Alternative To Carapils, Carafoam?

[Oakers]

I'm going to do the fatter yak recipe over xmas and have just got all the ingredients except carapils (carafoam) which is not stocked by my LHBS. Can I just drop from the recipe or should substitute something else? What does carapils add?

Also, they only had 20EBC Munich. Is that the same as Munich II? Is Munich I a 10 EBC version? I guess I'll just end up with a slightly darker version??

 

[Bribie G]

Carapils is the palest of crystal malts and adds dextrins and a bit of "nuttyness" to the wort and helps with lacing and head retention.
I haven't used it for yonks, used to slip a bit in my adjunct brews when I was using a lot of rice or maize.

To compensate you could just use an extra half kilo of pale base malt and mash two or three degrees higher than you were going to do, to produce a more dextrinous "malty" wort but not extra alcohol.

 

[twizt1d]

sub for wheat and munich II will be fine
just up the late hops a bit

 

[Nick JD]

The best alternative to Carapils is mashing correctly for the attributes your require.

 

[Oakers]

Thanks all. I'm also subbing Centennial for Cascade in tonesbrew's recipe as well. I intend to do a side by side comparison with the real thing so i'll let everyone know how I get on.

 

[pk.sax]

Just a bit of crystal doesn't go amiss either. If you have other crystal malts in the recipe then the carapils is probably unnecessary for head retention. You are already putting in Munich 2. From memory, that is a definitely darker malt, would you call it a crystal malt for the head improvement? (Someone more knowledgeable might be able to say) never had an issue with using just Munich 2 and wheat.

 

[twizt1d]

carapils just seems to give that nice thick creamy head, it doesnt seem to add that much body at all
a straight out swap for wheat would do the same job more or less.
ive tried both and prefer the carapils

either way its a pretty solid grain bill as is and if its not broken dont fix it.
i dont see any reason to change it out or even why it would be bad or poor brewing form to use it

oh and munich is a kilned malt not a caramel malt, it needs to be mashed

ive actually made that recipe using munich II and caramunich III, it ends up super malty so you can throw a shitload more hops at it

 

[super_simian]

Perhaps some flaked barley?