Robo Choc - Amber Malt or Light Dry Malt?

[Fergy1987]

Hey everyone,

So I have the ingredients to put down a "Robo Choc" but am having trouble locating the Amber Malt Extract. Would this still work if I just used say 1.5kg of LDM? Just dont really need any other ingredients to justify $15 shipping on the coopers store and am going overseas for a couple months soon so dont want a bunch of stuff on hand to do a bulk order.

Alternatively should I just steep some Crystal malt with the other grains? If so any ideas of a) how much and b) Light, Medium or Dark Crystal?

Thanks again for the advice!  

[Otto Von Blotto]

I reckon the light dry malt plus 200-250g of dark crystal steeped would give you a similar result to using the amber extract. That's pretty much what's in the amber extract anyway. Not sure what crystal they use in it, but from using 300g medium crystal in my pale ales, they don't turn out as dark as ones I did back in the day with a pale kit and amber extract.

[Fergy1987]

20 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I reckon the light dry malt plus 200-250g of dark crystal steeped would give you a similar result to using the amber extract. That's pretty much what's in the amber extract anyway. Not sure what crystal they use in it, but from using 300g medium crystal in my pale ales, they don't turn out as dark as ones I did back in the day with a pale kit and amber extract.

So the recipe already calls for 300g of Dark Crystal with the Amber extract? So would I just be bumping that up to say 500g?, am I going to get that much out of an additional 200g in a steep?

[Hairy]

Probably 2/3 more than would have got with only 300g.

You are close to doubling the amount so you should get more from it.

[Hairy]

But I think you would still make a great beer with a straight swap of light malt for the amber malt with no additional crystal malt additions.

[Fergy1987]

21 minutes ago, Hairy said:

But I think you would still make a great beer with a straight swap of light malt for the amber malt with no additional crystal malt additions.

Yeah I think I might just go all in with substituting the Amber with the LDM and see what happens - and tweak it next time if all goes pear shaped

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'd agree with Hairy as well, it'll still make a nice brew.

[Beerlust]

Without the Amber Malt extract & dark crystal grain influences the beer will lack depth of flavour & may come across more like an over-roasted Amber Ale, rather than the chocolatey Porter that the Robo-Choc recipe sets out to create.

I've brewed a few off-shoots of my own off the back of Steve L's original EB kit based Porter recipe & still use it as my base for this type of beer. The Robo-Choc recipe was likely developed due to the interest in this EB based recipe. King Ruddager has his own thread that has continued support & interest that built around this same base premise.

If you follow Hairy & Otto's lead you'll end up with a decent beer, but it won't be to the same level the full Robo-Choc recipe will produce (IMHO).

If you're going to go to the trouble of still steeping the roasted grains, do yourself a favour & at least add in 300gms of either medium or dark crystal grains with that steep (at a slightly larger volume) to create some of the required sweetness that will give some backing to the roasty flavours. 

Best of luck with the brew.

Just my 2 cents,

Lusty.