exBEERiment | Roasted Grains: Carafa III vs. Carafa Special III In An Altbier

Author: Will Lovell

While pale colored beers are currently the most popular around the world, several darker styles exist that offer a wide range of flavors, Porter and Stout being among the most recognizable. Indeed, these types of beers tend to possess pungent notes of chocolate, coffee, and even acridity, which is contributed by certain roasted grains such as Roasted Barley and Black Patent. However, for certain styles, these characteristics are expected to be restrained despite their brown to black appearance.

Brewers have developed several methods to reduce the level of roast flavor in certain beer styles, for example, by capping the mash or steeping roasted grains in wort prior to the boil. German maltster, Weyermann, opted for a difference approach – recognizing that most of the astringent characteristics of roasted grains comes from the husk, they developed a huskless product known as Carafa Special, which brewers widely claim works well in less notably roasty styles.

Like many brewers I’ve talked with, I initially presumed all malts with the Carafa moniker were the same, though soon realized that was not the case. Whereas Carafa Special denotes the huskless variety of roasted grain, regular Carafa is not dehusked and is more akin to grains like Chocolate malt or Black Patent.  Curiously, anecdotal reports of brewers producing beers with minimal roast character using regular Carafa malt abound, so I designed an xBmt to test it out!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between an Altbier made with a grist of 5% regular Carafa III and the same beer made with an identical amount of Carafa Special III.

| METHODS |

Of the various non-roasty dark styles that exist, I went with a simple Altbier recipe for this xBmt.

The Bitter Pill

I started my brew day by adding identical volumes of water to separate Delta Brewing AIO units, adjusting each to the same mineral profile, and setting the controllers to heat them up before milling the grain.

When the water for each batch was adequately heated, I incorporated the grains, set the controllers to maintain the same target mash temperature, then prepared the kettle hop additions.

Once each 60 minute mash was complete, I removed the grains then proceeded to boil the worts for 60 minutes, adding hops as listed in the recipe.

When the worts were done boiling, I took refractometer readings showing they were at essentially the same OG.

I transferred identical volumes of wort from each batch to Delta Brewing FermTanks.

I then pitched a pouch of Imperial Yeast G02 Kaiser into each.

After 11 days of fermenting at 66°F/19°C, signs of activity were absent, so I took hydrometer measurements showing both beers were at the same FG.

At this point, I cold crashed the beers overnight before pressure transferring them to CO2 purged kegs that were placed on gas in my keezer for 2 weeks before they were ready to serve to tasters.

| RESULTS |

A total of 20 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 2 samples of the beer made with regular Carafa III and 1 sample of the beer made with Carafa Special III in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. In order to reach statistical significance, 11 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to accurately identify the unique sample, though only 4 tasters did (p=0.94), indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish an Altbier made with 5% regular Carafa III from one made with the same amount of Carafa Special III.

My Impressions: Out of the 5 semi-blind triangle tests I attempted, I correctly identified the odd-beer-out every time on aroma alone. These beers were far more alike than they were different, though I felt the one made with regular Carafa III had a slight hint of dark chocolate that I didn’t detect in the Carafa Special III version. I didn’t perceive any other notable roast characteristics in either beer and felt both were great examples of Altbier.

| DISCUSSION |

Building on the success of the original Carafa, which was developed in the early 20^th century, Weyermann later released their Carafa Special line of dehusked roasted malts, which were designed to contribute dark colors the harsh, astringent, and bitter flavors associated with other roasted grains. Interestingly, in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish an Altbier made with 5% regular Carafa III from one made with the same amount of Carafa Special III.

Seemingly, the most obvious explanation for this result is the fact the Carafa III and Carafa Special III malts made up only 5% of the grist in these beers, leading to the other characteristics drowning out any differences. However, Weyermann recommends a usage rate of 1 to 5%, ostensibly rendering this argument moot, though it’s possible any differences would be more perceptible at higher usage rates.

Over the years I’ve been making my own beer, I’ve come across many other brewers who have used regular Carafa rather than Carafa Special, regardless of roast level, for styles like Schwarzbier and Altbier, yet report excellent results – dark color with depth of flavor, but no harsh or acrid characteristics. While I was able to tell these beers apart consistently, it was based solely on aroma, and the differences I did detect, assuming bias wasn’t at play, were tiny. As much as I appreciate innovation and the fact Weyermann developed a product to meet a specific need, I certainly won’t be fretting over using regular Carafa instead of Carafa Special in more delicate dark styles in the future.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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