What Gives Irish Reds The Color?

I want to make a brew I want the bitterness and high gravity of Stone Bastard Ale but I want a red deep redish color.

Any suggestions?

Roasted barley imparts the reddish color. I just made an Irish Red and used roasted barley for about 5% of my grain bill (1/4 lb) . It was a deep reddish-brown. I would have liked it to be more red, but I also used 1/4 lb Crystal 120, which is probably why it turned out so dark.

brewagentjay said:

I want to make a brew I want the bitterness and high gravity of Stone Bastard Ale but I want a red deep redish color.

Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Chocolate will as well, but you don't need much. I used 2 oz in the last batch (an IPA) I made just to give it a hint of red.

Yea I made one and followed Jamil's guidance http://beerdujour.com/JamilsRecipes.htm. It came out more brown after the boil, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a reddish color when I moved to secondary yesterday. I doubt the yeast had anything to do with that, probably the amount of beers I had during the brew.

I was looking around for the same information and for the most part found that people use roasted barley, crystal 120, and maybe melanodin malt (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Melanoidin_Malt).

The blood of Protestants?

Um...

I mean roasted barley. Yeah.

I use Weyermann CaraRed for my Red Ale

Although last time I made this, I substituted CaraMunich for Crystal 120L and it came out way too dark. great flavor, but not red as intended.


7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 61.51 %
3 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 26.36 %
8.0 oz Carared (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.39 %
6.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3.34 %
4.0 oz Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.20 %
4.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.20 %

I also read in the current issue of BYO that the mid crystals (60-80) contribute a decent red.