Carafa III special flavor threshold

[Black Island Brewer]

Getting ready to make a black American Wheat, and using Carafa III special to get the color. Percentage-wise, how high have you gone before getting the roast flavors? And do you have a favorite way of extracting color without flavor?

I'm thinking about a couple of options. One is to steep some finely pulverized malt in a grain bag in the boil kettle as I sparge, and pull it once I get it to 170. One is to pulverize it and sprinkle it over the grain bed as I (continuous) sparge for an hour. One is to pulverize it and mix it in with the rest of the grist. And finally, I'm thinking about using an Aeropress to extract the color through a paper filter, since I already have one.

Your datapoints (preferably based on your experience with Carafa III Special) would be greatly appreciated!

 

[giraffe]

You can taste a subtle flavor at 2%. Its not harsh, more dark chocolate than burnt. 4% you'd definitely taste it. I always just add it to the mash, but im generally using it in styles like alt, or schwarzbier, where the flavor is ok.

If you just want color use sinamar.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

Thanks for that. Per BeerSmith I'd have to use 7.3% to get to 25 SRM with my grain bill. I wonder how they extract the color with Sinimar. I see Weyermann's uses Carafa to make it with. Maybe a cold or warm (as opposed to hot) water steep.

 

[giraffe]

If you can get briess midnight wheat it has a cleaner flavor. But youd still taste it at 4%.

 

[QuercusMax]

Agree with the midnight wheat. It does wonders for head retention too, but you probably don't need that in a wheat beer!