Darkest Beer Lightest Flavor? What to use for the darkest color without the flavor?

[bennihana]

I am looking to brew a beer that i want to be as black as ink without all the roasted coffee or chocolately or astringent flavors. There are too many choices to choose from and each site i go to gives me a different description of the choices i thought to be best.

Some sites tell me that a chocolate malt refers more to the color than flavor, and that chocolate malt and midnight wheat are the same thing?

How much black patent or carafa III can i use before i get the tang of the roasted flavor.

i have never used debittered black and am curious if that is a solution?

Basically i want the color of a dark stout, but i want the flavor profile of lighter malty beer? Can anybody help?

 

[hamaien]

Sinimar or Maltoferm would probably be your best bet. They're pure color extracts and around 3000L (compared to ~500L for black malt) so you only need a tiny bit.

 

[microbusbrewery]

I used Briess Midnight Wheat in a dark saison fermeted with brett brux trois. It'll give you color without acrid burnt flavors. You do get some roastiness from it but it's pretty subdued. I entered it in a couple comps and it did ok but it definitely stumped the judges. Based on the color they were all expecting something really roasty but I think the tropical fruit flavors from the brett and the citrus zest I used threw them off. Long story short,,they didn't know what to make of it when it tasted like something that should have been a lot lighter in color. I used half a pound in a five gallon batch and it looked like used motor oil.

 

[seabass07]

If you want to use grain for color, use a debittered malt. Caraffa III, blakprinz, or even midnight wheat. Midnight wheat is in no way the same as chocolate malt. You will get some roasted notes if you want it extremely dark.

 

[bennihana]

I currently live in denmark and some of the translations might be different, but does anybody know if midnight wheat and chocolate wheat are the same thing? midnight wheat sounds like the grain i would like to use but i am not able to find any such thing in the region but i am able to find chocolate wheat.

 

[JPrather]

I currently live in denmark and some of the translations might be different, but does anybody know if midnight wheat and chocolate wheat are the same thing? midnight wheat sounds like the grain i would like to use but i am not able to find any such thing in the region but i am able to find chocolate wheat.

Midnight wheat is a Briess (U.S.) product and is about 550L, Chocolate Wheat is a Weyermann (German) product that's not as dark (~400). I've used both to add color with a minimum of dark taste with success.

If you can't get any Briess products in Europe, Chocolate Wheat is close, and Carafa III Special is also a good option.

Those products are designed to have some bit of darker flavor, just less harsh/astringent/roasty. You won't get "black as ink" without some of that flavor coming through. If you really want to nail the "really dark color without no flavor of dark grains" thing, the Sinamar recommendation is your best bet.

 

[kwadric]

If you want dark color without much roast, use dehisced Carafa added right before the sparage. I kept it separate from my other grains and ground it in a coffee grinder. Then added the powdered grain a few minutes before I drained the mashed and stirred. I batch sparage.