What’s the difference (other than color) between Weyerman CaraAroma and Dingemans Aromatic?
Caraoma adds strong caramel flavor, red color, and malty aroma. Whereas, Aromatic malt is a kilned barley malt used to give beer a strong, aggressive malt aroma and rich color but not nearly as dark as cararoma.
Well, technically you can use the Dingemans up to 100%, albeit with relatively low diastatic power — and it probably has similar caramel notes to the CaraAroma. But given the vast °L difference between the two, I think CaraAroma (IMO) has a richer, deeper caramel aroma contribution…but that’s subjective and depends upon how much you’re using I imagine.
I’d think that you’d want to use the CaraAroma for bigger, darker beers over the Dingemans, which you might use for less-darker beers but want that deep caramel aroma. Just my two cents, and quite obviously subjective.
So CaraAroma would be perfect for a IIPA - something maybe as simple as 90% MO/10% CaraAroma?
10% will be Arrogant Bastard like. I did my first one with around 9% and it was a tad too roasty for me. The last one I did 92.5/5.5/2 (pale/C-Aroma/Carafa Special) and I like it much better.
I’m trying to identify the malt that would give my red ale the deep red color and rich, dark dried fruit / burnt sugar flavor that I see in Mad River Brewing’s Jamaica Red Ale:
I’ve tried 7% Crystal 120 and 3% Crystal 40, and that didn’t get me there. Do you think CaraAroma is the ticket? If so, what percentage would you use?
Try about 15-20% carared.
Thanks again, Denny! And would that be in place of, or in addition to, other Crystal malts?
CaraAroma and Aromatic aren’t really very similar grains. The first is a crystal malt that gives Dark Munich Malt-like flavors, while the second is a toasted malt similar to an exaggerated Light Munich Malt.
That sounds like Special B, which gives a nice red, especially combined with a 120L crystal malt like CaraAroma. Maybe about 1/2 pound each per 5 gallons, a’la Ken Lenard’s Home Run Red.
I’d use it in place of an equal amount of base malt. Carared doesn’t seem to act like a crystal malt. It’s closer to a base malt in terms of fermentability.
Thanks for the suggestions. I just bottled a red last night, but the next couple of times I brew it I’ll try these approaches. I’ll report back with results, even if that’s a year from now.
I have tried the Carared with Denny’s recommendation and it was OK, but I still prefer a mixture of darker crystal malts (60,80,120) for deeper red color. YMMV.