Amber Malt substitute? What would you do?

[Dave the Brewer]

I plan on brewing the Dogfish Head 90min IPA clone in the morning. It calls for 1.66lbs of Amber malt, I just realized I only have 1lb. I have several other grains that I could try using as a substitute to get the color or use the 1lb and just lack a little bit of color, I am more concerned about the taste than I am the color, but I would like to know what you might do in this situation...

 

[android]

you could possibly just toss in some biscuit malt or something. or maybe even a touch of caramel 20. or a combo of munich and some caramel... i wouldn't worry too much about .66 lb though, whatever you put in that is in the ballpark should be fine.

 

[Dave the Brewer]

Ok, I have some crystal 20 and I think I have some caramel malt. I will try one of those. Thanks

 

[Yooper]

I wouldn't use a caramel or crystal malt as a sub. That's not even close.

Aromatic malt or biscuit malt would be closer. I'd lean toward biscuit malt if you can find it.

 

[waldoar15]

Victory, maybe. I keep some around for my IPA's

 

[Dave the Brewer]

Yooper, would you not substitute at all, if all you had was crystal or caramel malt? I may have some aromatic, I will have to do some digging when I get home.

 

[Yooper]

Yooper, would you not substitute at all, if all you had was crystal or caramel malt? I may have some aromatic, I will have to do some digging when I get home.

Well, maybe I"m biased. But I don't like crystal at all in that recipe. It provides a sweetness that I don't think is there in the original.

I also think that if you like the sweetness, .6 pounds is not going to be overwhelming and probably not even discernible. I just really like the amber malt. You could also sub some toasted malt if you want. It's not the same as the amber, but it would be ok. Someone else mentioned victory- that would be good, too.

I'd try any of those first, but if all else fails crystal malt would be a decent fall-back.

 

[Dave the Brewer]

What about an ounce or two of brown malt? What do you think that would do for it? I don't want to throw the color off but I would like it to taste like it is suppose to.

 

[steveo929]

Hey dude, I was having the same issue a few months ago. Did a little searching and found that in the book "Designing Great Beers" they have instructions on how to make your own (page 282). It worked well, here's the steps:

"Place pale ale malt to a depth of 1/2 inch in a foil-lined cooking pan. cook in the oven as follows:
1. 45 to 60 minutes at 230 deg. F
2. 20 to 60 minutes at 300 deg. F
3. After the first twenty minutes, cut several kernels in half to inspect the color of the starchy endosperm. For amber malt, this area should be light buff in color when finished. Continue heating to 300 deg. F until this color is achieved, usually after 45 to 50 minutes."

Hope this helps!

 

[Dave the Brewer]

That sounds pretty interesting....

 

[bierhaus15]

I dunno. I never replicated that burnt "toast" crust flavor I get from Amber malt by home toasting some pale malt. Maybe if you start with biscuit and toast that...?

 

[cookietruck]

yeah, i've toasted the base malts a few times.
the taste isn't the same...

 

[elproducto]

I subbed Biscuit malt in my 60 min. clone, and it was DELICIOUS.

 

[Dave the Brewer]

Thought/wished I had some biscuit or aromatic malt....I used .25lbs of crystal 20 in place of .66lbs of amber malt.... We will see how she turns out... Im hopping at the moment, 25mins in.

 

[Dave the Brewer]