Building The SamuraIPA

I had the idea to make a red IPA using mostly Sorachi Ace hops but I don't have any experience getting an obviously red color out of grain. I am aware of the CaraRed product but since I haven't used it I don't know what level of red color to expect from different amounts of the grain. An Example of what I'm shooting for pictured below.



The SamuraIPA

Batch Size: 5.5 Gallon
Est. Efficiency: 75%
Est. ABV: 6%
IBU: 63.6
Mash temp: 152

Grain
5 lbs US 2-row
5 lbs Maris Otter
(insert grain to make beer red)
6 oz Crystal 40
6 oz Crystal 120
6 oz Roasted Barley
or
12 oz C75
4 oz Victory
4 oz Chocolate

Hops
.75 oz Warrior 60 Min
.5 oz Sorachi Ace 15 Min
1 oz Sorachi Ace 0.0 Min
1 oz Sorachi Ace Dry Hop 7 days

I've done the Irish red Ale from Jamil Zainesheff's "Brewing Classic Styles" which came out quite red. You could try modeling it after that

The grain bill for this:
11.25# English Pale Ale Malt (I think we used standard 2 row)
6 oz Crystal 40
6 oz Crystal 120
6 oz Roasted Barley

SRM = 17

Founders also makes a Red Rye Pale Ale that has that same color. You could search the forums for that grain bill as well.

Edit: Link to Founders Rye Clone Attempt. The color is a little off from your picture, but it's fairly close.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/founders-reds-rye-ipa-clone-151489/index5.html

Thanks, I think I'll be using the Jamil recipe for this beer. I don't like the color in the Founder Rye Clone.

I have been doing so research and found this combination looks like a yeilds a nice red color

1lb C40
4 oz Victory
4 oz Chocolate

I already have a bunch of C75 so im gonna sub the 1 lb C40 for .75 lbs C75. This should yield an SRM of 16.

What do you think?

I'm using Beer Calculus . homebrew recipe calculator and when I plug in your numbers in I get an SRM of 19. When I knock the Crystal 75 down to 8 oz I get an SRM of 16. Of course, the SRM's in this may be off. Otherwise your color looks good.

With your grain bill of:

5# 2 Row
5# Maris Otter
4 oz Chocolate
4 oz Victory
8 oz Crystal 75

I get an OG of 1.060.
SRM = 16

BJCP guidelines put an American IPA between 1.056 and 1.075 so you're good there.

I calculated your hop additions, assuming 15% AA for your Warrior and 13.7% AA for your Sorachi hops, at 45.5 IBU's. This is also within range of the BJCP guidelines of an American IPA (40-70) and looks like it provides plenty of bittering given your malt profile.

Sounds interesting. I've never worked with Warrior or Sorachi. If you end up brewing it let me know how it turns out.

Cheers

I am not worried about brewing to bjcp guidelines, my SRM calc comes from beersmith2 which I have found to be quite accurate. Thanks for the help though.

I finally brewed this recipe today. I didn't have any major issues, just started to run out of propane with 30 minutes left in the boil. I ended up with 6.25 gallons instead of 5.5. Got an efficiency of 75.3% and an OG of 1.058

Final recipe:
The SamuraIPA

11lbs US 2-row
8oz c75
8oz Victory
4oz Chocolate

1oz Warror 13.7AA 60 min
.5oz Sorachi Ace 13.7AA 15 min
1oz Sorachi Ace 13.7AA 5 min
1oz Sorachi Ace 13.7AA Dry Hop 14 days

BIAB Mash at 153 for 75 min with 168 Mashout

Safeale US-05 yeast for 3 weeks at 62.

The Combo of Victory and Chocolate malt did not give me the color or flavor I was looking for. Too much roasted Chocolate flavor. I will be adjusting for the next batch

Melanoiden malt adds a nice deep red to beers, for future reference.

Keffa said:

Melanoiden malt adds a nice deep red to beers, for future reference.

Click to expand...

Awesome, in what percentage would you typically use it to achieve a ruby red color? Should it be used in conjunction with other malts or just base malt and Melanoiden

for my red i used 1 oz of roasted barley for 2.5 gallons...so just go with 2oz of roasted barley and theres your red color

brewguy82 said:

for my red i used 1 oz of roasted barley for 2.5 gallons...so just go with 2oz of roasted barley and theres your red color

Click to expand...

Roasted Barley can give you flavor though, bitter, roast, and coffee like. Those don't usually go well with an IPA.

Bump!

Prymal,
I feel like you're in my mind! I spent months with this idea and finally created a recipe with the ingredients I had on hand. I couldn't find anyone with anything like what I was looking to make. But of course, the first night I try my brew I find this post!
I used...
• 9 lb Pale 2-row
• 1.5 lb Caramel 60L
• ½ lb Dark Munich
• 1 oz Warrior (16.7%) (60min)
• ½ oz Sorachi Ace (11.6%) (15min)
• ½ oz Sorachi Ace (11.6%) (5min)
• 1 oz Sorachi Ace (Secondary)

I get a lot of lemon on the nose, and an unbalanced hop taste. I've done a Sorachi SMaSH IPA that came out great, but this tastes almost spoiled.
What are your tasting notes?

Very strong lemon nose with a bit of chocolate coming through. Well balanced malt and hop bitterness. Don't use chocolate malt next time you brew, it turned out too dark and not very red.

For a citrusy & refreshing IPA, you want as little caramel sweetness, nuttiness, and roastiness as possible. For that reason, I would skip large amounts of crystal, victory, roasted barley, black patent, etc. Instead, I would go with Briess Midnight Wheat or Carafa along with a small amount of CaraAroma, which will take less & yield way more of a red hue than CaraRed. All you want is a color adjustment... not a lot of flavor or sweetness from these dark malts which will detract from the citrusy, bright character of the beer. In the past, I made a red beer with a dash of fresh prickly pear fruit juice in the secondary... it turned a 5 srm pale beer red real quick without making the beer overly fruity or sweet. I made the juice myself with the prickly pears, water, lime, and sugar.

Now that I have brewed this beer I would hole heartledly agree. I will use your thought process when I brew this again. I think it could be a great beer if you can find the right malt character.

I used vienna and special b in an amber ale that turned out almost exactly the right color for this beer and the malt is subsided enough to probably work with the subtle flavors of the sorachi ace hop.