I just received some of this for the first time. Tomorrow I was going to make a red lager with Omega 113 (Cerveza Roja) with pilsner, vienna, special b and this red crystal with the special b and red crystal being 5% of the grist (4 ounces each). My thought was to have a small amount (1-2 ounces) of milled Blackprinz on hand and after the mash check the color of the wort .. if it’s good, good. If it’s not quite red enough, add the milled blackprinz to the mash and then run off. Checking to see if anyone has used this red crystal and if so .. what are your thoughts? Is it roasty? Do you need A LOT of it to get the red color you might expect in a red lager or ale? Anything else? Cheers Beerheads.
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lol, i got very intrigued when i saw 200 L (lovibond). i checked in and i believe you mean 200 SRM! ie. the Breiss Red.
Hope it works out well, just a note. I thought it was some kind of hyper intense special B type crystal there
SRM refers to the color of the beer. Lovibond refers to the color of the malt.
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Normally, it is Lovibond for malt, but for some reason Briess uses SRM on their website. Weird.
With an average color of 200 SRM, this malt is almost twice as intense as its nearest offering from Briess – our Caramel 120L.
They say:
3-7% For red color and low flavors of caramel, toffee in English Reds, Scotch Ales
Nice! Thank you. Yeah, that’s weird .. for Briess to use “SRM” o describe the crystal red but “L” to describe the 120 suggests it’s just a typo. I’ve done it myself. Okay, so 5% made up of 200L + Special B seems reasonable. I find that if the beer is kinda, sorta reddish, a shot of a dark malt will push it into that color zone we all expect from a red beer. In the past I would have used Sinamar for that but it seems to be harder and harder to get especially at the homebrew level. Cheers & thanks.
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@VillageTaphouse when you use the C200 let me know if you get the dark fruit (prune/plum/raisin) flavor. I rarely use C120 + because I’m not thrilled w/that flavor. When I do use it, I use it w/ a very lite hand.
If you want red, try Mars malt.
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Hey BrewBama: I was measuring out the grains today and popped a few kernels of the red crystal into my mouth. I DID NOT get raisins, dark fruit, etc. I also did not get overly roasted character which is weird .. I expected something like that. This beer will have all of its lighter-colored malts and then 4 ounces of Special B and 4 ounces of this red crystal. I will decide on the color when the mash is done .. if I like it, I’ll leave it. If it’s too pale or more towards “amber”, I’ll add some blackprinz to push it a little. I’ll try to get a pic of the wort. Brewing tomorrow Sunday 3/8.
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200 is getting on up there in color. I’m not surprised that malt flavors are getting overwhelmed by roasty flavors.
Remember, most (all?) roast products impart red color into wort when dosed at low rates.
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I think that at 5% of the grist, the beer should not come across overly roasty or dark-fruity. A bigger concern is that the 5% is too low and the beer is more “amber” than “red” but we’ll see. I’ll snap a pic of the wort this afternoon. Thanks to all.
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I think this worked out pretty nicely. I ran off the wort and decided not to add any additional dark malt. Could it be a little redder? Maybe but I’m pretty happy with this. We all know too that clarity is a big part of getting the color you want too so I will be focusing on that. So this was 4 ounces of Special B and another 4 ounces of this Crystal Red 200L. Maybe next time just 8 ounces of the crystal red 200L?
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Love Briess Crystal Red. I’ve used it up to 1 lb for a red ale. 6 oz will definitely give you a strong red/amber color with nice caramel tones.