C 120 Replacement

I'm brewing an ESB tomorrow, roughly inspired by Red Hook. My recipe calls for 0.5 pound of C 120 but neither of my LHBS's had any. I found and bought a pound of Dingemans Special B malt which has a lovibond of 118. There's not much of a description on the packaging other than "Heavy caramel, raisiny". Does anyone have any experience with this malt? Will half a pound of it work as a sub for half a pound of C 120? There are no other local places I can check and I'm brewing tomorrow so I don't have time to order anything online. I am open to making some home-made crystal malt but I'd really rather use the special B malt if it will work.

Any Extra Dark Crystal Malt (Simpsons, 160L) available?

I don't think I'd use Special B as a sub for crystal, particularly in an ESB. Does your shop have any other varieties of crystal/caramel? I'd suggest going with C80 or C160 if available rather than Special B.

Nah, the darkest anybody had was C90. The recipe also calls for 0.75 lbs of C60, I have a full pound of that which I could use in addition to a smaller amount of the special B, or maybe just one its own.

*on its own

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't care much for the raisiny flavors that come from Special B, which is probably why I'd shy so strongly away from it. That said, it would still be out of place in a RedHook clone. I'd stick with the C90 and omit the extra C60, myself. If you're concerned about color, you could try steeping a very small amount of a darker malt, but flavorwise I think you'd be better off not doing so.

I assume this is an extract batch? If it's AG, you might have a few more options. That said, going with C90 will probably get you closest without tweaking things too much.

No extract for this guy, its all-grain, all the way! I stopped by the LHBS and picked up the C90, I'll save the special B for something else, maybe one of those "whatchagot" brews at the end of the year... Do you recommend just changing the half pound of C120 to a half pound of C90 or should I up the C90 a bit?

Just go equal parts; they're close enough in flavor that you shouldn't need to increase it.

smagee said:

Just go equal parts; they're close enough in flavor that you shouldn't need to increase it.

Click to expand...

Thanks, will do.