Caragold and caramalt

[Bashley]

Hi All

I'm going to try a Gamma Ray clone today and it calls for small amounts of Caragold and Caramalt.

My understanding is that Caramalt is just 20 ebc Crystal and caragold is Crystal 120.

Is this true?

As I'm a complete novice at homebrewing I'm a little bit unsure as to how important the non- base malts are.
Are we really predominantly talking colour here from these malts or does Crystal 20 and 400 impart different flavours?
I'm wondering because if it's mainly colour, why wouldn't I be able to just substitute say 200g Caragold and 200g carmalt with , say, 400g of Crystal 100.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Sadfield]

Hi,

To the first question, Caragold is a very light crystal malt, much lighter than Crystal 20. The 20 refers to Lovibond, on of the standards in colour measurement, 20 Lovibond translates to 50 EBC (European Brewing Convention) where as Caragold is 12 EBC.

Yes different Crystal malts give different flavours. https://byo.com/resource/grains/




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[Bashley]

Strange this recipe states the following:

260 g crisp caramalt (38.5 ebc)
5kg Maris otter (6.5)
150g caragold (145.3 ebc)

I have 115g of cara malt (28 ebc) and lots of Crystal 135 and 100.

What would be the best thing to do? Also, does it really matter that much! :)

 

[Sadfield]

Strange this recipe states the following:

260 g crisp caramalt (38.5 ebc)
5kg Maris otter (6.5)
150g caragold (145.3 ebc)

I have 115g of cara malt (28 ebc) and lots of Crystal 135 and 100.

What would be the best thing to do? Also, does it really matter that much! :)

Oops, my bad. I had my UK head on. The British maltster Crisp use the product Caragold, but there is a Belgian maltster called Chateau that do things differently. And have a product called Cara Gold that is as dark as the recipe suggests. Crystal 50 would be the closest substitute in the UK. 75g of the Crystal 100 you have will give the same colour, with a slightly roastier character.

What beer is the recipe for?

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[Bashley]

It's a Beavertown Gamma Ray clone. As it's only my 4th ever brew I'm a little in the dark as to what to use. I don;t really care too much about the colour but don't want to spend my whole day messing up the brew :)

 

[Sadfield]

That'll definitely be the paler UK Caragold. I would just use the Caramalt you have and possibly mash 1 degree higher than the recipe suggests. The Caragold and Caramalt are in the recipe for body, more than colour. Adding darker crystal will add roast flavours that may clash with the hops.

Brew on, you won't ruin your brew making small changes to the recipe.

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[Bashley]

As the recipe states:
260 g crisp caramalt (38.5 ebc)
5kg Maris otter (6.5)
150g caragold (145.3 ebc)

I was thinking of 115g cara (28EBC) and 295g of Crystal 100 to offset the lack of low EBC crystal.

Does that sound ok? Sorry, it's just that I have no knowledge whatsoever of this stuff!

 

[Sadfield]

You can do that also. It would be much darker and have a pronounced caramel malt flavour. Will still be a nice beer.

The darker the crystal malts get, is similar to effect of cooking sugar longer. For example fudge>caramel>toffee>treacle toffee.

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[-Bezza-]

That's a very specific food pairing they've suggested!

 

[Sadfield]

By the way, which book is that?

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[Bashley]

That's a very specific food pairing they've suggested!

Can't be chinese spring rolls; they'll clash with the 145.3 EBC of caragold!

 

[Bashley]

You can do that also. It would be much darker and have a pronounced caramel malt flavour. Will still be a nice beer.

The darker the crystal malts get, is similar to effect of cooking sugar longer. For example fudge>caramel>toffee>treacle toffee.

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I'm not sure how it would be darker as the recipe states 150g caragold (145.3 ebc) whereas I'd be using crystal at 100ebc ?

 

[Bashley]

By the way, which book is that?

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I don;t know, got it from this forum and it marries exactly with a recipe on the grainfather website.

 

[Sadfield]

I'm not sure how it would be darker as the recipe states 150g caragold (145.3 ebc) whereas I'd be using crystal at 100ebc ?

No, you have Crystal 100, that's 100 Lovibond not EBC. 100 Lovibond is 265 Ebc. The two are not linear to make things more confusing, so your Crystal 100 is actually twice as dark as Cara Gold.

https://www.brewtoad.com/tools/color-converter

There's a mix up somewhere as the book states "Caragold" which is Crisps trademark, but the recipe has the same EBC as "Cara Gold" Chateau's trademark. I think.

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[Bashley]

No, you have Crystal 100, that's 100 Lovibond not EBC. 100 Lovibond is 265 Ebc. The two are not linear to make things more confusing, so your Crystal 100 is actually twice as dark as Cara Gold.

https://www.brewtoad.com/tools/color-converter

There's a mix up somewhere as the book states "Caragold" which is Crisps trademark, but the recipe has the same EBC as "Cara Gold" Chateau's trademark.

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Blimey, this is so confusing! On the packet it says crystal 100 and 100 ebc

 

[Sadfield]

Ah..OK. That flies against convention. Confusing, damn right it is, every region has their own way of doing things, and different maltsters in those regions do their own thing. Some just call them medium or dark crystal.



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[Sadfield]

Having looked at this using some brewing software, yes, this should do it. Sorry for the confusion.

QUOTE="Bashley, post: 754289, member: 20772"]
I was thinking of 115g cara (28EBC) and 295g of Crystal 100 to offset the lack of low EBC crystal.
[/QUOTE]