[skyler]

Hey, I am planning top brew my first beer since April - an IPA to celebrate my move back to Portland, Oregon. And since I still have a ton of 2013 hops that I would like to use up before the 2014 batch arrives, I went to my LHBS (where I used to be a regular customer back in 2008-2010) and maybe became a little too interested in the different malts that were available. So instead of getting IPA-specialty malts I was planning on getting (light crystal, medium crystal, and wheat malt), I decided to buy a half pound each of caramunich and carawheat along with a pound of white wheat malt (this is a 12 gal batch).

Then I realized I had never brewed with carawheat before and had only ever noticed it in wheat beer recipes. I was already planning on adding some wheat to this IPA (something I occasionally do), but is the flavor contribution of carawheat far off from a regular crystal of the same color? What should I expect?

[reverseapachemaster]

Both caramunich and carawheat are crystal malts in the 40-45 lovibond range. There are three different types of caramunich so depending on what you bought it may be a little lighter or darker. You could use either place of crystal 40, with the carawheat also providing some wheat character for you.

[brewinhard]

I have used carawheat and enjoyed the flavor contribution.  I feel that it isn't quite as full tasting as your normal crystal/caramel malts but does provide a nice sweetness to the beer depending on % used. 

[skyler]

I have used carawheat and enjoyed the flavor contribution.  I feel that it isn't quite as full tasting as your normal crystal/caramel malts but does provide a nice sweetness to the beer depending on % used.

That's good to hear. I have used caramunich in place of similar-colored crystal several times, but I was assuming carawheat was basically just a crystal malt and wouldn't be much of a distraction in this beer.

The malt bill is like this:
94% Great Western 2-row
4% Great Western White Wheat Malt
2% CaraWheat
2% CaraMunich

Shooting for 1.060 to ~1.011 (82%). I will be mashing at 150F for 60 min, no mashout.

Yeast: 6 gal BRY-97 and 6 gal something else (probably and English yeast)

And the hops:

90g Amarillo FWH
25g Chinook 60 min
90g Amarillo 10 min
90g Citra 10 min
90g Amarillo 0 min
45g Citra 0 min
45g Chinook 0 min
60g Amarillo dry
30g Citra dry
30g Chinook dry