Anyone ever used it in an IPA to get red color AND flavor contribution? Thinking about using it along with some light Carastan to rough up the maltbill a bit. Have used C-80 and a little black barley before and thought the Carafa coupled with the C-15 might be an interesting twist, but don't want chocolate notes or a brown beer. TIA
have used carastan and c-80 and 1/2 cup chocolate to make a red IPA. Yes nice red color. Chocolate, or black in your case, would be so small you really wouldn't taste it, its more for color than anything else
Right, but I guess I didn't explain fully...the plan is to use a # of each...Carafa I Special and Carastan/C-15 in a 10 gal batch and maybe even add to the mash late. I'm getting ~19 SRM by my/BSs calculations. Does 16 sound like a better # for a red IPA/anything? Guess I should cut the Carafa back a little, but I was hoping for a little edgier maltbill.
not sure i understand your definition of edgier maltbill. But the beauty of brewing is there is always that edge of mystery to what you brew, you're in the ballpark for style, IBU's, SRM, gravity degrees, etc., but you never know exactly how it will come out. That's my diplomatic way of saying go for it and let us know!
I don't quite see what you are after. You want flavor contribution from the carafe special but you don't want chocolate. What flavor do you want? In any event, at a pound, I think your beer will be browner than you want, with hints of chocolate.
Most of the research I've done recently suggests that adding enough dark malt (to a grain bill with an original SRM in the 9-11 range) to get it up to roughly 18 srm should produce a nice red color. Never tried it though. Brewed an imperial red on saturday using 15% carared and a small amount of special B that had a 13 SRM and it was definitely closer to "burnt orange"
