CaraAroma vs Aromatic?

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.