Experimenting with Carafa II

This is my first time brewing with Carafa II. What should I expect ?

8 1/2 # Pale 2-Row
1/2 # Crystal 80
1/4 # CaraPils
1/4 # Carafa II

1.25 oz Cascade at 60
1/2 oz Willamette at 20
1/2 oz Willamette at 5

Made basically the same thing once before but with Chocolate instead of Carafa II, and it was tasty but the chocolate was a bit "bitter" tasting and overwhelming.

What can I expect with the Carafa II ?

If it is the regular carafa II, it will be fairly roasty. As I understand, Carafa is basically a darker chocolate malt.

If it is the Carafa special II, it is de-husked and gives more color and aroma than roasted taste.

I believe its the special Carafa II and not the regular because I noticed it was de-husked.

I will have to try the regular some other time, that sounds interesting.

Judging from tasting the wort, I think I'm on the right track.

Just racked this beer to the secondary and took a little taste. Not "roasty" at all but very nice color.

I got this beer kegged a couple weeks ago and just started drinking it tonight. Now that its done and carbed, the "roastiness" really does come out.

When I made this recipe I was thinking "Spanish Peaks Black Dog Ale", but what I ended up with is something right in between Black Dog and Guinness Draught.

Its certainly easy to drink, I'm on my 4th pint of night.

I think it would be better if the hops were toned down some though.

the wort is very...meaty, I'd say.

but the beer will be very coffee flavored.

Makes sense. I should have read more about this malt before combining it with black patent I added in the knock-off of Yuri's black project stout I made. Talk about roast coffee.

jdog2050 said:

the wort is very...meaty, I'd say.

but the beer will be very coffee flavored.

Click to expand...

It is. Its almost like espresso with hops.

Sort of a weird combination. Not so weird that I'll have any regrets about finishing the keg, but I don't think I will ever make it again.

I used about 5% in my Dunkelweizen, tastes pretty good too.