Red X Malt

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

Brewmex41

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
860
Reaction score
106
Location
Vancouver
I was looking at the LHBS website and I saw they sell something called Red X malt. The description has me very intrigued, but I dont see anything on HBT about it, which has me a little hesitant.

This is the description from Best Malz website:

BEST Red X malt is specially created for brewing red-tinted beers. You can use BEST Red X for up to 100% of your grain bill – no other malt is required. Offering exceptional reliability and optimal processability, BEST Red X can be employed to brew consistently fiery beers with intense reddish hues. Its full-bodied flavor and attractive, unique color coupled with easy handling in the brewery, make BEST Red X the best choice for creating a broad range of new beers, such as red-tinted wheat beers.

As with all BEST malts, BEST Red X is produced using a special malting procedure exclusively from two-rowed summer brewing barley from recognized and thoroughly tested barley varieties.


I am thinking about trying a single malt red IPA with it, if anyone has any experience with this one and can give some feedback.
 
should have linked a picture that wouldnt show up...

Anyway, I havent heard anything about this product either, but I'm interested.
 
It certainly lives up to its promise of fiery, reddish colored beer. If you want to get red color without the use of crystal or roasted malts, this does a great job. However, my only problem with it is that it has a rather malty flavor - almost like an aromatic malt - and doesn't do so well with beers where you want a lot of hop aroma/flavor. I found its inclusion in our red IPA to mostly be a distraction from the hops. Other than that, its neat stuff. A red wheat beer sounds pretty cool.
 
I love malty beers. Maybe I willl try a small batch of amber ale Smash. I like Widmer Bros Drop Top ale and they use Simcoe so maybe a Red X/Simcoe smash with us 05.

Ok I will post updates as soon as I have something to post.
 
Picked up my ingredients today.
3 gal batch size.

7.5 lb red x
Mash @ 154 for an hour
1/3 oz magnum 60 min
1/3oz simcoe 10 min
1/3oz simcoe flameout steep
1/3 oz simcoe dry hop

Pacman yeast
OG 1.060
Ibu 34
Srm 15
6% abv
 
For a ton of posts from the German forum hobbybrauer.de go to Google and enter into the search box

red malz site:hobbybrauer.de

I had to click on the link Translate this page since I don't speak German. The automated translation is a bit rough, but you can get the gist of it. Some of the posts have nice photos.

I was also interested to see quite a wide range of hops and yeasts being used from all over with this malt, not just Germany. Everything is in metric, as you might expect.
 
I agree with bieraus15. I picked up a sack of this and and used it once so far in a cream ale. No doubt it does deliver on the color. I was very pleased. I do agree that the taste leans to the malty side, but I have only used it once. I am looking forward to experimenting with this malt in different ales.
 
I just doughed in
3 gallon batch size
7.5 lb Red X malt 12* lovibond
1/3 oz magnum (13.2% aa) 60 min
1/3 oz simcoe at 10, flame out and dry hop

1.060 est OG
34 Ibu
16 Srm
1.015 fg for around 6% abv +/-
 
Could you post a pic of your fermenter? I'm interested to see the color.
 
I'm curious about this malt, as I'm planning on picking some up next week and trying out a wheat beer with it. I saw on Best Malz' description page that they recommend 100% of the grist for "red tinted beer." Obviously with a wheat beer, it will be more like 50%, so I'm wondering how strong the coloring power of this malt is.
My plan is to try it two ways:
1. See how red it can really get a wheat beer; 50% Red X, 46% White Wheat, 4% Flaked Oats
2. See if it will create a lighter red color or orange when I reduce the percentage; ~25% Red X, ~25% Pilsner, 46% White Wheat, 4% Flaked Oats.

Any predictions based on your own experiences thus far?
 
This is right after pitching the yeast 1394051829770.jpg
 
Awesome! Thanks. Can't wait to see what it tastes like. I'll have to get some red x from bader.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
DanH said:
Awesome! Thanks. Can't wait to see what it tastes like. I'll have to get some red x from bader.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...

Do you live in the Vancouver area?
In a week or two I'll cold crash and I'm sure it will clear up and give a much better prediction of the color then. Right now its sort of murky reddish brown.
 
JordanKnudson said:
I'm curious about this malt, as I'm planning on picking some up next week and trying out a wheat beer with it. I saw on Best Malz' description page that they recommend 100% of the grist for "red tinted beer." Obviously with a wheat beer, it will be more like 50%, so I'm wondering how strong the coloring power of this malt is.
My plan is to try it two ways:
1. See how red it can really get a wheat beer; 50% Red X, 46% White Wheat, 4% Flaked Oats
2. See if it will create a lighter red color or orange when I reduce the percentage; ~25% Red X, ~25% Pilsner, 46% White Wheat, 4% Flaked Oats.

Any predictions based on your own experiences thus far?
Click to expand...




When I brewed my honey cream ale, I used 1lb 2-row, 2 lbs. corn, 0.5 lbs honey, and 0.5 lbs victory. The color is a nice fiery red. So I'd say-- The color is strong with this malt.
 
JordanKnudson said:
I'm curious about this malt, as I'm planning on picking some up next week and trying out a wheat beer with it. I saw on Best Malz' description page that they recommend 100% of the grist for "red tinted beer." Obviously with a wheat beer, it will be more like 50%, so I'm wondering how strong the coloring power of this malt is.
My plan is to try it two ways:
1. See how red it can really get a wheat beer; 50% Red X, 46% White Wheat, 4% Flaked Oats
2. See if it will create a lighter red color or orange when I reduce the percentage; ~25% Red X, ~25% Pilsner, 46% White Wheat, 4% Flaked Oats.

Any predictions based on your own experiences thus far?
Click to expand...

Sorry I missed your post. I would be excited to hear your results because I am planning on trying a India red ale with just 2-row, maybe a pound or two of the red x malt and 3 or so oz of midnight wheat

I'm waiting for this beer to clear up before I can really tell how it will come out, color wise. But its around 11-12* lovibond so should contribute the same color as, say, Munich 10L would.
 
Well hello there, "other Dan H****n" in Vancouver. I always have to say I'm "Dan C" when I hit Bader.
 
clickondan said:
Well hello there, "other Dan H****n" in Vancouver. I always have to say I'm "Dan C" when I hit Bader.
Click to expand...

They all know me by name now lol.

My wife's grandma stopped in there to get me a gift card for Christmas. She asked if they know who I was and whoever it was working at the time said they knew who she was talking about lol
 
DanH said:
Yep. Lets trade whatever I have for a glass of your red x concoction?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...

That's fine by me. I'll be trading with another fella in the area. He goes to all the meetings at loowit.
 
What do you guys think of adding a pound or two to an irish red recipe. I would keep the rest the same with the 3 oz of 550 lovibond roasted barley.

Beersmith has it at 17srm which should be right, just thinking it might be more of a popping red.

Thoughts on flavor or color contribution?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Feurhund said:
What do you guys think of adding a pound or two to an irish red recipe. I would keep the rest the same with the 3 oz of 550 lovibond roasted barley.

Beersmith has it at 17srm which should be right, just thinking it might be more of a popping red.

Thoughts on flavor or color contribution?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...

I don't think I have ever had an Irish red, so I can't really comment, but stay tuned for a couple weeks and you will have feedback from Dan, myself and another guy in my homebrew club on this malt.
 
I just used this in a IPA. Thought I would post of picture of it before I added Conan Yeast and ruined the color. Sorry its no the greatest pic.

3i5vJhv.jpg


Recipe:

9lbs golden promise
2lbs Red X
8oz Crystal 60
8oz Carapils
8oz Turbinado Sugar

.5 oz FWH Warrior
10 min - 1 oz Summer
10 min - 1 oz Citra
5 min - 1 oz Summer
5 min - 1 oz Citra
0 min - 1 oz Summer
0 min - 1 oz Citra

This is prob not the proper use of it, but after chewing on some of it I think it will work ok.
 
Just now adding dry hops thought I'd post a pic. It's hard to tell, but now that the yeast is starting to settle out you can see its turning deep red, almost brown. 1394562405502.jpg
 
I'm mashing redx now (4# with 18# of NW Pale; 10g batch). They told me at Bader to expect more of a Brown color than a Red if using 100% redx. We'll have to compare when they're done.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
DanH said:
I'm mashing redx now (4# with 18# of NW Pale; 10g batch). They told me at Bader to expect more of a Brown color than a Red if using 100% redx. We'll have to compare when they're done.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...

That's what mine is starting to look like. I'll dry hop, cold crash and bottle carb so it will be a while yet.
 
have 10lbs of this malt coming from farmhouse. just not sure what to use it in yet. flavor wise, is it something similar to munich?
 
They (at the brewstore) were saying it's similar to Munich. Evidently it adds malty taste and aroma to the beer. I haven't personally tried it though.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I replaced two pounds of Munich for two pounds of red x in a Pb porter I brewed. But with the two jars of powdered peanut butter, half pound of lactose and pound of crystal 60*L I doubt I'll taste the difference.
 
Just picked up a few pounds of Red X today! I won't get to actually brew with it for a couple of weeks yet, but I'm excited to try it out! I'm liking seeing everyone's pictures, please keep posting as the process goes along! I will too, once I finally get to try it out.
 
So i snapped a shot of my cold crashing batch but I can't get a good pic of the color. It looks jet black in this one but its really just a deep red. When I bottle it I'll put whatever won't fill a full bottle into a glass and take a pic then as well 1395259968533.jpg
 
Interested to see how this turns out. My last alt recipe was a halfway between brown and red, it'd be tempting to replace the munich with this stuff and see how it turns out.
 
JPrather said:
Interested to see how this turns out. My last alt recipe was a halfway between brown and red, it'd be tempting to replace the munich with this stuff and see how it turns out.
Click to expand...

It is a German malt, supposed to be similar to Munich. I think I am going to use the yeast cake to do a barleywine this weekend, so I'll bottle and have more to post then.
 
Brewmex41 said:
It is a German malt, supposed to be similar to Munich. I think I am going to use the yeast cake to do a barleywine this weekend, so I'll bottle and have more to post then.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's quite a bit darker (11-13L) than the Munich I get at my LHBS (6.5). I'm curious if there's extra associated maltiness with that and if I'd end up wanting to adjust my recipe (like say, dropping the melanoiden malt).

Interested to see how your batches turn out!
 
Heres a pic of the hydro sample of my india red ale
51.6% 2 row
40.6% Red X
1.4% Midnight Wheat
and the other 6oz was corn sugar

Hydro ira.jpg
 
Can anyone report on flavor contribution?

I want to do an Irish red and I am thinking 20% red xmalt to make the color pop along with a little roasted barley. Just want to make sure it won't add too strong a flavor or maltiness. Thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Mine is still in the fridge pseudo lagering until I get off my lazy butt and package it. I think what I'll do is bottle the batch I have in my keg, keg this one. I am anticipating some spare time on Saturday while my son is off at grandmas house.

I tasted a red x smash brew at my last homebrew club meeting. The flavor isn't overwhelming. To me it tasted like if you were to blend pale 2 row with a bit of Munich malt. Base malt with a hint of malt sweetness, not so much caramel sweet.
 
Finally kegged this sucker.
Not a great picture, but this is what it looks like.
I feel like its a slightly sweeter version of a base malt with a deep red color. 1396860394549.jpg
 

Similar threads

J
Liquid Amber Malt -Recipe Suggestions
Replies
9
Views
792
BrewnWKopperKat
BrewnWKopperKat
J
Whiskey Malt?
Replies
21
Views
2K
Joewalla88
J
alutis05
Brewing ALL-GRAIN dark beer (lager).
Replies
9
Views
614
AlexKay
A
Clint Yeastwood
Prose from the Pros
Replies
6
Views
477
DBhomebrew
DBhomebrew
orgenomescii
Brewing like a Barbarian: Ancient Irish Descriptions of Malting & Brewing
Replies
2
Views
1K
McMullan
McMullan
wps-hbt2

Latest posts

Back
Top