So, now that I’ve got a much more efficient brewing system in place, I’m thinking about having a big fete for Halloween. Of course, what Halloween would be complete without themed beers? I’m planning on doing a pumpkin ale, for which I already have a recipe that I’d be happy to share if you want, but what I’d like to know is if any of you guys have a red ale recipe, something similar to Hobgoblin ruby red? Anything else you normally serve up for ghoul-themed parties?
I haven’t made it, but there was an article in BYO a while back where James Spencer (I think) used Frankenberry to make a Weiss beer. May/June issue maybe? Or you could add Count Chocula to a porter :) You can just add the cereal to the mash.
Ha! Interesting idea. Wonder how the yeasties would react to all those additives and preservatives…
I think he used a whole box, and didn’t mention any problems with fermentation IIRC.
If you want really vibrantly red beer, keep it pale (not even amber), and then add some kind of black malt (Carafa Special II would be my first choice, but some like Black Patent Malt or Dark Chocolate Malt or Roasted Barley) to bring it to 12-15 SRM.
+1
Carafa Special II is my go-to malt for adding color to pale beers
How’s this sound:
8 # American 2 row
1/4 # Carafa II (for coloring, basically?)
3/4 oz fuggles @ 60mn
3/4 oz fuggles @ 30mn
1 1/4 oz fuggles @ 5mn
Wyeast 1056
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.011
Bitterness: 30 IBU
Color: 15 SRM
Alcohol: 4.5%
I think you could probably halve the Carafa II amount, which, according to my brewing software, will yield a beer around 13 SRM.
Just another perspective…I just brewed a red rye ipa with 2oz of carafa III and it’s darn near black. With 4oz, you’ll have a very dark beer. Like patriot said, you could easily cut that in half.
As I’ve been thinking about this, I think I’d still like to do a red ale, but now am wondering if I could do a red imperial IPA with a ton of hops. I know IPA means PALE, but I’d love to have a combination of super duper hop flavor with a nice red color. Would it work to make the adjustment to 2oz Carafa II but bump up the American to maybe 20 pounds, then add 2 oz cascade for dry hopping?
This is my first time making my own recipe, so if I’m way out in left field feel free to shoot the idea down 
bumping it up to imperial ipa status would take a lot more than upping the malt to 20lbs and dry-hopping. you’re gonna need a ton more kettle hops for sure. I’ve never done a fuggles ipa, so not sure what to expect with increasing those amounts (seems like it would be more of an english barleywine that way tho :-\ ).
Heh, maybe I should just do an imperial IPA and add food coloring? :o
Sounds like I’ll just stick with the red ale recipe above with the modification to 2 oz cara II. Will let you all know how it works out.
Just for S&G I grabbed about 6oz of IPA from the keggerator, a bottle of Sinmar from Weyermann (which is liquid Carafa II - essentially [fun face: Sinmar - from Latin, meaning without bitterness]), and a transfer pipette.
I started adding Sinmar a drop at a time until I had what I think is very close to red; however, it’s not a blood red - it’s an amber red. It’s the red that you see in Irish Red Ale or American Amber - it’s amber somewhat copperish color red. Also, I think hitting the amount of red I hit by adding Sinmar drop-by-drop with carafa in a recipe would be pretty impossible. I’d say red food coloring would be your best bet for that fake Halloween sort of red - Sinmar would be your best bet if you’re just trying to make a fairly red beer.
Sticking with a Halloween theme, Jamil has a clone of AleSmith’s Evil Dead Red which he dubbed “Evil Twin” which he uses to illustrate late-hopping. Recipe available here:
http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.htm
What an awesome idea! So how much did you add to the 6 oz sample?
What sort of flavor impact did the sinmar have to the finished beer? Sounds like it might be a neat thing to try, along with french press dry hopping, to make a sort of beer cocktail. I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course.
I was using a transfer pipette that wasn’t graduated so I couldn’t tell you in mL, but I used 6 drops in the 6oz sample to get to the right color, I imagine this will be very variable and would change depend on the beer you were attempting to make red (or brown or opaque black).
Sinmar doesn’t impact flavor very noticably (I’ve never noticed any flavor impact) - the mouthfeel seemed a bit more slick on the sample last night but that hasn’t been my typical experience with Sinmar and it could just be that the IPA has changed a bit since my last sample. Or, more likely, it could be the result of the sickness I’m battling.
Transfer pipettes often have drop sizes of about 50 ul, so that’s about .3 ml in 6 ounces. So that would be 32 mls or about an ounce in 5 gallons. Good to know