Special B Malt.

[Dips Me Lid]

G'day all,

I've haven't used Special B before but I've been interested in giving it a crack for a few darker style beers (English milds, Browns, Stouts ect.)

Anyone got any recommended grist percentages or recipes they've had success with?

I'm interested in what flavour contributions it adds to a beer, from what I've read so far it's got a unique dark fruits/raisins profile and is very potent in what it adds to the malt profile.

Cheers.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Kinda related but never used the special B but use caraaroma a bit these days and I've gone up to 10% with it and its lovely. Caraaroma is darker then Special B so you should be able to go higher.

10% was in an amber ale. And it was fantastic.

Someone will be able to chime in and give a better response with special B.

 

[MHB]

Think of it as a dark crystal malt (~300 EBC) (which it is) with a bit of a Belgian flavour, use as you would CaraAroma (~350 EBC) or UK Dark Crystal (~250 EBC), perhaps sparingly would be a good description of how to use it.
Mark

 

[dicko]

From the grain description on Craftbrewers web site above.

Description:
EBC 280 - 340 (steep):The darkest of the Belgian crystal malts, Dingemans Special B malt will impart a heavy caramel taste and is often credited with the raisin-like flavours of some Belgian Abbey ales. Larger percentages (greater than 5%) will contribute a dark brown-black colour and fuller body.

 

[Dips Me Lid]

Cheers for the replies, I haven't used CaraAroma yet either but I've used a lot of Simpsons Dark Crystal which to me gives a dry fruits/raisin type flavour, I use Dark Crystal quite sparingly in recipes so I was thinking Special B might require the same judicious use.

Anyone have any favourite combination grains they use with Special B?

 

[TheWiggman]

I'm doing a fairly basic recipe from one of my recipe books that consists of the following -

[SIZE=10pt]4.70kg Barrett Burston pale[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]0.23kg Carapils[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]0.05kg Special B*[/SIZE]

23l to about 5% by memory. I've added the 50g of special B to give it a unique character and make it slightly darker. It's a single hop ale with cascade using American Ale #1056.
Will report back in a few weeks on how it goes.

 

[Dips Me Lid]

Awesome, sounds bloody tasty, I brewed an American Amber on the weekend and used about 3% Special B, I'll definitely be interested in what it brings to the table, I'll let ya know in a few weeks as well, cheers.

 

[Dips Me Lid]

After a week of cold conditioning in the keg I tasted this beer last night, huge Citra/Cascade hop aroma and flavour.

In regard's to the Special B, I don't really have a reference point to go off but I could get some back round raisin/dark fruit flavours in there.

Seemed to blend well with the Caramunich 2 and the hop choices, overall it has huge blood orange and marmalade flavours/aroma, this keg probably won't last long!
:beerbang:

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Citric Doom Ale
Brewer: 
Asst Brewer: 
Style: American Amber Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 60.96 l
Post Boil Volume: 50.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 45.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 41.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 27.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 41.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
18.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   1        -             
2.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   2        -             
1.00 ml               Lactic Acid (Mash 60.0 mins)             Water Agent   3        -             
8.80 kg               Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 EBC)    Grain         4        87.9 %        
0.85 kg               Caramunich II (Weyermann) (124.1 EBC)    Grain         5        8.5 %         
0.28 kg               Special B (Dingemans) (290.6 EBC)        Grain         6        2.8 %         
0.08 kg               Roasted Barley (Simpsons) (1083.5 EBC)   Grain         7        0.8 %         
5.00 g                Magnum [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           8        3.7 IBUs      
10.00 g               Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min        Hop           9        4.5 IBUs      
20.00 g               Cascade [6.90 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           10       2.9 IBUs      
20.00 g               Citra [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min          Hop           11       5.4 IBUs      
10.00 g               Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min        Hop           12       2.7 IBUs      
10.00 g               Citra [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min           Hop           13       1.5 IBUs      
80.00 g               Citra [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20.0  Hop           14       18.0 IBUs     
20.00 g               Cascade [6.90 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20.0 Hop           15       2.4 IBUs      
40.00 g               Cascade [6.90 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days      Hop           16       0.0 IBUs      

WLP 001 Re-pitched slurry for ferment.


Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[TheWiggman]

Good to hear. Complete coincidence, but thanks to some missing postage I only brewed this yesterday and pitched this morning (no chill cube). Hop schedule went like this -
40g at 50
20g at flameout
20g at start of whirlpool
60g straight into cube

It was a bit if a debacle filtering the hops into the fermenter. Hops are jumping out of the sample tube as you'd expect, early taste is pleasant. Keeeeeeeen to provide more feedback.

 

[Dips Me Lid]

Sounds good mate, I'm definitely keen to hear how it turns out, I'm gonna try something similar to your recipe next time and see if I can really determine what flavours I'm getting from the special b, I think the batch I did has too much going on to really single out it's contribution.

 

[TheWiggman]

Here's the 2nd pour from the keg tonight -



Well I didn't before, but now I do know what bitterness is. I thought it might be with 40g of 8%AA but it's decidedly so. There's no doubting what cascade is now either, it's very strong on the hop flavour. Lingering resinous aftertaste that screams hops, and a burp revealed amusing grassy notes.
Surprisingly not that malty. There's nothing in the beer that really stands out, but with all ale malt and some carafoam it makes sense. A pleasant drink really, but too dominant on the hops. XXXX drinkers wouldn't be able to handle it.
As for special B... the colour in the pic says it all. Nothing dark about it, no strange hues, look like a pale ale really. Can't pick up raisins or whatever. I'd say if you were going to use it on an APA, at least double what I used. Then judge.

Cheers!

Ed: note green colour at bottom of glass. The beer actually has a green tinge.

 

[wereprawn]

Hi DML,

Used 200 g in an "old" style dark ale. 20 ltr batch. Added a nice depth of flavour. Not very good at describing flavours but it was much nicer with the spec b than another batch i had done previously without.

cheers.

 

[Dips Me Lid]

Wiggman, you know you've got a hoppy beer when it's started turning green! I'm gonna give the Spec B another go in a couple of weeks in an amber ale, I might bump it up to about 6% or so and make the beer more malt forward.

Wereprawn, I reckon Spec B would go well in Dark Ales, I'm gonna try it in a porter or brown ale and see how it goes.

 

[carniebrew]

I've recently done an American IPA with 7.5% Special B, albeit only just inside the IPA style guidelines (5.8%, 30 EBC, 50 IBU). I was deliberately chasing that caramel flavour and red/amber colour that Special B gives. It's probably a little too much, but only just...I've had some good feedback on it, as well as others saying it's a bit too sweet for their palette. I really like it, but will back it off to 5% next time to compare.