How potent is Chocolate Malt?

[rhern053]

I've got a brown ale that I've done that is great, but the color was way off (too light) at around 13 SRM. Without changing anything else in the recipe, if I boost the chocolate malt from .25 lb to .40 lb I get the exact color I'm looking for.

Is this a dangerous technique? Will it add too much roastiness to the brew? All I want is a deeper brown color. Thanks!

Grist:
7lb 2 Row
.5lb Honey Malt
.5lb Caramel 60
.5lb Flaked Oats
.25 Chocolate Malt
1lb honey

 

[djsethall]

I wouldn't say it's dangerous, I use choc malt to darken some beers, you can try roasted barley or black patent as well. Another trick would be to use a different crystal malt with a higher lovibond rating like crystal 120

 

[Cubslover]

Debittered black or roasted barley will get ya there.

Another 1/4lb of chocolate will give you considerably much more color.

A bit of Maris Otter in the mash will give a couple more points.

 

[user 70770]

I just brewed a brown ale (sierra nevada tumbler clone) with 0.5lbs of chocolate malt and I felt it was too much. I feel it's pretty potent and I'm thinking of going down to 0.25lbs for my next attempt. Just my two cents.

 

[the_bird]

I think of chocolate malt as being the least-aggressive of the primary dark malts (roasted barley and black patent being the other two). You should be fine with having 0.4# of chocolate malt in a brown ale (that style wants a little "roasty" anyway).

As noted, though, if you want the color without much roasty, the Carafe Special malts and de-bittered black malts will do that. They remove the husk, so they basically add color and a very subtle roast character, far less than what the regular dark malts add. They're critical for beers like schwarzbiers and black IPAs/American Black Ales/Cascadian Darks, where you want the dark color but want other characteristics to shine through.

Make sure you get the Carafe Special, though; the regular Carafe still has the husk and still adds a lot of the roast.

 

[Steelers77]

I think you may have a little more choc/roast than would be typically found in Brown ale if you use that much. I agree with some of the other suggestions above, maybe some darker caramel, or an ounce or 2 of roasted barley.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

I've done late addition roasted grain additions to the mash before with decent results. Add a few ounces of carafa III special for the last 5 minutes of the mash. The roastiness is hardly noticeable.