# Can You Ever Use Too Many Specialty Grains?



## phoenixdigital (13/11/11)

So we are gradually heading towards all grain and were at our local HBS yesterday and went a bit nuts with specialty grains.

1kg of Chocolate Malt
1kg of Roasted Barley
1kg of Carared
1kg of English Brown (I think it says brown on bag)
1kg of Caramalt
2kg of Crystal Malt (20 I think)

There might be 1Kg of something else but I cant remember.

We primarily use the unhopped liquid malt extract from the LHBS which comes in 1kg tubs and do our own hop additions. Yesterday we made the call never to open a tin again.

Now this grain is milled so we obviously have to use it relatively quickly. I have seen people say anywhere from two weeks to 3-4 months (if stored correctly) We plan on putting it into ziplock bags and storing in the freezer.

We would like to use this grain pretty quickly and were messing around with brewmate yesterday making up some recipes with these grains. I am sure we were committing some cardinal sins with our grain combinations and hop additions but we tried to keep within the styles we chose.

So my primary question is can you ever use too much of a specialty grain?

I understand things like the chocolate malt and roasted barley in too large a quantity could cause issues and overwhelm the flavour. But can the same be said of the other grains I have listed like carared, caramalt, english brown and crystal malt?

Is 500g of carared, caramalt, english brown or crystal malt too much too add to a 23 litre batch???


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## eamonnfoley (13/11/11)

500g of crystal Or cara malt is usually about 10% of a 20l batch. It is on the high side but acceptable for some recipes. Amber ales and brown ales will be good candidates. Brown
Malt and roasted malts need a lighter hand. Best thing to do is find some proven recipes that use your speciality grains, otherwise you risk overdoing it.


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## Mayor of Mildura (13/11/11)

Yes you can use too much specialty grain. It depends on the recipe. e.g. A high percentage in a light lager would be too much. A high percentage in an amber ale would be ok. 

If you just want to experiment then add 500g in with your malt extract and it'll give you a good idea what each malt will contribute to the brew. It may not be amazing or award winning though.


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## AdelaideHillsBrewer (13/11/11)

I think it really depends on the style you are trying to achieve. For example a few months ago I was planing on making a nice summer ale, pretty much like a pale ale, light and good zesty hop aromas. I stuffed up when weighing my specially grains and added 250g of carapils and the same of caraamber. Too much caraamber and that made my nice pale very dark and red. Not a total problem as its still a great drop , but not what I was looking to make. :mellow:


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## cam89brewer (13/11/11)

And generally you don't want to over do some varieties of hops if you use some varieties of speciality due to clashing such as amarillo and any dark malt. ( it can be done and taste excellent just would take a bit of experimenting to balance the flavours...


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## Ross (13/11/11)

Those specialty malts will store just fine cracked, just keep cool & dry. 
Not really different than storing sugar, will be fine in 12months if stored properly, no need to freeze.

Base grains that need conversion is where you can suffer from age & the grain going slack (stale)


cheers Ross


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## Tanga (13/11/11)

I recommend Nige's Black IPA recipe if you're looking for a recipe with a chunk of specialty and like hops. It's in the database and has a great rep. I just made a beer based on it and the wort looks amazing. Black / Garnet colour. Do it!


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## sim (13/11/11)

phoenixdigital said:


> I understand things like the chocolate malt and roasted barley in too large a quantity could cause issues and overwhelm the flavour. But can the same be said of the other grains I have listed like carared, caramalt, english brown and crystal malt?



Treat the English Brown like Choc or Roast Barley, its pretty damn dark. 250g in a 20 litre batch of any of these will get you into dark brownish region.

The CaraRed, and to a lesser extent the CaraMalt, you can actually use a fair bit without going to over board. 500g would be my upper limit for any of these 'crystal' type specialties. 

I tend to go pretty light on with specialty grains in general, but like someone else said earlier there are some styles that really lend to the exaggerated specialty malts eg. ESB, big dirty stout. 

For an experiment you could make a hot water infusion with say 50g to 1 litre water of each type grain, steep 10mins strain and cool, and then have a taste of each seperate, in combo with others, and spiked into different finished beers. take some tasting and quantity notes, and you can update it when ever you test out your findings. ie "wow chocolate malt isnt actually all that chocolatey"

have fun!


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## phoenixdigital (13/11/11)

sim said:


> For an experiment you could make a hot water infusion with say 50g to 1 litre water of each type grain, steep 10mins strain and cool, and then have a taste of each seperate, in combo with others, and spiked into different finished beers. take some tasting and quantity notes, and you can update it when ever you test out your findings. ie "wow chocolate malt isnt actually all that chocolatey"



That is exactly what I was thinking of doing!

Initially I though about making mini worts (5L) of the same LME with maybe 10% of each grain and fermenting them then bottling so I could taste the difference. But then realised these grains are only steeped so the flavour should be there straight afterwards without the need to ferment.

I dont live at our "brewhouse" where the ingredients are but will definitely be giving this a try next time I am there.

Thanks for the tip and thanks to everyone for the helpful hints. Keep em coming.


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## beachy (13/11/11)

I regularly use up to 20% carared/caramunich3 combo in an American Amber and use 15% brown malt, 6% pale chocolate malt and 8% dark crystal 120L in a Brown Porter. Brown malt is brilliant in a Porter and i am thinking of increasing it to 20% next time i make it. :icon_drool2:


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## ianh (13/11/11)

When doing extracts brews I regularly used 600-750 grams of speciality grains in 23 litre brews, mainly doing Irish reds and English browns.

Most I used was 900 grams (250 caraamber, 250 caraaroma, 200 carared and 200 carapils) along with 2300 grams dry light malt extract in making an Irish red, turned out as one of the best extract brews I did. Mind you it was fermented at 18C, cold conditioned for 4 weeks at 1C, bottled for 5 months before drinking.


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## sluggerdog (28/5/13)

I just put a brew down on the weekend and after re-reading it realised I put in 500 grams of crystal instead of 250 grams (I thought this thread fitted rather then starting a new one).


My recipe was as follows (Cascade APA):

1.7kg can Coopers Pale Ale
1.5 kg Light Malt Extract
0.5 kg Lite Crystal Malt

30g Cascade Hops (15 min) - 6.2 AA

30g Cascade Hops (5 min) - 6.2 AA
30g Cascade Hops (Flame out) . - 6.2 AA

1056 America Ale Yeast
Did I over do the crystal (note it was filled to 23 litres)? Will it be drinkable if I call it an Amber Ale instead?

Thanks


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## Yob (28/5/13)

Might be a little sweet, still will be drinkable though… get some mates around to help you dispose of it and get the next one on stat..


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