How to achieve a dark beer

So I have been brewing awhile, I have made dark beer, light beer, porters, lagers...

I live next to an area breweries manager and he brought over a CDA that they made. I make a habit of trying to decipher how things are done at the big boys so that I can do better on my own. This beer was black, I mean black. When I asked him how he achieve the color without adding a bunch of chocolate and dark malt flavors he told me that he couldn't tell me. ARGGG. He is right, he can't but I wanted to ask the community, are there other ways other than just straight dark malts to achieve dark beers?

thanks

debittered black is good in a black ipa.

hmm i like it

Many ways to do it. Sinamar, adding dark malts at the end of the mash to avoid to much flavor.

_

Keep in mind that you don't need a lot of these malts to get the color. Even as much as 1/8th of a pound of a dark malt will color 5 gallons of beer without huge flavor.

So it sounds like to general strategies so far: debittered black, and adding a small amount of dark malt at the end of the mash.

This beer was black... I brew a brown thats good and brown but this sucker was BLACK. So I will have to try both options and see what comes of it

Carafa Special III. Most black IPAs on the market use this. It's de-husked (debittered) 550L malt. Use about 12oz to 1lb of the stuff. That will give you a jet-black beer with very minimal roast flavor.

Could be sinamar.

"Sinamar® natural beer coloring was patented by the Weyermann Company in Germany in 1902, and is a natural mashed coloring derived from debittered Carafa Special 11 black malt. It will help you create a dark beer with very little roast character."

Either carafa special III or sinamar. They can go right into the mash, and don't impart harsh roasty flavors but are BLACK.

Yup... Carafa III. The following CDA recipe is pretty dang dark. Add another 1/4 to 1/2 pound of the Carafa III and it would probably be absolutely jet black.

It got rave reviews when I took a growler full to a tasting at my LHBS.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.49 gal
Estimated OG: 1.068 SG
Estimated Color: 26.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 109.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 77.78 %
1.50 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 11.11 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 %
0.50 lb Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3.70 %
1.00 oz Zeus [16.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 50.9 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Zeus [16.00 %] (30 min) Hops 17.8 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (20 min) Hops 8.9 IBU
0.50 oz Citra [13.60 %] (20 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (10 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
0.50 oz Citra [13.60 %] (10 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (5 min) Hops 2.9 IBU
0.25 oz Citra [13.60 %] (5 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [Starter Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 13.50 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 16.88 qt of water at 169.2 F 151.0 F

I've taken my dark malts and ground them the night before. Take a gallon of room temp water and empty and little out of it. Place your ground dark malts in the remaining water and 'steep' overnight.
Brew day strain the grain from the gallon jug and add to brew kettle. Add the remaining grain to the grist once the mash is done.
You'll get great color w/ very little of the 'dark' roasty flavors.

blak fud colorin