Hello, I'm Martín from Argentina. I found a Fat Tire clone recipe in another forum. It is called Flat Ass Tired. It requires 2.4% of special roast SRM 50. The place where I get my Malt says they have that one under the name of Biscuit. They have a national one with 20 Lovibond and a Castlemalting one with SRM 20 L°. Does that make sense? Are they interchangeable or close enough?
°L is the number you should try to match. I would try to match with something between 40-60°L. 20°L would not be as dark. As for the generic names of possible substitutes, look for crystal or caramel malt.
Special B is the same as (120-140?L) Gotta get that rasin/dark fruit in there. If I didn't have any B, I'd throw some prunes, some figs, and some raisins in there to help mimic the flavor. I've never tried this, but it should work. Otherwise, use your highest lovibond crystal malt.
I would use brown malt as a sub for special roast. Definitely not the same, but probably the closest.
Special Roast is a medium kilned malt made by Briess malting. It is darker than their Victory malt, which I also have seen in Fat Tire clone recipes. I would be reluctant to use brown malt myself, because I think it is more coffe like than special roast, although the color is about the same. Here is a Fat Tire clone from the pages of BYO magazine that might work for you: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f63/fat-tire-clone-byo-dec-2010-a-290619/ It doesn't call for Special Roast but does call for Victory. If you can't get Victory, use the Castle biscuit malt as a substitute. Buy note that the poster does not think it is an accurate clone.
I agree with the Brown Malt idea, or possibly Amber. Or... maybe 10 parts biscuit/victory to 1 part black malt. Crystal malts would be too different in character from special roast IMO.
I use special roast in my favorite brown ale recipe. Its hard to sub for it, but a combo of biscuit and brown malt would get close I think. It certainly would take some experimentation though to nail it.
Special B is similar to Briess Extra Special rather than the Special Roast (which is a toasted malt like brown or amber).
Thanks for the catch. At work at the time. Special B and Special Roast ^^^ Not the same. I'll clarify to the OP that I've never used Special Roast, and probably should not throw dark fruit into his Fat Tire Clone.
