# Red Alert



## mondestrunken (4/5/17)

Hi everyone.

Just wondering if anyone has any hot tips on how to maximise the red colour in a beer? From my reading (e.g. "Designing Great Beers") it sounds like, in theory, for a given SRM value you can adjust the yellow/red ratio. I tend to end up with either a yellow, brown or black beer, but I'm after that elusive red/copper colour. Is there any particular malt that can help with this? Or is there something else that I'm missing?
Thanks in advance! :beer:


----------



## manticle (4/5/17)

Roast barley will if you get the amount right.
Red x supposedly (not used it).


----------



## Bridges (4/5/17)

Look up redx malt. Not used it myself so can't add much more.


----------



## Hoppomatic (4/5/17)

Try some Carared, used it in my Irish Red Ale that scored 2nd at the recent Gold Coast competition. 

Cheers, 

Hoppo


----------



## barls (4/5/17)

carared, shepards delight or red x mate these are the ones you want.


----------



## Crakkers (4/5/17)

I've used Melanoiden a few times in Irish Reds - gives a nice reddish hue.


----------



## earle (4/5/17)

60g of Gladfields Shepherds Delight gives a great colour to my sour red


----------



## Mr B (4/5/17)

Caraaroma and a bit of roast barley will do the job too.

See below, sorry for the formatting.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: 44 Red Ale/Saison
Brewer: Mr B Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) Recipe Specifications --------------------------
Boil Size: 64.58 l
Post Boil Volume: 59.38 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 55.00 l
Bottling Volume: 55.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Estimated Color: 13.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12.00 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White) ( Grain 1 93.4 %
0.60 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (178.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.7 %
0.20 kg Acidulated (Weyermann) (1.8 SRM) Grain 3 1.6 %
0.05 kg Roasted Barley (Joe White) (710.0 SRM) Grain 4 0.4 %

20.00 g Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 7.7 IBUs
20.00 g East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil Hop 6 4.0 IBUs
30.00 g Hersbrucker [2.75 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 1.9 IBUs
20.00 g Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 3.8 IBUs


----------



## Ducatiboy stu (5/5/17)

Yep, a touch of Roast barley, Cararoma or Carared will give that red/copper hue

You need to be gentle with additions as just a little bit to much will change the colour...we are talking very tiny amounts


----------



## Bribie G (5/5/17)

Carared ain't that red.

As mentioned, roast barley used sparingly will give you red but unless you are heading for an Irish Red style you might not want the roastiness.

My pick is Caraaroma


----------



## Droopy Brew (5/5/17)

CaraAroma


----------



## earle (5/5/17)

Just rechecked my sour red recipe - was 160g of caraaroma and 60g of shepherds delight


----------



## Mikeyr (5/5/17)

Agree on Caraaroma, used that first for some great results, then read about redx and bought half a bag. Have used it as a base and in the mix and not as good as Cara.


----------



## Ducatiboy stu (5/5/17)

This is my red ale I did about 10yrs ago.............yes it really was that long ago
Pillar Of Red - Scottish Ale

Batch Size (L): 22.00 
Total Grain (kg): 4.88
Anticipated OG: 1.055 
Anticipated EBC: 47.4
Anticipated IBU: 29.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 79 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes


% Amount Name 
---------------------------------------------------
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 


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
30.00 g. EKG Pellet 6.20 25.2 60 min.
16.00 g. EKG Pellet 6.20 4.5 20 min.


----------



## Parks (5/5/17)

This thread makes me all warm and fuzzy.


----------



## Ducatiboy stu (5/5/17)

Bribie G said:


> Carared ain't that red.


Sooooooo many brewers fall for Carared being red... :lol:


----------



## technobabble66 (5/5/17)

Bribie G said:


> ...
> My pick is Caraaroma
> ...


Hey Bribie, what %-age did you (or others) use to get that hue?
Were there other crystals/roasts in there as well as well?

The reason i ask is i've done a fair few reds over the last few years, using either CaraAroma or Roasted Barley, and they've generally turned out red, but very dark. So i want to achieve roughly the same hue, but just a bit lighter.
Obviously i should just tone down the amounts a little, but i thought it might fast-track the guesswork/experimenting by seeing what %-age you've used (&/or what EBC you'd targeted).


----------



## pist (5/5/17)

Yep agree there. Had to use some caraaroma in this one to get the right shade i was after.
This is still one of the best beers I have made to date. Will have to revisit it sometime. This was with 16% carared and 5% CaraAroma. About 50ibu I think from memory?
Despite the high percentage of specialty malts it turned wasn't all that overly sweet. Just a perfectly good malty backbone and a bucket load of citra coming through.
That batch didn't last long at all.


----------



## Bribie G (5/5/17)

That shot's about 5 years old. I'd be looking at around 300g in a 22L single keg brew.


----------



## mondestrunken (5/5/17)

Thanks guys.

I ended up with 1kg of Gladfield Redback, which seems to be similar to the Shepherd's Delight (?).




technobabble66 said:


> what EBC you'd targeted?


This was going to be my next question - yes I know it depends, but I'm after red, but not too brownish (similar to the photos above).

Thanks again!


----------



## Dan Pratt (5/5/17)

Cararaoma will and has for me made great red beers, HOWEVER.....the aroma of that malt does not suit all styles of beer. our name states aroma, it gives an aromatic malt presence to the beer. 

Certainly make one with it and get your read on it. 

A combination of other malts can do it to:

Mountain Goat India Red Ale Recipe

55% Ale
35% Vienna
7% Shepherds Delight
2% Redback
1% Roast Barley


----------



## Phoney (5/5/17)

Pratty1 said:


> Cararaoma will and has for me made great red beers, HOWEVER.....the aroma of that malt does not suit all styles of beer.


Such as?

I've found it work well in American PA/IPA/AA and in all kinds of British ales.

Granted I wouldnt use it in a Belgian or German


----------



## Gelding (5/5/17)

earle said:


> Just rechecked my sour red recipe - was 160g of caraaroma and 60g of shepherds delight




hmm, I dunno earley.... maybe colour balance on your camera a tad off, i corrected it using what I think should be the coulour of the marble at the rear as the reference and got this:


----------



## earle (5/5/17)

That's cool Geldy. I further enhanced it and here's what I got. h34r:






Apologies for not staying inside the lines.


----------



## Ducatiboy stu (5/5/17)

I played with the tone and contrast

Definitely a Stout


----------



## mondestrunken (5/5/17)

Thanks again guys.

I wish I asked the question before I made my Irish Gold h34r: the other day. Maybe I'll post a photo and someone can photoshop it right.


----------



## Gelding (5/5/17)

now now early, for all i know you could have started with this lovely looking pale ale:







but I do understand that this is the ultimate objective:


----------



## earle (5/5/17)

Not really, I wasn't aiming for a bright red beer, rather just reddish hues. There are other malts in there which darken the colour overall, but there is a definite red hue when viewed by eye - no need for colour correction. Point is - red can be achieved in beer with caraaroma and shepherd delight. If I wanted a bright red beer I would use those as well as just very pale base malts. With a good helping of MS paint of course.


----------



## manticle (5/5/17)

Food dye


----------



## Ducatiboy stu (5/5/17)

manticle said:


> Food dye



Shhhhh...dont let the secret out


----------



## mondestrunken (6/5/17)

After all the hilarity. I found a malt comparison chart and for future reference, Gladfield Shepherd's Delight ~= Caraaroma, and Gladfield Redback ~= Carared.


----------



## mondestrunken (27/5/17)

Hello again. I finally got a chance to brew with the Gladfield Redback.

The beer is an attempt at a Munich Dunkel,
2kg Bestmalz pils
2kg Bestmalz Munich II
1kg Gladfield Redback
100g Simpson's Chocolate

estimated SRM 12-13, which is somewhat less than Beersmith's estimate of ~20. As you can see in the post-boil pic below, it's definitely got a reddish hue to it, and much more attractive than the more greyish brown I usually get at this SRM level.







Thanks everyone.for the useful advice here! Cheers.


----------



## brianman (27/5/17)

My Red Rye IPA using mostly Gladfield 
3.6kg Gladfield Ale
1.0kg Best Rye
0.7kg Gladfield Aurora
0.35kg Gladfield Redback
0.15kg Gladfield Shepherds Delight
SRM 11.8.
Compared to SNPA @ 9.2 SRM, definitely a red hue, happy with it so far, next time may cut back to 11SRM, and no funny business with picture enhancement.


----------

