Cara substitutes

[jbhistory]

Good afternoon brew world!

I am currently working on an Irish Red recipe and am wanting to use caraaroma and carafoam to give it a nice color and deep malty flavor. However I may not have luck finding those at my LHBS... Does anyone have alternative dark crystal malt and dextrin malt?

 

[Yooper]

Good afternoon brew world!

I am currently working on an Irish Red recipe and am wanting to use caraaroma and carafoam to give it a nice color and deep malty flavor. However I may not have luck finding those at my LHBS... Does anyone have alternative dark crystal malt and dextrin malt?

cara-aroma is made by Weyermann (a German maltster). It's a crystal malt that is probably most similar to 120L in color. I'm not sure about the flavor, as 120L is toffee/raisiny but cara-aroma isn't as burnt tasting and seems sweeter. I'm thinking that I'd choose something lighter in color (maybe 80L) and then an ounce of sinimar or dehusked carafa III to get the color of the cara-aroma. Otherwise, I think Special B would be a good sub.

Carafoam is probably best subbed with carapils.