Is standard crystal the right one for me?

[Scroogemonster]

Hi all,
Just finished AG#5 yesterday (Barley bottom Gob Hoblin recipe)
I followed Paul's recipe to the letter but I only had normal crystal malt and I've read here on JBK about some recipes using dark crystal.
Will using normal crystal malt be ok or did I need dark crystal to get the colour right? (it looks ok in the FV)
Thanks
Kev

[danbrew]

I'm not surprised you didn't get many answers to this one yet as I didn't get many when I asked on here about dark crystal. It just doesn't seem to be as popular even though it seems increasingly available.

From what I can gather they are a bit different so you'll have a slightly different beer. There seems to be a bit more sweetness in standard and dark contributes more toffee/ caramel flavour. I have ony done it in couple of brews so far.

My question was around swapping one for the other or using the dark crystal in place of other darker grains. Still a bit confused about it tbh.

[steve_flack]

The various crystals do have different flavours. It you imagine what happens when you cook food - the flavour changes as the food browns.

The dark crystals do give more than just a dark colour. They give more, well, dark flavours, raisiny etc with a tendency towards a little burnt astringency on the very dark crystals.

[raiderman]

I'd give it a try, if you don't overload you won't go far wrong