I was over Mike’s house for an impromtu brew session a few weeks back and we looked over the malts that he has in his collection. One of those malts was Pale Chocolate Malt. Although at a quick glance, the pale version looked exactly the same as its plain ol’ chocolate counterpart. With some closer inspection, it is subtly lighter in color and milder in flavor than regular chocolate malt.
After chewing on the malt, Mike talked about the placement that Pale Chocolate has on the ladder of malt color. If you think of your crystal malts, typically they go as high as 120°L. Special B is around 150°L. Noting that the next malt on the ladder is chocolate malt (starting at 300°L), there isn’t anything in between.
Pale chocolate fills the void between the sweet, caramels and the darker roasted malts. It imparts its own unique flavor to a beer that you can’t get from just upping one malt or dialing down another.
Here are the stats:
Flavor: Mild coffee, toasty, nutty.
Color: Can range from 195 to 250°L
Body: Not really a body builder.
Use: In beer where a dark coloring would work: Milds, Porters, Stouts…maybe small amounts in Ambers.
Neil
I just brewed a Red IPA with a fair bit a chocolate malt in. It turned out a bit too dark for my liking, this would of been perfect. I haven’t seen any at my LHBS though so will have to keep an eye out for it.
Señor Brew™
I love pale chocolate malt; I use it all the time in place of straight chocolate malt. In fact I bought a whole 50lb sack of it, exchanging some with members of my brew club. I’m not brewing as much as I had been, so I have a bunch left, John or anybody else reading this blog, I would be happy to trade some for other specialty malts.