Deep red color

Ingredients
1

I’m looking to make an Irish red with a deep red color, but don’t want a lot of dried fruit character like you would get with really dark crystals.  If the red color a specific target SRM, like 17 or 18, or is it malt specific?  What do you use?

Also, what would you use to adjust color towards the end of the mash if you wanted more red?  Would you use a roasted barley, black roasted barley or a black malted barley?  If malted, then would you use husked or de-husked?

Any other grain I am overlooking?

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2

how about beet juice?

3

I believe roasted barley in the traditional red in an Irish red. To I can get red with Munich, carared, or apparently the new red x malt as a single malt gets really red

4

+1 to a couple oz of roasted barley to give an otherwise amber beer a nice red color. I still haven’t tried the Red X malt but I’d love to soon.

5

Sinamar in the kettle is the easiest, most controllable method.  IMO, far preferable to adding dark malts to the mash for color.

6

Word of cautions.
Too much Sinemar will give you ashy taste.

7

Fortunately, I’ve never had that problem or tasted it in other beers that use Sinamar.  But I believe you!

8

Red X makes a perfectly red beer at about 100% and a 1.050 beer.

9

Red is a good color unless you didn’t make a clear beer.  It doesn’t take much yeast in suspension to make your red beer look murky brown.

10

If you were to calculate it beforehand with those malts, then what SRM (Morey) would work out to be deep red?

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11

Definitely true! If it’s not clear it won’t be red, and you gotta get close to brilliantly clear.

The Red X malt is pretty amazing for getting a beer a deep red color. I will get some pictures this week. But if you want to do varying gravities (from 100% red x at 1.050) you need to adjust the grain bill. I wish one of the beer recipe software programs would include it in they’re inventory with an accurate SRM guide.

12

I used to use it in my Dark. I experienced it in there.

13

I got this beer brewed yesterday, so I thought I would update.  Here is the recipe I went with:

UK Pale Ale Malt                 4.200 kg 70.4 %
UK Mild Ale Malt                 1.200 kg 20.1 %
UK Naked Golden Oats 0.180 kg 3.0 %
US Roasted Barley         0.180 kg 3.0 %
US CaraBrown                 0.120 kg 2.0 %
US Extra Special Malt         0.060 kg 1.0 %
UK Black Barley                 0.030 kg 0.5 %

UK Golding 6.7 %         30 g   30.2 IBU

I mashed everything except for the black barley.  After 30 minutes of recirculating, I pulled off a sample of the mash and looked at the color:

I added half of the black barley, then ultimately added the whole amount.  Here is the final mash color:

Here is the pre-boil color (7.25 gallons):

And here is the post-boil color (6 gallons):

Overall, I am pretty happy, and thank you for all of the input.  At times it seems deep red, and under a few lighting conditions it looked a bit brown.  At 18.4 SRM, I am on the dark side of the style.  I have no doubt the grains you pick will affect the flavor, but I am still a bit curious if the types of malts affect the color differently.  For example, Briess says crystal 60 luv will give you a red hue, but their carabrown at 55 luv will be brown.  How can 5 luv make that much of a difference?  I also have a nut brown ale recipe that is 15 SRM and is definitely brown, whereas this 18 SRM Irish red, while darker, is more red.  However my nut brown recipe has brown, pale choc, biscuit and victory malts, whereas the Irish red uses medium and dark crystals and roasted barley.  I kinda feel like the brown, victory, biscuit malts and such are more brown colored, whereas the crystals and  dehusked malts and roasted barley are more reddish in hue.  Any thoughts on this?

14

For a great copper red color with no flavor add 1/2 pound or more of black patent or roasted barley when you begin the sparging. It won’t extract any flavors but it will give you the reddish color.

15

Love this question as I am now drinking my “Kiss Me I’m Irish Red” Ale.  Only two weeks in the bottle and it is already great.

I used roasted barley because I wanted to stick to tradition.  It came out PERFECT.  Brilliant deep ruby red color in the glass.

Here’s the recipe:

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable       PPG °L Bill %
5 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light         42 4 71.4%
1 lb Texas Wildflower Honey 42 2 14.3%
   
Steeping Grains
Amount Fermentable                     PPG °L Bill %
8 oz United Kingdom - Cara Malt             35 17.5 7.1%
4 oz United Kingdom - Roasted Barley     29 550 3.6%
4 oz United Kingdom - Golden Naked Oats  33 10 3.6%

Hops
1 oz Kent Goldings Pellet       5AA Boil 60 min
1 oz Fuggles         Pellet       5AA Boil 15 min

Other Ingredients
1 tsp Irish Moss Fining     Boil 15 min  THIS IS KEY FOR CLARITY

Yeast Wyeast - Irish Ale 1084
Starter: Yes
Fermentation Temp: 65°F

Priming
Method: Table Sugar       Amount: 3.3       CO2 Level: 2.2 Volumes