Cara Red .... it ain't red

Brewing a test batch today. Here’s what the recipe is:

12 gallons

12 lbs Pils
8 lbs Vienna
4 lbs cara Red
3 lbs Sugar

Wasn’t red. A little orangy looking. Added another pound of cara red (5 lbs now). Still not red. What the…?

Gonna put a smidgen of carafa special II in to redden it up was wondering if the homebrew shoppe gave me something else. I broke open a kernal and it was red on inside. But the wort wasn’t red.

I guess it depends on what you think of as “red”.  It’s not red as in red velvet cake, but to me it seems to give the beer a definite reddish hue.

That should help. If you have a coffee grinder…try grinding a smidge to a powder and sprinkle over the mash right before the sparge. Should do the trick.  :wink:

Not looking for velvet cake, just looking for red. I’m not a vampire or nothin’.  :wink:

Actually, it’s the perfect color now with the carafa and the extra lb of cara red. Could be a tiny bit darker but for this test batch I’m gonna go with it.

Can you post a pic of the “red”?

I can try with my cell phone. Give me an hour or so.

BTW: When I first pulled a sample (around 10 minutes after dough in) it was decidedly blonde. I wonder if you just need to let it sit? I never really questioned the color of wort so early on in the mash before.

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I’m pretty sure carared is just a proprietary name… its basically C 20…

20° L. Provides fuller body and imparts a deep, saturated red color, particularly to red ales and lagers, Scottish ales, bocks and altbiers.
but says you can use up to 25%… obviously its gone thru a slighty different process…

You really dug for that one.  :wink:

Next your gonna tell me that CaraVienne is just C 20 and Cara Munich is C-40 or 60.  :stuck_out_tongue:

those witty Germans…

I’ve heard that before, but my experience in using it quite a bit is that it’s darker and more fermentable.

Yea, like I said there is definately something different about it… its labeled as 20L but even using 4-5# of crystal 20 wont turn your beer red…

I bet it’s tasty though.

Major,

If you look for the color try Caramunich II.
That will give you nice reddish color.

I might try that. I didn’t really want a lot of raisin character though.

Will try and post pic soon. May be tomorrow though.

funny, I was just about to say that I just brewed my fest yesterday with a small amount of carared and it definitely had a red hue to it (though orangey-amber overall) but I also used  a similar amount of Caramunich II - now I don’t know which caused it…

Sorry it took so long. Being on dial up at home and spotty internet reception at the brewery causes me to have isssues with images.

Looking pretty red.

If you do not want to have any taste from it try domestic C40 to C60.