i found an award wining recipe for a vienna lager that uses 2oz of carafa II. the author says he uses it for “color”, and adds it after mash right before sparge. he doesn’t clarify if he crushes it first, and then mixes into mash and performs the sparge.
im assuming crush the carafa II and mix it in after the mash -so i get the color without all the roast flavors. not sure being dehusked if you crush or leave as is and still get desired color additions - anyone experienced with this procedure?
no need to rest - you can start running off immediately - it will pull the color. if you’re fly sparging, it works best if you dump the grains closest to your sparge output, in my experience.
if you’re concerned about it - you could always steep the carafa in a muslin bag in the boil kettle.
I think that the purpose of adding crystal malts at sparge is so that it won’t affect the main mash pH. Once the mash is complete, adding any roast or crystal malts won’t have an effect on the main mash, but they will still get add color and flavor. I’ve been doing this for a while now, basically to dial in the mash without having to measure the pH every time.
I thinks that’s correct to some degree. However in in my case, it’s the color im after without the roast flavor, and the addition timing is not to control ph. since its only 2oz, the impact is only .02 for ph anyway.
Actually, controlling pH and limiting overly roasty extraction are both accomplished by adding at sparge. It’s the perfect way to get that color without the roast. I do it regularly. Obviously, the 2 oz of Carafa would be fairly negligible on pH anyway.