Are there signifiant differences? My local supplier didn`t have brown, so I went with CaraBrown, which sounds close. CaraBrown will account for 8.8% of my grain bill. This will be used to brew a chocolate pumpkin porter.
With the name CaraBrown, you'd expect it to be a crystal malt. But reading the Briess specs on it, I have no idea what it actually is. They show 100% Mealy, which isn't possible for a Crystal malt. But it wouldn't be the first time I saw something in a Briess spec sheet .pdf that didn't make sense. FWIW, the descriptive words in the sheet do seem to imply a caramel/crystal malt. Sort of. ETA: If it is a Crystal malt, it won't be the same as using Brown malt. Though you might enjoy the additional sweetness in a pumpkin porter anyway.
I used Briess CaraBrown a few years back. I treated it like a ~50L crystal malt, in a Janet's Brown Ale inspired brew. I know I used it in one other beer but can't find the notes on that one. I don't have a distinct recollection of it. The description makes it sound like it is inbetween something like a Victory or Special Roast and a Crystal. 8.8% doesn't sound like too much crystal malt to put in porter, necessarily, but it will be sweeter and less roasty than the same percentage of brown malt. If you have other crystal malt in your recipe and you want to use the carabrown, I would recommend dialing back the other crystals. Of course, I also recommend skipping the pumpkin, based on my one (bad) experience brewing a pumpkin beer. Plus, I think making a porter with this malt would be a good way to learn about the malt (which is the sort of thing that interests me) and making it with pumpkin could obscure the contribution. It seems to me that Special Roast might have been a reasonable choice to sub for this percentage of brown malt. I cannot recall exactly the percentage I used it in in the past, probably ~ half a pound in 5 gallons of English brown ale.
I don't have a specific reference, but I read in the past to toast some MO in the oven @350 degree for around 30 mins. You want to toast until the MO is brown(not trying to be a smart ass).
