Black Patent for color?

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NunoAraujo

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For my second extract brew I'm planning on making a simple APA, but since I'll have some extra black malt I thought it would be cool to tweak the color a bit (so a not so pale APA...). How much black malt should I use in a 5 gal batch just for color without adding noticeable flavor? I'll also have some wheat chocolate malt, would this be preferable for what I'm going?
 
2oz of black should do it. I wouldn't go over that personally. Never used the wheat before so can't really say. Depends on its intensity.
 
I recently used a bit of black roast barley to color a bock. I didn't want any of the roasty flavor, so instead of adding it to the mash, I cold-steeped it in a cup or two of water for 24 hours, boiled it, and added it to the fermentor. I tasted the extract before boiling and it was pitch black without much in the way of coffee/roast tones.

I think I used 1.5 ounces. Not sure there was any risk of picking up undesired flavors, but this made me feel better about myself.
 
If looking for just color and maybe a bit of flavor black prinz or my favorite midnight wheat would be a better choice than black patent malt.
 
For just color I LOVE midnight wheat as its debittered and imparts very little other than color to my beers.

I'd be careful with black patent though, as you can most certainly over do it with that malt.
 
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