Carapils

[brahn]

So maltbarley's recipe got me thinking about carapils and why we use it. I know the standard answer is to add body, and some would say head retention.

Personally, I think the head retention bit is bogus. Any beer with a decent amount of malt should have good head retention without adding any kind of malt specifically for that purpose. Look at Duvel: pils and sugar and more head than you can shake a stick at. There's a really good article on foam from BYO here http://www.byo.com/departments/1410.html.

So that leaves adding body. As an all grain brewer, why not just mash at a higher temp? For extract brewers I hardly think too little body is an issue since generally the extracts have plenty of unfermentable sugar in them to start with. I'm curious, do any of you use carapils in your recipes, and do you think it adds something that you couldn't achieve by mashing at a higher temp?

I use carapils in my pale ale because I threw it in there when I was putting together the grist and liked it. I really doubt me liking it has anything to do with the carapils, I think that had much more to do with the munich. Still, I use the carapils because I haven't felt like changing it. Maybe that's a future experiment.

[brew captain]

I use carapils often and the reason is mostly to add sweetness to a beer. Think of it like using crystal 10 instead of as a base malt with special foam or body enhancing properties. Yes, it adds some body too from the dextrins it provides and I take that into accoung when determining my strike temperature. For example I would use carapils in an American Amber Ale or a German festbier where I want some sweet accents to complement the maltiness. I also use a good dose of carapils in my wheat beers to offset that wheat "tang" (which I hate) and have also used it in some low gravity witbiers to provide a more substantial background to support the wheat and spice additions.

I guess I would say that I use it similarly to how I use Munich malt to add some sweet flavor, but in styles where I don't want that much color contribution.

Cheers!

[maltbarley]

4am Robert? No wonder you can't make the meetings!

[spkrtoy]

Tim, your clock preferences are off due to daylight savings time. Go to your profile tab and change it to reflect DST.

[brew captain]

Uh, I think is was indeed late in the 4 o'clock hour when I posted that this morning!

The time always seems to be messed up on the message board for me. For example, it shows me your last post was at 6:56pm tonight Lyn - which is over three hours away from now. I checked my settings and I am PST (Pacific Standard Time).

What should it be and, eh, how do you use carapils (sorry to hijack the thread there brahn)?


Cheers!

[brahn]

The clock is more or less right for me, usually within an hour depending on how I've set my settings.

That's interesting to me Robert, I'd really never heard sweetness associated with carapils. Most of the reading I've done has said it just adds flavorless dextrins. I really may have to do some experimenting to see the difference in some recipes with and without the carapils. Around what percentage of the grist would you say you use for the carapils?

[kevinham]

Uh, I think is was indeed late in the 4 o'clock hour when I posted that this morning!

The time always seems to be messed up on the message board for me. For example, it shows me your last post was at 6:56pm tonight Lyn - which is over three hours away from now. I checked my settings and I am PST (Pacific Standard Time).

What should it be and, eh, how do you use carapils (sorry to hijack the thread there brahn)?


Cheers!

It should be GMT -7 right now, yours sounds like it is 7 hours ahead, right at GMT.

[brew captain]

That's interesting to me Robert, I'd really never heard sweetness associated with carapils. Most of the reading I've done has said it just adds flavorless dextrins. I really may have to do some experimenting to see the difference in some recipes with and without the carapils. Around what percentage of the grist would you say you use for the carapils?

What is giving you the added body and improved foam properties are the (malto)dextrins this malt is known for. That is also what is giving you the sweetness or for the sake of argument, the perception of sweetness. There are enzymes in your mouth than can break the dextrins into smaller (lower molecular weight) sugars that can be detected by your taste buds. This conversion is not going to show up in a labratory analysis of the grain because it happens in your mouth. The sweetness it contributes (IMHO) can be quite significant and I think so even in fairly small amounts (3-5%).

Try putting something like 5-10% Carapils in your next wheat beer or wit (or any spiced/winter creation) and I guarantee you will notice and appreciate the difference... that is unless you like that wheat "tang". You may want to lower your mash temp a couple degrees if you use over 5% in your grist to keep the body from being overly full.

Cheers!

[PMR]

I use carapils in IPA's / DIPA's for 5% of the grain bill. It provides a light sweetness while still keeping the beer dry and pale, so I'll use a bit less Crystal 15 as a result.