malts with smooth or interesting roast qualities

Other than the traditional dehusked roasted malts, does anyone have any advice on something interesting for a brown ale?

My thoughts were to split the roasted malts between some carafa special which I love and something else. Grains like Brown, Chocolate Rye, Pale Chocolate come to mind. I will be using relatively small amounts. Something like 5-7 oz of the carafa special and the other malt.

I love brown malt, but I’m not sure what kind of contribution you’d get with 5oz, as I’ve never used that little.

How much would you recommend for a 5 gallon batch? I have no experience but have read some saying it can be pretty powerful.

powerfully delicious maybe haha. I like it at around 8% of my porters grain bill, but I REALLY like it. Some other folks could chime in on their usage.

Good data point. Thanks.

I really like brown malt too, but too much and your brown ale becomes a porter. I like 6-8 oz of chocolate malt in my American Brown (5 gal)  for reference. I wouldn’t want more roast than that in mine. $0.02 .

Call me crazy but my favorite smooth dark malt is good old fashioned Briess Chocolate malt.  I also enjoy chocolate wheat and chocolate rye.  Munch on a kernel or two of each one, whether at home or even in a shop, to know for sure what you like the best.

I used Briess Midnight Wheat for the first time in a Dark Mild a batch or two ago and it surprised me with a smooth roast character.  It may be a bit to light on roast for what you are after.

-Tony

Do you use other roasted malts?

Sure. I pretty much use them all in various recipes. I just posted the chocolate reference as a gauge for roastiness in brown ales since you’re making one. Just worried that you might use too much brown malt amd get a roastier beer than you were after.

Totally misread your post as you use 6-8 oz of brown malt

Sorry for creating confusion when you were talking about brown malt. ;D  My bad. I was just offering a gauge for roastiness on brown ales without veering into porter territory.

Been there, done that! My last American brown was more of an American porter. Not what I expected, but still a very tasty beer. (Worked great in my chili recipe.)

FWIW, I don’t feel that’s a bad method to use when experimenting with brown malt, you’re pretty likely to still have a drinkable beer. I’ve used up to 20% in a recipe, but typically use between 5-15%.

OK, now I’m lost.  There’s brown malt.  Then there’s at least three different types (in L) of chocolate malt NOT counting rye and wheat.  And there’s also three grades of Carafa Special.

Don’t forget Briess Black Prinz (kinda like carafa special II)

Patagonia Perla Negra Light is pretty unique.  In fairly small quantities (2-5%) it comes across kind of pretzel-like, and can become too much in the 5-10% range (at least in non-black beers).  It has a unique character for sure; it’s kind of a “super toasty” malt without stepping into the roast department.  Not much bitterness or astringency from it since it’s huskless.  Probably the closest thing I could compare it to would be pale chocolate, or pale choc mixed with amber malt.  I have not tried the Medium or Dark varieties of Perla Negra.

Homemade torrified wheat can add a subtle toast quality to a beer in decent proportions (~10-15%) without becoming too much, and it’s very easy to make in an air popper.  Add about 1/2-3/4 cup to the popper, turn it on, wait for the kernels to pop, dump on cookie sheet to cool.  Takes <1 minute per 4-6 oz.

Homemade torrified rye is in the same “super toast” ballpark as the perla negra above.  It imparts a big toasty quality that’s probably most similar to brown malt (plus popcorn).  Make it the same way as torrified wheat but it takes about 3x as long (~3 minutes per batch) because the kernel just take that much time before the “pop”.  I’m sure the extra toastiness is due to the extra time.

Just looking for opinions. I am planning on carafa special I because I don’t need the color and like it. The other “roasted” malt is TBD. I am not pertaining to any style. The malts I originally listed were just some ideas.

I usually use chocolate or pale chocolate for my brown ales. That seems to get me the faint roast character I’m looking for.

I’m into subtle, like chocolate malt and agree that chocolate wheat and rye are nice.
I have noticed that in the last few years the American urge to have more, more, more has led commercial brown ales to taste like porters, porters to taste like stouts, and stouts to taste like sweet ashtrays. I guess I’m a less is more guy.

That is kind of my thought. I had a brown ale that was just amazing the other day which was kind of the inspiration. It had a mild roast and chocolate character and was super smooth. It was also lighter in color which is how I remember brown ales when I used to drink them regularly a long time ago.