Malt question American Caramel

Lars

What does 'American Caramel 20°L' mean? I'm reading it froma recipe on beertools. http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=4585&fvu=liters&u=metric&unitBttn=Change+Units&fv=19.31
I also see American Caramel 40°L and 80°L . Is it a dried malt extract or liquid and what does the number and the '°L' mean?

Thanks

L

mayto

American caramel 20 L is a type of crystal malt, the 20L (lovibonds) refers to colour of the crystal malt. 20L would be a very light coloured malt, 40L would be darker and so on. Over here we also measure colour in EBC, which is approx twice the L value, EBC= 2 L. You would steep the crystal malt in a muslin bag in about 3L of water at 70C for 30 min. The crystal malt gives colour, body and sweetness to the beer depending on the type of crystal malt you use.

guildofevil

As Mayto said. it's a kind of crystal malt. 20l (~40 ECB) is extremely pale and I don't think you'll get it easily here. The palest crystal malt thehomebrewcompany.ie have is 60 ECB (~30l).

You have been looking at American beer recipes, haven't you? Take my advice, don't get too hung up on the recipe. Take your time and learn what the individual ingredients do before you start making things hard for yourself.

Read this: Keep it simple. You don't need a complicated recipe to make good beer.

Lars

Thanks guys. I was looking at slightly more complicated recipes assuming they make better beer....
I'm thinking now that I might make that recipe you(guildofevil) recommended to me in an earlier post for a blonde ale below but I have some saaz hops that I might use. I'm really enjoying Budvar lately, says on the back it uses Saaz so I suppose It must be the saaz that I like. Would this make anything that would taste even remotely like Budvar?(I'm not expecting a Budvar clone or anyting:D)

Blond Ale

Batch Size 23l
Expected OG: 1.050

Malt
3Kg Light Dry Malt Extract

Hops
60 Minutes: Hallertauer Hersbrucker (4.3 %AA) 45g
15 Minutes: Hallertauer Hersbrucker (4.3 %AA) 30g
5 Minutes: Hallertauer Hersbrucker (4.3 %AA) 25g

Yeast: SafAle US-05 or Danstar Nottingham

Lars

I was also thinking of this one from beoir extract brewing article, because I have some Amarillo and this is referred to as on of their 'favourite' recipes

Larkfield Big Chief Amarillo
14-B American IPA



Size: 21.0 L


Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.056 - 1.075)
|===========#====================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.018)
|=================#==============|

Color: 21.5 (11.8 - 29.6)
|================#===============|

Alcohol: 5.91% (5.5% - 7.5%)
|===========#====================|

Bitterness: 56.61 (40.0 - 60.0)
|=====================#==========|

Ingredients:
3.1 kg Dry Light Extract
0.42 kg Caramunich® TYPE I
0.42 kg Vienna Malt
15.0 g Chinook (12.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
15.0 g Amarillo (8.9%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
15.0 g Amarillo (8.9%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
0.5 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
15.0 g Amarillo (8.9%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
15.0 g Amarillo (8.9%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
15.0 g Chinook (12.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
15.0 g Amarillo (8.9%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
15.0 g Amarillo (8.9%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

guildofevil

Saaz should indeed get you in the right direction if you are looking for something Budvar like. It won't be as clean tasting, because it will be a blond ale, not a lager, but you can't do a lager without fermentation temperature control anyway.

Substitute the later additions of Hallertauer Hersbrucker with Saaz and use whatever you like for bittering (60 minute addition). Just make sure you get your IBUs to about 30 or maybe a little above.


For the American pale ale, while Barry's Big Chief Amarillo is a very nice beer, I would advise you to keep it simpler than that at this stage. Something like this:

3kg dry malt extract
250g Crystal malt (110 ECB)

And either use the hop schedule Barry suggests for Big Chief Amarillo, or just play around with similar quantities of American hops like Amarillo, Chinook, Citra, Centennial, Cascade, Simcoe or Summit.

Big Chief Amarillo comes out at about 55 IBU. If you like your bitter, hoppy American pale ales, that would be where to pitch your bittering.

Lars

Hi, another question. Is it worth spending the extra on muntons or other branded spray malts. They seem to be quite a bit dearer than the unbranded stuff. Would there be a noticeable difference in the beer?

guildofevil

As long as it's dry malt extract it's fine. Get the cheaper stuff.

PhiliousPhogg

I'm all for simple recipes (novice brewer), this weekend I'll be doing an APA with Light LME, Crystal Malt, Cascade all the way and Safale US 05. Last time out I did a lovely sweet stout with choc malt, roasted barley & fuggles.

Although it took me a while to trawl through websites like tastybrew to figure out the usual ingredients for an APA.

The beoir article is good practical info, which is what I really like about that website. Most of the stuff posted to the web is quite specialist and it's in fact a bit of a search to just get something basic. I have found stuff like this hop table which is quite helpful and Mr Palmer's howtobrew recipes

Lars

Should I adjust my weights with crystal malt(and specialty grains in general) depending on their ECB value, like I would with hops of a different AA value to those specified in a recipe?

L

Mashtun

Lars wrote: »

Should I adjust my weights with crystal malt(and specialty grains in general) depending on their ECB value, like I would with hops of a different AA value to those specified in a recipe?

L

Convert the EBC to SRM and sub in the closest type crystal you can find in beer smith. If you dont use beersmith start, it's fair handy for calculations and records. There are also plenty of tutorials on youtube for using it

Mashtun

Forgot to mention this site which is also good

http://tastybrew.com/calculators/recipe.html