Testing Aromatic V Crystal Rye Challenge

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I have procured 500g of each of Aromatic and Crystal Rye malt and not knowing about either am going to make two identical beers, with the same base (Golden Promise) and probably Carapils or Wheat for some head retention (whatever I have the most of) and the same hop profile. Might stick between 250 to 300 grams of the grains (one in each) to see what these do to the flavour profile. I will post the recipes (need to check stock first) and results.

Has anyone used these malts at all?
 
This one is called Peckham Rye beer. This beer is Goldern promise, Carapils, terrified wheat and crystal the malt. Around 4.5kg of Goldern promise 250g crystal rye, 150g terrified wheat, 350g Carapils. Used 30g of Chinook for bittering, 20g Cascade at 15 min, 20g at 5 and 30g at end of boil all Cascade. Pitched US05 at around 23c and got an OG of around 1057 so this will be around 5.9%. Taste at pitch very sweet and smooth at start, hoppy but no lingering bitterness. 23L was the target and I ended with about 22.5 in the fermenter.
 
I think doing split batches is a great way to get a feel for what you actually like. Sometimes especially with varied grain bills it is difficult to pinpoint where you beer succeeds/fails.
 
This one is called Peckham Rye beer. This beer is Goldern promise, Carapils, terrified wheat and crystal the malt. Around 4.5kg of Goldern promise 250g crystal rye, 150g terrified wheat, 350g Carapils. Used 30g of Chinook for bittering, 20g Cascade at 15 min, 20g at 5 and 30g at end of boil all Cascade. Pitched US05 at around 23c and got an OG of around 1057 so this will be around 5.9%. Taste at pitch very sweet and smooth at start, hoppy but no lingering bitterness. 23L was the target and I ended with about 22.5 in the fermenter.



Terrified wheat. Positively frightened.

Love it [emoji12]


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Did the crystal rye beer com out well? Got some for my next batch. Interested to know what flavour you get from it
 
I love aromatic malt. It gives a very dry, toasty, malt flavour, very different from a crystal malt. I used amber malt for quite a why but didn't feel like it gave me what I was after. Aromatic malt was the answer.

It is really quite dark at about 400EBC so if used in significant quantities it will definitely darken a beer.

I think you will really enjoy it!
 
I love aromatic malt. It gives a very dry, toasty, malt flavour, very different from a crystal malt. I used amber malt for quite a why but didn't feel like it gave me what I was after. Aromatic malt was the answer.

It is really quite dark at about 400EBC so if used in significant quantities it will definitely darken a beer.

I think you will really enjoy it!

Which aromatic malt are you using?
I use Dingemanns quite a bit, for the toasty maltiness you mentioned, but this one is only 50EBC
 
I recently stumbled across Weyermann CaraAroma, looks very interesting and going to get some to play with. It's not "aromatic" malt however, Weyermann have melanoidin malt which is equivalent to other brands aromatic / amber malts around 50 EBC. Briess in the states do a dark munich at 20L which is the same kinda stuff.

From what I can tell it looks to be more of an extra dark crystal malt in the 400 - 450 EBC range so it's similar to Special B but darker. very confusing when they describe it as aromatic.
 
From what I can tell it looks to be more of an extra dark crystal malt in the 400 - 450 EBC range so it's similar to Special B but darker. very confusing when they describe it as aromatic.

I was thinking the 'cara' in the name implies its a type of crystal malt.
So to be used in small qtys I'd imagine
 
I was thinking the 'cara' in the name implies its a type of crystal malt.
So to be used in small qtys I'd imagine

The entry on the malt miller says up to 15% which is mostly in line with other crystal malts. 15% of crystal malt could make a very sweet beer though, I'll probably start in the 5 - 10% range.
 
Im planning on having crystal malt and crystal rye in a brew tomorrow both around 5% each. Anyone used both together with good results?
 
The entry on the malt miller says up to 15% which is mostly in line with other crystal malts. 15% of crystal malt could make a very sweet beer though, I'll probably start in the 5 - 10% range.

I wouldn't use any more of Dingemanns one either
 
I was thinking the 'cara' in the name implies its a type of crystal malt.
So to be used in small qtys I'd imagine
Although it is probably technically a crystal malt, I don't find that it behaves like a crystal. I use a fair bit of special B which gives the rich toffee, dried fruit flavours you would expect from a dark crystal. The CaraAroma seems to be more like a lightly roasted grain than a crystal malt. It seems much drier, not particularly sweet and roasty/malty in flavour.
 
This is the tricky thing. I’ve been trialing different malts to achieve a honey malt character in my NEIPA’s as you can’t readily buy it in the uk. Aromatic malt and melonoidin don’t quite cut the mustard.


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I used 100g of Colorado Honey Malt from The Homebrew Company in an 11.5L batch of Belgian Blonde, and it has a pretty distinct honey flavour. So much so, I'd probably use less next time. I'd agree, I didn't get any honey flavour from Aromatic or Melanoidin, just Munich on steroids.
 
Although it is probably technically a crystal malt, I don't find that it behaves like a crystal. I use a fair bit of special B which gives the rich toffee, dried fruit flavours you would expect from a dark crystal. The CaraAroma seems to be more like a lightly roasted grain than a crystal malt. It seems much drier, not particularly sweet and roasty/malty in flavour.

I was tempted to do some kinda experiment to try out a range of crystal malts, but the method to keep everything else equal gets tricky. With Caraaroma heading north of 400 EBC I could see it starting to tread on the roasted side of things where Special B is still on the sweeter side.

Thanks for sharing your experience.
 

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