Hi all,
my Northern English Brown grain bill includes
10% Briess Special Roast (50L)
7% Briess Victory (25L)
5% British Carastan/Caramalt (30L)
The carastan gives it a great toffee flavor that Crystal 40 just doesn’t have.
Got any suggestions for replacing the Special Roast and Victory with English varieties? I have used Belgian Biscuit as a sub for Victory with good results.
Biscuit is the only sub I’ve used for Victory. You get some of this character if you just use Maris Otter as the base grain.
Not a fan of special roast. Always seems acidic to me. So I would sub acid malt… If you want interesting toasty flavors, try torrified wheat and pale chocolate. Not direct subs. The lovibonds are different.
I’ve already got 3% Pale Chocolate. I was thinking along the lines of English Brown malts (Crisp, Fawcett). Color is close.
I have used Thomas Fawcett brown, in my mild ale, for quite a while. Don’t forget Amber malt, its coffee-ish flavor is good too. Cheers, j
+1
I would try to get some TF brown malt.
I usually split my base malt 60% MO and 30% Briess Ashburn mild ale malt, then add your pale chocolate/brown malt/crystal 120 for color and a hint of roast.
Personally, that Mild ale malt gives a nice subtle nutty flavor that has done well in competitions.