Chocolate Malt - Substitute Lower SRM at Higher Rate

[ncbrewer]

I plan to brew an English Porter using a recipe that calls for Chocolate Malt 430 SRM, but the homebrew supply only has 350 SRM. I think I can substitute the 350 SRM but at a higher percentage, giving the same beer color as in the recipe. The idea is that both color and flavors are less intense with the 350 SRM malt, and increasing the percentage will bring both close to the original beer. I don’t expect it to come out exactly the same, but hopefully it will be very close. Any ideas about this?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Assume Briess Chocolate (350L) and Dark Chocolate (430L) malts, if you are ok with the possibility of little extra "roast" in your porter, it should work.

An alternative would be to use a little bitterless/de-bittered black malt (e.g. Briess Midnight Wheat or Blackprinz) for color adjustments.

Chocolate (350L)	Dark Chocolate (430L)

 

[smata67]

Weyermann chocolate malt's spec sheet has an acceptable range of 350 to 450L, so I wouldn't sweat at all over the difference. More important is to use the best tasting malt and I believe Bairds has it. Just seem to end up with better tasking brown ales and black ipas when I use it, which is all the time now.

 

[kevin58]

If you are really set on getting the color right consider something that will add color without affecting flavor like Sinamar. Personally however I wouldn't be concerned about color and just use the 350 at the same rate as the chocolate used in the recipe.

 

[ncbrewer]

All good input - thanks. The radar graphs are really very interesting, and not what I would have expected. It looks like a direct substitution with the same amounts will get very close to the planned flavor. I’m not a stickler about color. If it turns out that I’m really turned off by the color I get (not likely), I’ll try de-bittered black malt or Simanar next time.

 

[sibelman]

use a little bitterless/de-bittered black malt

This. One of the Weyermann Carafa malts should work fine.

 

[Dog House Brew]

All good input - thanks. The radar graphs are really very interesting, and not what I would have expected. It looks like a direct substitution with the same amounts will get very close to the planned flavor. I’m not a stickler about color. If it turns out that I’m really turned off by the color I get (not likely), I’ll try de-bittered black malt or Simanar next time.

You’ll never be able to tell the difference IMO.

 

[ncbrewer]

You’ll never be able to tell the difference IMO.

That's probably why my LHBS only stocks the 350 SRM - no noticeable difference. As far as color, my calculations show it only changes the beer by 3 SRM, and still will within the guidelines.

 

[rhys333]

I plan to brew an English Porter using a recipe that calls for Chocolate Malt 430 SRM, but the homebrew supply only has 350 SRM. I think I can substitute the 350 SRM but at a higher percentage, giving the same beer color as in the recipe. The idea is that both color and flavors are less intense with the 350 SRM malt, and increasing the percentage will bring both close to the original beer. I don’t expect it to come out exactly the same, but hopefully it will be very close. Any ideas about this?

I've never used domestic chocolate malt, so I don't have a reference point for how 350 tastes compared with a UK 450. That said and fwiw, if it were me brewing a porter and I had initially intended to use 5% chocolate at 450 srm, I'd probably bump it up to 6% with 350. There's nothing more disappointing to me than an under-roasted dark ale (especially when I'm only going for moderate roast in a beer like porter).