Crystal/Carahell. Unable to get the proper ingredients

[Nomofett]

So, I'm making an old recipe but I don't have access to the ingredients I used to. (I'm overseas) It's an IPA and the grainn bill was

43.5% 2-Row
43.5% M.O.
6.5% C-35
4.3% Cara-pils

we don't have c-35 or Carapils/Dexterine here so I'm thinking of using

4.2% Carahell
4.2% Munich

I know that Munich is different but I thought I'd toss it in. Is this gonna change it quite a bit? I've never used Carahell so I'm a little unsure about it.

Thanks!

 

[Kickass]

I don't think that's an unreasonable grist bill. Mostly base malt and a splash of crystal seems inline. A small part of me thinks that three base malts, although the munich is a small amount, might add unnecessary recipe complexity with negligible results but then again, maybe not. I say give it hell!

 

[Nomofett]

Yeah, I'm thinking of going back to basics. I did see that they have Bairds Caramel light and I think thats close to C-35 and then they have caramel pilnser malt from Bestmalz so I'm assuming that means carapils.

But damn, after reading about carahell I wanna try it now haha. But for this batch I'm going for consistency, so maybe next time.

 

[Kickass]

I'm not familiar with Bestmaltz caramel pilsner. Regardless of which route you go, I think you're adequately avoiding the "coconut, peanut butter, mango milkshake, NEIPA" that seems to be all the rave right now and bound to make a solid base for a delightful IPA. Brew on!

 

[HTH1975]

Where are you based? - crystal malts are pretty commonplace.

 

[Miraculix]

Cara hell and cara pils are pretty much interchangeable.

Use more Munich for a noticeable effect. I would say 15% to 30%. Won't go into the direction of Crystal, but still is a nice thing in an ipa or apa.

 

[HTH1975]

Carahell uses 2-row barley, whereas Carapils uses (you guessed it) lager/pilsner malt.

Carahell is therefore a tiny bit darker, but I certainly use them interchangeably.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Carahell is a caramel malt in the ballpark 10 Lovibond (or 25 EBC) color range. Any other maltsters ballpark 10 Lovibond (or 25 EBC) caramel or crystal malt should suffice as a straight up (1:1) replacement for Carahell.

C-35 could mean a caramel/crystal malt of 35 Lovibond color, or the same in 35 EBC color (which would be about 14-15 Lovibond).

Weyermann's closest malt to Briess Carapills is called Carafoam in the USA (due to trademark issues), and Carapils everywhere else. Carahell is not a Carapils or Carafoam substitute. Both Carapils and Carafoam are roughly 1.5L or 2.5 EBC in color intensity, and both are only partially glassy (whereas caramel/crystal malts are 100% glassy). Carapils and Carafoam actually have some level of diastatic power. Caramel/crystal malts have zero diastatic power.

 

[ESBrewer]

According to Briess their Carapils has no diastatic power (rather typical caramel malt although very light colored) whereas Weyermann's has quite a bit of diastatic power and can be used in higher quantities. According to specs Weyermann is actually a bit darker (1.4-2.9 vs 1.5). Both could be used to enhance foam/body in light beers (pilsners) where there is no darker crystal in the recipe. When darker crystal is there it pretty much does the same thing for the body/head +adds stronger flavours & color.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

According to Briess their Carapils has no diastatic power (rather typical caramel malt although very light colored)

Scott Janish may have disproved this by fermenting it at a 50/50 mix with standard 2-Row. He claims the FG of his 50/50 blended batch was in the quite normal range for standard 2-Row alone, and much lower than would have been the case if Briess Carapils was indeed 100% glassy crystal.