I brewed 5 gallons of a Vanilla Caramel Ale. I've got it carbed and in a keg. I've got to serve it at a festival this coming Saturday. Today is Sunday. The problem is it has a slight vanilla flavor but no real caramel flavor. All in all it's pretty bland. I want to get more caramel. What I was thinking about was steeping some crystal 60 or 80 in a little bit or water and add to the keg. Question is will this work? Is there a better way of getting some caramel flavor in a short time period? Thanks for the help.
I wouldn't add the steeped crystal malt myself. I think at this point, you can look for maybe some kind of extract.. Sounds off a bit, but I have some maple extract from beanilla that is actually pretty tasty to brew and cook with, and it's got a heavy caramel note to it that might blend well.
Just a guess here, but if you were to steep crystal and then add to your keg: 1. You're going to sweeten the beer then cause fermentation to kick off again. 2. Risk contamination.
It needs to be a little sweeter. Right now there's not much to it. Fermentation- it's being stored now around 34 so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Contamination might be an issue. But I'll be dispensing it all a few days afterwards so it might not.
This is a real shot in the dark, but it seems to me that caramel flavor is kind of like mildly scorched and concentrated sugar, so if you steeped some crystal malt and then boiled it down, just to the point of a mild scorching, you might get away with it. You probably would want to experiment with a couple attempts to get the right flavor, although this might not even work at all. Like I said, it's a shot in the dark.
If you can keep the keg cold (to prevent further fermentation of any added sugar) I'd make some simple syrup and add that along with some caramel extract at this point.
I will do decoction mashing to give it a caramel flavor and / or use 5% - 7% Pale Chocolate made by Crisp (200-250 L).
I say serve what you've got. If you add some actual caramel to your cold keg, it's going to be thick & heavy, sit on the bottom of the keg & come out with the first pour. If you warm it up to room temperature to help it dissolve, it's also going to start refermenting which will not do you any good. If you steep crystal malts, you better boil the liquid before adding. Grain is full of lactobacillus, you'll get some souringgoing on. There are so many things that could go wrong here, that I personally think your beer, which isn't quite what you wanted, will probably taste better without monkeying with it than the doctored version which could be better but could also be worse.
Maybe just buy Caramel Extract and add a bit to the glass before adding the beer to the glass. In this way you can tailor the amount of caramel per the desires of each beer drinker. Cheers! http://www.olivenation.com/Caramel-Flavor-P558C55.aspx?gclid=CJ-ozNWsicECFYMF7Aod1DoA-A
I have some of that stuff. Not their best extract but OK. Half a drop to a glass. It would be handy if I had a drop-slicer. In this case I'd use a syrup in the glass, like a shot of caramel in your latte. or perhaps in the keg, but difficult to tailor that perfectly.
Munich malt, especially the Weyermann sort, has a strong caramel flavor. At 20% of the grist, Munich malt will had a pronounced caramel flavor. Crystal malt isn't as caramelly as Munich malt, so my advice, brew with the Munich. If that isn't caramelly enough for ya, you can always add some caramel extract after it's done fermenting.
NO, I'm not. Weyermann makes 2 distinct malts, one called Munich, the other called CaraMunich. The former is much lower on SRM scale at 7.1, and the later is 51. They are completely different animals in flavor as well. Here is a page linking to the Munich malt. And here is one for the CaraMunich malt. According to Weyermann, here in English, and here at the The Mad Fermentationist, "CaraVienna® and CaraMunich® are simply the copyrighted names for Weyermann’s medium-light and medium-dark caramelized malts." And here at the Homebrewing Stack Exchange: "The "cara" in CaraMunich indicates that it's a crystal malt. It's essentially "mashed" in the husk, then kilned to produce sugar and a glassy kernel, like other crystal malts. Munich malt does not go through that process. It's a relatively dark kilned malt than can be used as a base malt. Their flavors and uses are very different. Munich can be combined with other base malts or used as 100% of your grist if you like. CaraMunich, on the other hand, has a much sweeter flavor and should always be used as a "character" malt in relatively small quantities (generally less that 10%) of your total grist." Their flavors are very different, too. I find the Munich malt more malty, caramel-like as you'd find in a Märzen, and CaraMunich to be sweeter but not as malty... but other's may have different experiences.
I suffice to say I know what malts Weyermann makes, and that I disagree with you on the flavor of caramel from Munich malt. I do not find this remotely caramel-like. cheers-- --Michael
I'm with you. I think very few people would describe Weyermann Munich as caramel-like. I've never seen this description anywhere, and still find myself wondering if there is some mix-up.
