On Sunday's show, Tim from Minnesota called in and said that he'd used 1/2 pound of Carafa (III, I'm assuming) in his 5 gallon batch and it ended up tasting like burnt chocolate, so he tossed the batch. This worried the crap out of me, because I experimented with Carafa III in the porter I brewed 3 weeks ago. I wanted to know if the half-pound I used in my batch, in place of the Chocolate malt I normally use, had screwed the pooch.
I racked it out of secondary last night and kegged it. I couldn't wait to taste it. It wasn't harsh at all. In fact, it was pretty much what I was going for. It has a slightly drier finish than I wanted, but it's certainly not undrinkable - not by a long shot. I will probably switch back to chocolate the next time I brew it, but I'm not disappointed in the flavor of this brew at all.
I wonder what would cause Tim's beer to taste as burnt as he said it did. I used the same amount he did in a 5 gallon batch. Granted, I was making a Porter, not a Blonde. But the beer wasn't bad. Have any of you experimented with Carafa III in place of Chocolate Malt? What were your results like?
Cheers,
Phil
