Grain substitution

[mblanks2]

My LBHS doesnt carry brown malt. He suggested subbing amber malt in its place. I have a porter recipe that calls for 1lb of the brown and would like to sub 1 lb of amber in its place and add 2 ounces of carafa III dehusked to resolve the slight change in color.

#1 would the amber be an acceptable sub?
#2 is the carafa III DH a good idea?
#3 is amber malt considered a roast malt?

 

[Yooper]

Amber malt doesn't taste like brown malt. It just doesn't.

Amber is a lightly roasted malt, and it does have a "tangy" flavor, sort of, like special roast in a way. It's not a sub for brown malt.

Maybe pale chocolate malt would be a closer sub?

 

[dstockwell]

Threads on this site and others using Google shows there is no (good choice) substitute for Brown malt.

 

[chickypad]

Do you have the whole recipe? As Yooper said they are quite different, I find amber malt easy to overdo. To me it's like victory on steroids, I've overdone it before and the beer was way too toasty/dry. I usually keep it to about 3-4%. Brown on the other hand I love in porters, I use 16% in my brown porter. It adds roast, but seems to give it a richer quality than when the roast comes from all darker roasted malts. Hard to describe. But I agree a little pale chocolate may be a better sub depending on the rest of the recipe.

 

[permo]

You can simply roast your own.

http://homebrewingadventures.blogspot.com/2008/09/making-brown-malt.html

 

[mblanks2]

Thank for the responses. I'll look at ordering some or possibly roasting my own. That would be pretty interesting, I think.
Here is the recipe I was wanting to brew. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=30185

Thank again.