells AMAZING! What can I brew that'll highlight this warm and nutty malt flavour best? An amber ale? Amber lager? Using Vienna and Pilsner malts to highlight those caramel notes?

I have to get planning on my next brew, after the upcoming few...

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

yup, she's a beauty ! I used it extensively for a good while

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Yip, A very strong flavour malt, so be careful how much you add. I actually don't like my beers when I add to much.

Lighter beers i would say 3-5% and Amber styles close to 10% with 8% being a sweet spot. ... you could go slightly higher on darker styles.

I have about 400g left, but I don't think I'll get any more once done.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I actually have a recipe that calls for a bit more. The pumpkin ale I'm planning calls for 3.2kg pale malt, 1.4kg Munich I, 400gr CaraMunich and 900gr CaraAroma. That's around 15% of the grain bill, which I guess isn't too bad. It takes a bit of brown sugar and pumpkin with a bunch of spices on top of that as well. I'm just halving the recipe. I can't wait to brew with this stuff.

Think I'm going to order some and keep it on hand for future brews. It's the exact flavour I was actually aiming for when I made my Vienna lagers a while back. The Vienna's flavour is great, it's just not "all there", if you understand what I mean. Yes, it's malty, but it's more of a "bored" malt flavour now that I compare it to CaraAroma.

I think I'll attempt an Amber Ale, or perhaps even an Irish Red next. I've been threatening an IRA for a while now but I was scared of the flavours and colour. I think CaraAroma in place of the roast malts might do it good, considering you're looking for the deep red colour and malt flavours. I just can't find a tried and trusted recipe that calls for it. Am I missing the pot?

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

That's alot of Cara ! At this moment, I use a cara clair/gold/blonde and ruby mostly. Pilsners, English ales some apa. Another neat thing about this hobby - you have many things to play and tinker with percentages, malts, hops, styles. Love it

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

I actually have a recipe that calls for a bit more. The pumpkin ale I'm planning calls for 3.2kg pale malt, 1.4kg Munich I, 400gr CaraMunich and 900gr CaraAroma. That's around 15% of the grain bill, which I guess isn't too bad. It takes a bit of brown sugar and pumpkin with a bunch of spices on top of that as well. I'm just halving the recipe. I can't wait to brew with this stuff.

Think I'm going to order some and keep it on hand for future brews. It's the exact flavour I was actually aiming for when I made my Vienna lagers a while back. The Vienna's flavour is great, it's just not "all there", if you understand what I mean. Yes, it's malty, but it's more of a "bored" malt flavour now that I compare it to CaraAroma.

I think I'll attempt an Amber Ale, or perhaps even an Irish Red next. I've been threatening an IRA for a while now but I was scared of the flavours and colour. I think CaraAroma in place of the roast malts might do it good, considering you're looking for the deep red colour and malt flavours. I just can't find a tried and trusted recipe that calls for it. Am I missing the pot?

Did you not say in the OP the recipe calls for Aromatic Malt? ... You can't substitute gram for gram Aromatic with Cara-Aroma AFAIK.

Cara-Aroma is much more "in your face" and much darker than Aromatic Malt from what I've read on other forums.

Yea sure people go up to 20% in some darker styles, but I dont want you to fuckup that Pumpkin beer by going about it wrong ... maybe check with your LHBS or a brewery if its ok to substitute gram for gram

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

yeah, there's a difference cara aroma is similar to cara red/ruby. aromatic is like melano light isnt it?

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Did you not say in the OP the recipe calls for Aromatic Malt? ... You can't substitute gram for gram Aromatic with Cara-Aroma AFAIK.

Cara-Aroma is much more "in your face" and much darker than Aromatic Malt from what I've read on other forums.

Yea sure people go up to 20% in some darker styles, but I dont want you to fuckup that Pumpkin beer by going about it wrong ... maybe check with your LHBS or a brewery if its ok to substitute gram for gram

yeah, there's a difference cara aroma is similar to cara red/ruby. aromatic is like melano light isnt it?

Oi OK thanks gents! I read somewhere that "CaraAroma is a perfect substitute for Aromatic Malt" and I guess that's just not true. I checked more now and it isn't. Not anywhere near the same. It's 10 times as dark in colour, but with similar malt notes. It seems like CaraAroma is a lot stronger on the caramel though, which I think will still go great with the pumpkin. Not sure how much to use though to keep the colour from going way too dark. I used an EBC calculator and checked I should use only 100g instead of the full 500g I had planned. One fifth of the amount. Guess I'll have some left. Maybe do a tiny bit more, around 150gr. A slightly darker pumpkin beer will be fine!

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

I tend to stick to the no more than 10% rule when it comes to Cara. Your basemalt sit at 4.6kg without the Aromatic, so no more than 460g for both Caras. That's my jam though, if you're recipe calls for more than this and you're following it to the tee to clone a beer, go for it. Over 10% things get sweet, but it's style and personal taste dependent. I'd think that Caramunich and Aromatic is close to one another in the way they're kilned, but that's an unconfirmed thought - so google up

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

The recipe has some Munich I and CaraMunich as well, which leads me to believe they really want to nail the sweet, caramel malt flavours alongside the spicy pumpkin. It also has some treacle sugar in there and a lot of pumpkin (I'm sticking 1.2kg of pumpkin in the 12l batch). It's supposed to be a pretty high gravity wort in the end (1.063) with a FG of 1.018, which is very sweet anyway. With only 19 IBUs it's also pretty obvious they're not aiming for a bitter, average ale. They're shooting for "sweet". I'm just more worried that the colour will be totally wrong.

I guess I can mash with 150g of CaraAroma and if it's not dark enough or not malty enough post boil I can just mash or steep another 100g or so in about 500ml of water and add it to the fermenter? I'd rather do this than go too dark off the bat. The recipe aims for a pretty deep orangey-red colour.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Aromatic Malt is also known as "Melanoidin Light" and the best substitutes is apparently Abbey or Amber Malts.

Here is a video from Castle about their Château Arome.
The guy in the video used to be a member here and Im not sure why he doesn't post anymore.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Aromatic Malt is also known as "Melanoidin Light" and the best substitutes is apparently Abbey or Amber Malts.

Yeah this is what my research after you guys' comments also pointed out to me. I'm just going to use CaraAroma as that's what I have, but I'm just going to use less. I can't go back now. The pumpkin has already been roasted in treacle sugar, so I need to brew this weekend. Tomorrow. YAY!

PS: This is a beer for a friend who likes Castle Lights. I can make him a pale ale and float a piece of pumpkin in there and tell him it's a pumpkin beer and I'm sure he'll think it's a nice craft. I'm not going to do that (because he's a friend), but I'm pretty sure he won't pick up the malt swap considering he has never had that recipe before. So I'm OK with it.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

HeHe, ok I get it ... as long as we all learnt something from this, it's all good

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

I'm slightly curious to try this myself, in a small batch

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[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

OK so I've made the pumpkin beer using CaraAroma. I used the 150g as I mentioned above, and I'm REALLY glad I didn't use more. I came in slightly under my aimed OG purely because I used less grains than I was supposed to, because of the lack of fermentables in the Melanoidin Light that would have contributed. On the side though, a few things...

1. I've never smelled a mash that smelled as good as this one. It was 1.6kg regular pale malt, 700g Munich malt, 200gr CaraMunich I and then the 150g of CaraAroma. The one that smelled best when it entered the mash? Munich. That pure sweet malt smell was amazing. The CaraAroma immediately stood out agains the others in terms of colour, and it really surprised me how little of the fermentable malt remains when it's roasted/toasted to the level the C.Aroma is toasted to. It was mostly husks going into the malt.

2. It provided the colour I wanted - and then some. I aimed for a reddish orange, and my wort looked like a rusted pipe that has been left to lay in some water, but a shade or 2 darker. So I came pretty close, and I'm glad I did.

3. On to the beer itself. I'm not sure how much of the C.Aroma will come through in the end anyway. The original recipe called for 5 teaspoons of Cinnamon, 1 Teaspoon of nutmeg, 1 Teaspoon of fresh ginger and 3 Teaspoons of vanilla extract into a 22.7l batch. I measured out some of the spices and immediately felt it's too much. I made the batch just over half the size with half the malts, but then ended up with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, a pinch of fresh ginger and the vanilla essence I had (couldn't find vanilla extract). Also, because the nutmeg smelled really odd for me, I kept it out and just added 5 whole cloves for some added sweetness on the nose. All this, together with some Irish Moss, went into the last 15 minutes of the boil. Now when I smell the fermenter, I'm SERIOUSLY glad I didn't add more spices. It's just cinnamon on the nose, with a tiny, tiny hint of the cloves way in the back if you search for it. Pumpkin is there, which I'm glad about, but the actually C.Aroma seems "gone". So yeah.