Pale or Amber Extract?

[justinthehull]

I'm starting to plan my third batch of homebrew and I want to make my own recipe. I think I
I want to use 16oz Caramel 80 and 8oz Caramel 120 for my specialty grains. I understand that just about any type of beer can be made from pale extract and adding specialty grains, but how do results change between amber and pale extract use? If I use amber extract, should I lessen the amount of specialy grains?

 

[beergolf]

I think it is better to use pale extract and get you color/flavor from the specialty grains. The amber extract does have some othe grains in there, so by using just pale extract you have more control over the recipe.

I don't know what you are trying to make but that is a lot of caramel grains.

 

[justinthehull]

Thanks, I'll use pale malt then. I'm planning a hoppy red ale, do you think that is too much caramel? Most recipies call for less, but it seems like red ales use more than other types.

 

[Dr. Francois]

Plug your recipe into Hopville.com and see what your predicted SRM value is. For liquid extract, I generally add 2 SRM to the prediction. Dry extract is pretty true to color.

For a red ale, you want your actual SRM between 9 and 18, but I recommend 11-15 as the "sweet spot." 13-14, IMHO, is about perfect for a red ale.

 

[justinthehull]

Came out to 15 srm. Thanks for pointing out that site to me, it's very useful.