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Caramelized Flavors

wepperly

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I recently attempted to make a clone of a British Ale, Old Speckled Hen.  I used a Brewer's Best English Pale Extract kit as the base and modified it based off a combination of several online recipes.  Once the beer was finished I hunted down a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, London Pride, and Fuller's ESB to compare against.

The beer I made looked the part of an English Pale, but had one missing flavor in comparison to the three commercial samples listed above. Caramel flavor.  I personally hate caramel flavor in beer and always avoided certain German styles as a result.  I did not remember those beers having a caramel flavor when I drank them in England (years ago), or from a draft can years ago in the states.

Are those beers really supposed to have that strong of a caramel flavor?
Where does Caramel flavor come from in European beers?
My beer used 1 can (3.3lbs) of Munton's Maris Otter Extract, light DME, sugar and 1/2lb of steeped 60L Caramel malt.

Don't get me wrong, I am pleased that my beer does not have that caramel flavor.  I just want to know where it comes from in beer, so that I can avoid it in the future. 
Several bottles of German wheat beer also had this flavor.  My next beer will be a wheat beer and I want to avoid the caramel flavor.

I guess part of me is wondering if the Caramel flavor came about from being old beer sitting on the shelf, or export bottled beer that is different from the draft versions in England, or if I do not remember what a good pint of bitters should taste like.  I am a newbie to home brewing.
 
Old Speckled Hen is probably the most caramely example of an English ale. The flavour comes from the Crystal - otherwise known as Caramel - malt. To get the true taste I think you need probably a pound of Crystal 60L. Steeping is less efficient especially if your grain has a very course grind.

If you don't like the caramel flavour try substituting the Crystal malt with Munich Dark to give a bit of colour and malt flavour. It won't be a true British style, but it sounds like that is not actually what you want. And that's OK, this is homebrewing - make it the way you like it!

Here is a basic explanation of the Malts: http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-1.html
 
Thanks.  That was just the kind of information I was looking for.  I guess I got used to the Caramel flavors when I was going pub to pub eating British pub grub years ago.
 
Another way to get caramel flavor is with decoction. That's a method where, instead of adding boiling water to raise the temperature, you remove a portion of the mash (grain and all), bring it to a boil, and add it back in. Boiling the grain caramelizes it a bit, adding some caramel flavor.

That's what I do for mash-out. I remove a third of the mash, bring it to a full boil, then mix it back in. That raises the temperature to the 160s. Then I start the sparge.
 
A lot of the clone recipes don't have it, but I think a pound or two of Lyle's Golden Syrup would add something nice.
 
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