I asked about Munton's Dark Crystal (150L) earlier this month. I'm brewing that beer today, and tasted the malt dry. I think this is the most raisiny malt I've ever tasted (Briess 120, Briess Extra Special, and Special B being the others that I have tried that might compete for the title). Just a suggestion that if anyone is looking for raisin, they might give this a try.
Interesting. Special B is certainly raisiny. Perhaps a characteristic of all >120 L crystal malts? BTW, what is Briess Extra Special?
A dark American malt that has flavors reminiscent of burnt sugar, dark fruits, and toasted wood. Used often in big dark beers and sometimes in small amounts for added complexity.
Sounds interesting. I'm working on a dark beer recipe -- porter or stout, not sure which. I'll think I'll pick up a pound.
In the earlier thread, MrOH said " I really like the Munton's C150. I don't think of it as being as raisiny as special b, but definitely has some dark fruit qualities along with the burnt sugar. I've never used more than 4oz in a 5gal batch though." In my batch, I ended up using 8 oz of the Munton's Dark and 12 oz of Carabrown. I imagine anything raisiny will be coming from the Munton's. Edit: Just chilled the wort and am drinking it now. Really tasty raisin brown sugar cookie taste, but with challenger hops. Almost want to skip fermentation and keg it now.
Try the abbey malt too. a pound just like the extra special and any other specialty grain you want to try. It will add complexity to your beer if anything.That is what I have been told. It doesn't take much specialty grains to add complexity to your beer. Isn't the ability of experimenting with grains fun!! I say try the abbey malt mostly cause I used it in my quad and it was awesome or attributed to its awesome taste
I'm really interested in what it does at the level you're using it. I'm scared of the darker crystal malts; even when I use a high percentage of crystal malts in a dark beer, it'll be something like 4oz 150L, 4oz 80L, 8oz 40L.
I used 1# of the Briess extra special malt in a sour recently. When I racked to secondary, I tasted the beer and couldn't taste any raisin. The bugs in the Roeselare Ale Blend left no trace of it after a month? I've used varying amounts of special B and extra special in dubbels. In general, I've felt that when I show restraint with this type of malt, the beers are more drinkable. Not that the greater usage isn't tasty, but it has come across as too heavy for this type of beer, IMO.
Peter, I am with you on this topic. When I brew my Dubbel beers I restrict my Special B to only 1/2 lb. Sometimes less is more. Cheers! Jack
Not a grain, but I find that Candi Syrup D-180 and D-90 give some nice raisiny flavors. Can even get 'figgy'.
Actually, I brewed a dubbel once where I first made an extract of raisins and currants and reduced its volume some on the stove. It wasn't as good as dark candi syrup or my expectations for this malt (after tasting the wort). Never had a Tomme Arthur beer.
I made a beer with special-B and you almost had to chew the wort, and that was with only one ounce for two gallons! Made for a great black and tan, but wasn't as good of a stout as I'd hoped. It's hard to imagine being more raisin-y than that.
Just transferred this to a keg for some lagering. The raisin is somewhat downplayed in the fermented product. I get a lot of graham cracker, which I assume is the carabrown. With 1.25# of cara-type malt (10%) in a 4.25 gal batch, I'm surprised it's not sweeter.
I just used some Weyermann Special W and Carabelge in a biere de garde/Belgian brown, nice mix of raisin/fig/plum flavors that mesh well with abbey yeast, both were about 3% of the grist bill.
Now that I am drinking my Scotch ale, here's the raisin update:I don't really taste raisin when the beer is in my mouth, but about 15-30 seconds after I swallow it, the raisin character is strong, more of an aftertaste. I think factors like carbonation and bitterness prevent me from tasting it prominently when the beer is in my mouth. Also maybe temperature. As I gradually drain the glass, with the beer warming, some of the carbonation leaving the glass, and my taste buds getting accustomed to the bitterness, the character gets stronger, but it is still most prominent as an aftertaste.
