# Red Ale - what do you think



## Goose (23/5/15)

Howdy

Tasted a red Ale by Thornbridge the other day and it ticked a lot of boxes and thought I'd give something similar a whirl but using more aromatic hops to try and give it a bit more nose.

What you reckon on this recipe ?



*Amt*

*Name*

*Type*

*#*

*%/IBU*

7.00 kg

Pilsner Malt (3.9 EBC)

Grain

1

60.9 %



2.50 kg

Caramel/Crystal Malt - 150 (150.0 EBC)

Grain

2

21.7 %



1.50 kg

Munich I (Weyermann) (14.0 EBC)

Grain

3

13.0 %



0.50 kg

Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC)

Grain

4

4.3 %



28.00 g

Ella (aka Stella) [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min

Hop

5

21.9 IBUs



10.00 g

Ella (aka Stella) [15.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min

Hop

6

6.0 IBUs



50.00 g

Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min

Hop

7

7.3 IBUs



100.00 g

Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min

Hop

8

0.0 IBUs



2.0 pkg

Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]

Yeast

9

-




Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.1 %
Bitterness: 35.1 IBUs
Est Color: 35.9 EBC


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## Ducatiboy stu (23/5/15)

There is a lot of xtal in there


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## Danwood (23/5/15)

I'd agree, and I love a bit of crystal...

Maybe swap the Munich and crystal quantities around.


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## Ducatiboy stu (23/5/15)

I dont think it will be all that red either. Most of those grains are fairly pale


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## Goose (23/5/15)

cheers fellas.... that's why I threw in that qty of crystal.... mainly for the colour... however its 150 EBC crystal remember


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## Ducatiboy stu (23/5/15)

I would throw a bit of roast barley in it to bring out the red


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## Goose (23/5/15)

cheers mate.

though I came across this on the beer I am basing it on, which makes the mind boggle...



> In terms of malt... At the Birmingham Beer Bash event at the weekend, Dominic Driscoll from Thornbridge gave a talk on speciality malt and by handy coincidence, he talked through the malt grist for Thornbridge's Colorado Red. I've reproduced it below:
> 
> "The red ale is one which can be dificult to get right - often brewers produce a brown mess of a beer in a desperate attempt to get the perfect red hue. One of the main secrets is to forego chocolate and roasted malts, sticking with a combination of munich and a variety of crystal malts. Perfect ruby red every time.
> 
> ...


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## Goose (23/5/15)

this would be the objective:


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## Danscraftbeer (23/5/15)

Sounds good. :chug:


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## Ducatiboy stu (23/5/15)

82.1 4.00 kg. BB Ale Malt 
13.3 0.65 kg. Weyermann Carared 
4.1 0.20 kg. Weyermann Caraaroma 
0.5 0.02 kg. JWM Roast Barley


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## Rocker1986 (24/5/15)

A dark grain like roast barley or black patent helps bring out that red hue without having to use shitloads of crystal.

My regular red ale recipe contains 300g Caraaroma and 70g Black Patent. It's more of a darker ruby red color than the beer in that photo though, so if you want it lighter then obviously reduce the amount of dark grains.

Just for the hell of it, this is what it looks like:


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## Ducatiboy stu (24/5/15)

Please note that Carared does not make your beer red either


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## MastersBrewery (24/5/15)

I find a small addition of carrafa spec III really brings through I nice deep red.


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## Ducatiboy stu (24/5/15)

Rocker1986 said:


> A dark grain like roast barley or black patent helps bring out that red hue without having to use shitloads of crystal.
> 
> My regular red ale recipe contains 300g Caraaroma and 70g Black Patent. It's more of a darker ruby red color than the beer in that photo though, so if you want it lighter then obviously reduce the amount of dark grains.
> 
> Just for the hell of it, this is what it looks like:


Can you post up the full recipi


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## Goose (24/5/15)

that is almost purple... amazing....


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## Cervantes (24/5/15)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> Please note that Carared does not make your beer red either


I've never used it but was thinking of getting some to make a red ale.

This is what it says on Weyermann's web site

CARARED® 40 - 60 16 - 23

Red Ale
Red Lager
Scottish Ale
Amber Wheat
Bock Beer
Brown Ale
Alt Beer up to 25 %
fuller body
improved malt aroma
deep saturated color
red color

Are they over stating the reddening effect?

Edit: Formatting


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## Ducatiboy stu (24/5/15)

Cervantes said:


> Are they over stating the reddening effect?


Yes.

It adds a little bit of red....and by little i mean not very much

Your dark grains like Caraoma, RB, Caraf are your best source of redness.

Many brewers have been caught thinking Carared makes your beer red


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## Cervantes (24/5/15)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> Can you post up the full recipi


+1


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## Rocker1986 (24/5/15)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> Can you post up the full recipi


Sure 

I have slightly altered parts of it on account of lack of certain ingredients; this is the original incarnation of it, and the one that I think is the best one. It's quite a nice session ale I find, and a nice change up from the usual pale ales and lagers I brew.

4kg Maris Otter Pale Malt
300g Caraaroma
200g Carapils
75g Black Patent
Mashed for 90 mins @ 66C; Mash out @ 78 - 10 mins
*80 min boil*
20.00 g Cascade - First Wort 80.0 min
9.00 g Magnum - Boil 60.0 min
20.00 g Centennial - Boil 20.0 min
30g Cascade dry-hopped
Brewbrite at 10mins
US-05 yeast fermented at 18C

Est Original Gravity: 1.043 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.4 % (4.7% bottled)
Bitterness: 35.9 IBUs
Est Color: 33.9 EBC

These numbers are for a 25 litre batch. I change the amount of Magnum depending on its AA% but leave the other two additions at 20g always.

This is a BIAB no-chill recipe.


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## Goose (25/5/15)

thanks for that Rocker

can anyone comment on the difference between black patent and roasted barley ? struggling to find black patent in this neck of the woods....


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## Ducatiboy stu (25/5/15)

Black patent malt is malted barley that has been roasted

Roast barley is unmalted barley that has been roasted


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## Ducatiboy stu (25/5/15)

http://byo.com/hops/item/155-back-in-black-the-truth-about-black-patent-malt

http://byo.com/hops/item/1559-using-roasted-barley-tips-from-the-pros


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## GalBrew (25/5/15)

Goose said:


> thanks for that Rocker
> 
> can anyone comment on the difference between black patent and roasted barley ? struggling to find black patent in this neck of the woods....


Don't we just call Black Patent 'Roast Malt'? You can get that pretty easily. I used some just recently.


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## Goose (15/6/15)

Rocker1986 said:


> Sure
> 
> I have slightly altered parts of it on account of lack of certain ingredients; this is the original incarnation of it, and the one that I think is the best one. It's quite a nice session ale I find, and a nice change up from the usual pale ales and lagers I brew.
> 
> ...


 
thanks for that mr Rocker. brewed up something similar this Saturday and called it *"Rocker Red"* in honour of your contribution. :super:

Essentially I used pretty much the same proportions of Cararoma and Black patent and scaled her up to a 45 litre batch. I've used a different hops schedule and base malt (compensated with tad of crystal to keep colour on target) but aimed pretty much bang on your colour, IBU and ABV. Its not BIAB nor no-chill though, RIMS and plate chilled. I subbed Zues for the Magnum and Centennial for the rest.

I'm hoping for the same photo you put above :lol: .. but it will be a while yet.


*Rocker Red Ale*

American Amber Ale

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 45.00 l
Boil Size: 53.08 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 48.88 l
Final Bottling Vol: 43.50 l
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage
Date: 13 Jun 2015

Equipment: BrewMagic 45 Litre
Efficiency: 78.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.5 %
Taste Rating: 30.0

Taste Notes: add 2 tsp gypsum and 1 tsp epsom salts to mash
whirlfloc x 1 and 1 tsp yeast nutrient 15 mins before end of boil


7.00 kg Pilsner (Weyermann) (3.3 EBC) Grain 83.2 %
0.50 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (350.7 EBC) Grain 6.0 %
0.42 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 5.0 %
0.36 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 4.3 %
0.13 kg Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC) Grain 1.5 %

30.00 g Centennial [8.68 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 15.3 IBUs
10.00 g Zeus [16.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9.8 IBUs
35.00 g Centennial [8.68 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10.8 IBUs
55.00 g Centennial [8.68 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs

2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %

Bitterness: 36.0 IBUs
Est Color: 33.9 EBC

Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Calories: 427.1 kcal/l

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, 66 deg C
Sparge Water: 27.27 l
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE
Total Grain Weight: 8.41 kg
Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Mash PH: 5.20


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## Bribie G (15/6/15)

As Ducatiboy Stu says, Carared isn't really red. I generally use base malt plus just Caraaroma. However it can turn out with fairly toffee like overtones so you are after something very dry you can scale that back a bit and add just a touch of Roast Barley.


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## Rocker1986 (15/6/15)

Nice one Goose! Looks good, I hope it turns out well for you  Brilliant choice of name too. :lol:

I'll keep an eye out for updates on how it is going. :super:


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## BradG (22/6/15)

Hi all, thought I'd try an Irish red, kind of based on above. 
My shopping list consisted of:
250g CaraAroma 130L,
200g crystal 80L,
150g Carapils 1.8L,
50g Roasted Barley 300L

3kg liquid light malt extract. 
18l in fermenter 
Bittering Hops to about 25IBU. Haven't decided on the hops yet. No planned aroma hops. Danstar Windsor yeast. 

I use Brewers friend to plan and check the expected colour and ABV etc to see if close to style (but I'm not a stickler). I just want yummy beer. 

Local HBS did not have CaraAroma, so shop guy said RedX is good for reds. Couldn't find that in the phone brewer app, so ended up subbing the CaraAroma for 150g RedX (14L?) and 150g of Special B. 

Any thoughts? Brewers friend does not have RedX. What do I sub in to check colour and stats? 
Further research it appears that RedX is a blend and is usually mashed in much larger quantity than I have gone for. I only steep for extract brewing. 

Will my desire for a deep red be realised?

Also seems not possible to add custom grain when Brewers friend is on extract setting.


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