# Has Caraaroma Changed? Attention suppliers.



## Bribie G (23/5/16)

My latest batch of Caraaroma purchased in the last couple of months has produced the following two :





1 A "red" UK IPA - a glass taken from primary FV.

2 A Special Bitter - a glass of leftover wort from urn and this one used a scant 100g in a 25L brew - no other spec grains.  

Quite clearly, neither of them are like _*this*_ by any stretch of the imagination. The red ale shown probably would have had around 250g of Caraaroma.




I'm wondering if I was sold the wrong grain, it looks more like Crystal 120 or maybe a light choc or something to me. Can't remember for the life of me where I bought it, as I've been using three suppliers recently for various unique purchases (taps, perc, kegmate etc) and in each case I got some malt, hops etc to pad out the freight. However the handwriting might be the clue.




Otherwise, would it be possible for a skilled third party to identify whether it is indeed Caraaroma if I sent them a snaplock bag with some in, MHB for example?

Not trying to send anyone to the naughty corner, if it was supplied in error I'm quite happy to sub it for general Xtal to use it up, but If it turns out to be Caraaroma then I'll be onto Wey like a ton of bricks.
Yeah first world problem but it's screwing up my comp schedule ^_^


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## Diesel80 (23/5/16)

Second one looks like cordial mate.

Prefer the look of your beers tbh.

Cheers,
D80 

But i understand why you are asking....


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## Bribie G (23/5/16)

The second one was mine as well.  Point is however that - especially for competitions - you control everything else to the nth degree to meet a style, temperatures, mash schedule, hopping etc so it would be pretty alarming if a major global supplier like Weyermann would radically alter one of their spec grains.


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## Adr_0 (23/5/16)

How's the taste, particularly the red ale? What can you pick up in the cara-aroma flavour? 

I'm curious too...


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## barls (23/5/16)

are you sure you got the weyermann and not ether the best or global caramel aroma


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## MHB (23/5/16)

Bribe
Happy to have a look if you want, but I would take some to a good brew shop and taste a little alongside another sample. Send a bit to Steve and he can compare it to what he has in stock (will PM you my address and ph#) if you want to send a bit my way.
CaraAroma is a pretty slow selling malt, it is possible that its just a new batch and the specification/season... has made some difference, so is someone making a bobo and putting dark crystal in your bag.
What stands out for me as the difference between CaraAroma and Dark Crystal is a raisin/plumb pudding flavour that is pretty much the typifier for the malt, try tasting what you have against some Dark Xal.
Its a great malt wish more people used it.
Mark

Barls raises a good point, I haven't tasted any of the Best or Global versions so cant comment, do love the Weyermann tho.
M


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## Danscraftbeer (23/5/16)

I get a little anxious sometimes when getting grains and they give the job to a new lacky employee. :unsure:


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## technobabble66 (23/5/16)

Are the recipes just ale malt + caraaroma at various %-ages? (I see #2 is, what about #1?)
I find any other Crystal or pretty much any other spec grain will start turning that red hue to a tan/brown fairly quickly. 
Also, I wonder if you need to get the depth of colour right also, ~27-33 EBC. For example, a red ale at ~30 EBC that's diluted out isn't necessarily going to be a lighter red. In my extremely limited experience it just goes back to a pale orangey tan. 
So what was the calculated colour for them?

Tbh, it looks like you might have The Wrong Grain (cue Wallace and Grommit theme music). They look roughly the right depth of colour and are just a straight tan; but thought I might just float a theory or 2 out there [emoji6]


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## Benn (23/5/16)

I know a guy that was in the self serve grain room at Keg King (with a hangover) and after he'd measured the required amount of Rye he accidentally tipped the remaining couple of hundred grams back in the Wheat bin. He did his best to extract the all Rye from on top of the wheat then stirred in the remaining scatterings of Rye and promptly closed the lid.


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## Bribie G (23/5/16)

Aha Barls, I believe, has hit the nail on the head. 

I'm pretty sure that the grain is probably Best Malz because on checking the website of the supplier I'm almost sure it came from, the German malts are listed either as GER or Wey GER and this one is just GER.

I didn't know that there were other manufacturers and if you look at the photo it's Cara Aroma, not Caraaroma.
So know I know how the cow sits in the cabbage patch.
Yes the beer tastes fine, and in fact it was the caramelly toffee flavour I was chasing, not so much the colour in this case but it's handy to know that it has a different EBC, so I'll pop it in the list in my brewing software.

Solved

Thanks for input but I've learned something today and will definitely be working this batch into recipes now I know what to look for.


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## Danscraftbeer (23/5/16)

Benn said:


> I know a guy that was in the self serve grain room at Keg King (with a hangover) and after he'd measured the required amount of Rye he accidentally tipped the remaining couple of hundred grams back in the Wheat bin. He did his best to extract the all Rye from on top of the wheat then stirred in the remaining scatterings of Rye and promptly closed the lid.


I didn't know it was self serve. That may also explain the black grains I've got scattered through my crystal atm. Its darker than I expected too. h34r:


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## fraser_john (23/5/16)

Bribie G said:


> Aha Barls, I believe, has hit the nail on the head.
> 
> I'm pretty sure that the grain is probably Best Malz because on checking the website of the supplier I'm almost sure it came from, the German malts are listed either as GER or Wey GER and this one is just GER.
> 
> ...


Good to know, I love the colour of the pint you posted, bewdiful red tinge!


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