# Gladfield Redback malt



## RelaxedBrewer (10/11/15)

I picked up some of this the other day to try out. Who has use this malt? What flavour does it give and what amounts have people been using? What type of beers?

The description from the maltster
"Red Back Malt is also a unique malt made by Gladfield. It is prepared by a special process before going into the roaster, where it is roasted to favour certain maillard reactions which cause the malt to produce a lovely red hue in the resulting beer without the opalescence that can occur with other similar malts. In other words the wort colour is bright with good clarity but most of all a lovely red colour. It goes well with our Pale Ale and Aurora malt which is melanoidin malt."

So apparently is a type of special roasted malt designed to give red colour.


At a guess I would think it might give a similar flavour to an amber malt or slightly darker roast?

Anyone had much experience with it?


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## sp0rk (10/11/15)

Anyone who participated in Brew Wars should be able to help, it was one of the included ingredients


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## dannymars (10/11/15)

I just used some in an XPA and didn't know what to expect.... 

grist was 

3KG Gladfield Ale
2.3KG Gladfield Pils
.3KG Gladfield Aurora
.2KG Gladfield Red Back
.15KG Gladfield Toffee

TBH I was treating it like some sort of crystal/caramel.... I was actually concerned that the beer would be too dark/malty for the style. As I said, I didn't really know what to expect.

The beer is VERY light, only slight malt/biscuit tones.... very light colour, although slightly darker than Stone n Wood Pacific Ale which is the beer I'd say this is most like. Not getting the red hue, maybe you need to add a lot more if you want to achieve that. I'd be very interested to hear other people's experiences with this malt.

The head formation and retention on this beer is pretty poor, probably the worst of any beer I've made (that wasn't sour), even though I did a 10min protein rest.

Beersmith's colour calculations were pretty off the mark too, said it would be much darker. 

It's a fantastic beer in the end, just not what I was expecting.


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## pacey (10/11/15)

I am preparing to brew with this malt soon. I found this spec sheet in National Homebrew's library:
https://www.nationalhomebrew.com.au/uploads/attachments/National_Home_Brew_ID-59987_1508254964.pdf 

"Adds: malty, dried fruit and toasted flavours with red hues"

Rate up to 15%.

I plan to use it similar to a dark munich, combined with a small percentage of caraaroma to achieve a deep red colour. Fingers crossed.


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## dannymars (10/11/15)

Keep us posted!


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## RelaxedBrewer (10/11/15)

pacey said:


> I found this spec sheet in National Homebrew's library:
> https://www.nationalhomebrew.com.au/uploads/attachments/National_Home_Brew_ID-59987_1508254964.pdf
> 
> "Adds: malty, dried fruit and toasted flavours with red hues"
> ...


That link is not working for me.

Sounds like it could be good in an amber style ale gone red.


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## Tropico (10/11/15)

I have tried this attempting to make "red" beer. At best I think I got a kind-of "reddish" copper colour, looked great, but still not red. One of my relo's is a number cruncher accountant for Fosters, and I am about to take up his advice to use red food colouring to get the elusive red beer.


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## dannymars (10/11/15)

I guess not that light....


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## contrarian (11/11/15)

Made an IPA recently with 7.5% red back and 7.5% Shepard's delight. Ended up looking like this. 



Could use a bit longer to brighten up but is about as red as any other beer I've made!


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## technobabble66 (11/11/15)

^^ I'd guess that colour's 90% from the Shepherds Delight. 

At ~65 EBC I'd guess it'll be fairly similar to Amber (Simpsons is ~55), as RB suggested, or CaraRed (~50) & Melanoiden (~70). 
The issue is whether it's more just roasted lightly, like Amber, or a more Crystal-like process. With a descriptor of dried fruits, i'd be guessing the latter, or maybe a little of both.


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## contrarian (11/11/15)

Raw it tastes a lot more like crystal than amber. I could eat it by the bowl full! 

I think gladfield suggested that those malts work well together and I would have to concur.


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## Dips Me Lid (19/11/15)

I've done a few batches with Red Back from 5-8%, good copper/red colours, flavour is a mix of medium crystal and dry toasty notes, Gladfield make some unique malts. 

I believe some NZ breweries are using this and Sheppards Delight in their Reds/Ambers, might be a good excuse for some homework purchases!


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## yankinoz (19/11/15)

Tropico said:


> I have tried this attempting to make "red" beer. At best I think I got a kind-of "reddish" copper colour, looked great, but still not red. One of my relo's is a number cruncher accountant for Fosters, and I am about to take up his advice to use red food colouring to get the elusive red beer.


Beware the Reinheitsgebotenpolizei, who have ways of making you not use food colouring.

Thank for the info on this string about Redback.

I've used plenty of toffee and Shepherd's D and recommend both. Toffee is not an overwhelming malt. For me it works best in the likes of pilsners, blondes and pales, instead of conventional light crystals and at up to ten percent of grist. Go easy on the SD and use it in the darker beers. Strong cola taste mellows with conditioning.


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## BeerCoAU (23/11/15)

Malty Monday 

RelaxedBrewer & friends
Apologies for being late to reply to this string with some info and guff on Gladfield Red Back malt

Red Back is a unique Crystal malt that can be used with a healthy addition to help lift colour and malt character. It imparts malty, dried fruit and toasted flavours, has a typical color of 65 EBC and goes well in combination with Gladfield Ale, Aurora, Shepherds Delight and Vienna & Munich Malts.

If you want to brew something like a hoppy Red Ale the following is a grist that may resemble the one used in the silver medal winning Mt Goat India Red Ale:

40% Gladfield Ale
40% Gladfield Vienna
12% Gladfield Red Back
7% Gladfield Shepherds Delight
1% Roasted Barley
Another grist for a Red Ale you might like to try is:


37% Gladfield Ale
29% Gladfield Vienna
21% Gladfield Aurora
8% Gladfield Red Back
5% Gladfield Shepherds Delight
The Vienna is used in high proportions of the base malt to offset the use of Shepherds Delight which is a much more intense red malt. Malting a Red Malt rather like brewing a Red Ale is a very challenging task for the Maltster and getting the right balance with the roast to get colour without cloying sweet toffee character.

Personally I homebrewed up a Grim RRIPA Red Rye IPA which I was happy with the colour and malty character - grist below:


Gladfield Malt Bill

3.85 kg Gladfield American Ale Malt (64%)
850g Gladfield Red Back Malt (14%)
600g Gladfield Rye Malt (10%)
400g Gladfield Munich Malt (7%)
250g Gladfield Light Crystal Malt (4%)
120g Gladfield Sour Grapes (Acidulated) Malt (2%)
I also know for a fact Holgate used to use a healthy dose of Red Back back in the days in their popular Road Trip IPA - can't reveal the grist percentages as they are proprietary to the brewer but if you are mates with Paul or the brewers they might tell you over a few Road Trips or whilst on a Road Trip to your town  

Holgate Road Trip USIPA
Malts:
•Gladfield Ale
•Gladfield Vienna
•Joe White Wheat
•Gladfield Red Back
•Gladfield Biscuit
Hops:
•Citra
•Chinook
•Centennial

AIBA 2014: Silver Medal
•#60 on Hottest 100 2014
•91/100 on RateBeer.com

Brew Malty, Hoppy, Yeasty & Most of all Happy 

cheers,
DD


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## TheWiggman (15/3/16)

I recently made a brew with 4kg of JW pale and 200g Redback. I've never used Summer before and similarly, went 100% to see what the hops were all about. I can't remember the exact details but went -

15g at 60 min
25g at whirlpool
25g in cube
35g dry hopped

Mangrove Jack's M44 sprinkled for my first successful APA with dry yeast ever. Got to 1.008 I think, around 5% ABV.
It's been 3 weeks in the keg and I cracked it yesterday. Very full-flavoured beer with a lot of malt and hops going on. The Redback adds a slightly amber hue which genuinely is pleasant to look at. There's a lot going on hop-wise, and it's more bitter than I thought it would be. Not getting a heap of melon like I expected, but the interesting... tangerine? flavour from the Redback is playing with the melon to make for a very interesting beer. Not my favourite, but I think would be well received by APA fans. It's like there's a bit of a fruit salad happening, mixing blue and yellow to make green. The pairing seems to work.

I think it would be well suited in an amber ale or even a Belgian alongside some candy sugar.


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## Thefatdoghead (19/9/17)

I used it in an ipa. Only 5%. I can't say I like the malt. It's got a Dr pepper kind of flavour. 
It really overwhelmed the whole beer. 
It's still quiet strong after conditioning. 
I don't think I'll be using it again. It does give a nice red hugh though.


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