What to do when you can't find the right Lovibind malt?

[Microphobik]

Hi, I'm making Jamil's Scottish schilling recipe that calls for 85 grams of 200 L chocolate malt. I'm in New Zealand and the lightest I chocolate I can find is 350. How do I adjust for this? Do I just cut the amount by 42%, or will that effect the flavor contribution?

 

[MrFancyPlants]

you could use the same amount but cold steep the grains over night and add the tea to the boil?

I think your approach should get in the right ballpark for color, but the flavor contribution will be different.

I designed my own recipe recently and I used progressively lesser amounts of the darker malts, proportionally to their L rating. I figured that if each specialty malt provided roughly equal proportions of color that I could really layer the color and therefor flavor contributions. I think the recipe turned out great, but it was my first, so I don't have a lot to compare it too.

 

[KegWrangler]

You might take a whack at toasting pale malt to the desired shade.

Here's link from the interwebs that includes a bit about 200L chocolate malt in a pan on the stovetop.

http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

 

[inflictor-of-grimness]

I think the small amount of chocolate in the recipe is more for color adjustment than flavor. I personally think cutting the amount of chocolate malt like you said is the best and simplest option.

 

[Microphobik]

Thanks everyone. I think I will just cut the amount. I was mostly just looking to see if there was one standard way of dealing with a lovibond disparity. But if there is no standard solution I think I'll stick with simple.

If anyone has ever had any direct experience with this problem I'd love to hear what the results were of cutting the amount.

Thanks again.