Carafa I or II and Briess Midnight wheat and Black Prinz are all good subtle roast malts. Blend together with some quality Dark Munich (like Best Dark Munich II) seems to enhance the richness. Also a fan of chocolate wheat and chocolate malt. Subtle touches of roasted barley or black malt can add to the coffee or chocolate character without overwhelming the smoothness if used with a light touch.
Thanks for all of the help.
The base of the beer will be Munich 9L with a couple of pounds of pilsner. I am thinking the grain other than carafa will have “chocolate” in the name. I have really liked chocolate rye the couple of times I have used it so might go that direction.
This topic is great and I’m hoping to learn from it. I’m lost because folks are posting " X% chocolate in a porter gives a smooth…". WHICH chocolate???
My standard brown ale recipe uses 4oz of Fawcett Pale Chocolate in a 3 gallon batch. It gives just a touch of chocolate/coffee flavor and roast without pushing it into porter territory. The rest of the color comes from a darker crystal malt.
Yeah, sorry Phil. For my part as to using chocolate in my American Brown, I generally use Briess or Simpson’s chocolate. Simpson’s is a little roastier and overall better IMO, but I use both interchangeably in terms of %. Briess is good, though.
Maybe I should consider this direction. What percentage of Pale Chocolate are you using?
I have used chocolate rye at 4 oz in 5 gallons of an amber colored beer and it was much more noticeable than I expected but in a good way.
The most simple way I brew it is 85% MO, 10% Dark Crystal and 5% Pale Chocolate. I also brew an oatmeal-vanilla brown ale where I sub about 8% of the MO for flaked oats and add a split/scraped vanilla bean in secondary. Both are nice everyday pints.
I like briess extra special roast the flavor profile changes as the % in your grain bill increases. You can check their web site for specifics but as I remember
5-8%. Get coffee & dried fruit like prunes
8-10% coffee & toffee notes
10-15%. More intense coffee and roasted flavors
Regarding brown malt, I used 4% of it along with 4% English black malt, and 8% roasted barley in an oatmeal stout. I got several good comments on it at my local brew club meeting.
I love brown malt. It is in every Stout/Porter, brown beer I make. Just ordered more a few minutes ago as a matter of fact.
Do you guys prefer Crisp or Thomas Fawcett brown malt? Or maybe another brand?
I don’t know about the Fawcett, but the Crisp Brown malt has had a light smoke flavor that gets to the beer. It is very nice in the appropriate styles. Very nice in a London Porter.
That’s the one I use as well, even though I can source the TF locally. I have used the Crisp in Denny’s BVIP, as well as porter. I like my resource book by Dr. John Harrison, “Old British Beers and How to Make Them”. Thanks Martin.
I do Crisp on most roasted, brown grains
I’m buying Thomas Fawcett for most of my British grains in general.
Hear, hear - Chocolate Malt (350 L) is my favorite of the dark malts: rich roasted coffee and cocoa flavors, but still very mild (absolutely no astringency) when used @ 1-5%.
Black Patent (500 L) is a close second to Chocolate Malt. Highly roasted character w/only a hint of bitterness; surprisingly mild for such a deeply-kilned malt.
Black Barley Malt (500 L) is my 3rd favorite: very roasty/toasty (a little burnt), but still mild.
I am brewing this beer on Friday. I think I will go with 2.2% brown malt and 2.2% carafa special. Expecting a smooth but very minor roasted quality. My recent browns have been 5% carafa special which was nice for my goals.
Just tapped this beer and I couldn’t be happier. I used s-189 and it has contributed to a crisp clean character that is very nice. It is kind of right between a brown ale and a dunkel if that makes sense. The brown malt and carafa worked very well together to get me the character I wanted.
Sounds good!