Lager color adjustment

Does anyone out there that uses dehusked roast malt for coloring in lagers feel to much roast comes through in the final product? I have done several  batches using 1oz or 2oz at the most and the roast is very clear in the finished product, even after some aging.

Try Sinamar.

Sinamar for color adjustment -yes- but you can also cold steep or add the dark roast at the very end of the mash, if you can live with a trace of roast flavor.

Be conservative with Sinemar. Too much will give you ashy flavors.

I’ve never had a problem with a bit of Carafa III at the end of the mash with 15 min or so.

Lower temperature steeping and/or low pH steeping will help reduce the extraction of flavor from roasted grains. You can make your own form of black liquor by cold steeping dark malts in water with very low alkalinity (RO or DI). You will be able to sample that liquor before use to assess its roastiness.

Be aware that this method is not as effective in extracting color from the malt, so don’t be surprised if you have to use more dark malts to produce your color objective.

Which dehusked malts specifically are you getting the roasted character from?  I’ve had situations in which I’ve asked for Carafa II Special and been given regular Carafa II by mistake.

Carafe III and Blackprinz are the 2 I use

A) You’re using Carafa Special (i.e., the dehusked variety) and not regular Carafa, right?

B) Briess claims that Midnight Wheat is the smoothest of the dehusked malts for adding color, and I tend to agree in my experience. This is all I use for color adjustment now. In something like a lager you will probably still find some roast. But that’s because you’re the brewer, you know it’s there, and you’re looking for it.

I’m not a big fan of sinimar, I get a weird pepper flavor from it. I’m definitely using the dehusked carafa and most recently midnight wheat. I still get some roast with the midnight wheat in a Munich dunkel with 1oz added with 15 min of mash time remaining. Not stout roasty but enough to detract from the rest of the malts.