I have purchased and milled my grain for the batch, however I made a mistake. I thought the Munich malt was 60L instead of the 10L that was available. The predicted color of the beer is quite a bit lower than I would like. I know it’s mainly cosmetic, but I was wondering if I could darken the color without significantly impacting flavor.
I looked at some malts that I could add at low levels. If I add 1 oz of Carafa III, I can get the SRM back to 9.3 or so which would be fine. I am considering adding the Carafa only to the last 10 minutes of the mash with the hope to get mostly color over flavor.
Does anyone see a flaw in this plan or have a better suggestion? Thanks for the help.
Are you going back to the LHBS to get the Carafa III?
If yes, just get the Munich 60L malt you want and use the Munich 10L later. It’s only 12 ounces. So a buck or so? Gas back and forth would at least be that much. If you have the Carafa III already and want to give it a try. Go for it. See what happens, take note of what happens, and so on…
I would just use what you have. It will be a fine beer with a nice golden/red color. Then when you brew it again, get some of the darker Munich.
Jimmy - are you suggesting adding the Carafa at the end of the 60 minute mash? Any concerns with such a small amount of time to convert the starches? I suppose that the very small amount of grain (~ 1oz.) is not a reason to worry.
Put some of carafa III in cold water and put it in the fridge the day before you plan to brew. Then add to colour in the last 10 mins of the boil. I grind it very fine with a coffee grinder to get more colour out. You won’t have any flavour and the boil will kill any bacteria plus you’ve kept it in the fridge. Strain through a coffee filter if the grain isn’t settling out of solution on its own (or use a french press if you have one). This is about the most accurate way I’ve found to really adjust your colour.
But since this is a pain in the ass to remember to do before, I always just toss an ounce of pale chocolate on top after the first runnings. It’s the action of the sparging/vorlauf that gets the colour out. That’s why everyone is telling you to add it to the sparge, not the mash.
+1 to a little Carafa III or some Midnight Wheat…all color/no flavor, especially if added late in the mash. Also, GMAC’s “grain tea” idea if great. Dose near the end of the boil to dial in the color you want.
I ended up using 1 oz of debittered black malt in the MLT, sprinkled onto to the grist after first runnings before adding the sparge water. The color ended up where I wanted it to and I didn’t detect any excessive roastiness when I sampled from the carboy.
It looked and tasted good. I will keg it sometime next week. I need to drink some more beer to clear out a keg space. Thanks again for all the advice.
Too late now, but for future reference you could try adding some melanoidin malt. The color is around 20L and will add a nice maltiness to the beer without adding sweetness.
Also - if you want the darker munich next time, ask for caramunich.
Something like Victory or Aromatic would work similar to melanoiden as well, but the amount needed to get the color you want would definitely have an effect on flavor.
And CaraMunich is a completely different animal from dark Munich. CaraMunich is a crystal malt, and Dark Munich is a darkly kilned base malt.