imperial red ale- more red?

[SpeedyR]

realized I should have posted this here as it makes more sense... anyway here's my questions:

I brewed a recipe below a few months ago for an imperial red ale. The taste was fantastic but I was disappointed with the color of the beer. I was hoping for a much deeper " ruby red" color. When I picked up the ingredients, the shop substituted one ingredient and said it shouldn't affect the color but I am going to brew it again and want to make sure I get the the right color. Open to suggestions for how to make it more "red"...

original brew "Red Tail Hawk IRA": (was going for something similar to Lagunitas Imperial Red)

7lbs Pale DME (Briess Golden Light DME)

steeping grains:
1lb Munich Malt (see substitution below)
.5lb Briess Victory
.5lb Crystal Malt 120l
1lb Crystal Malt 45l

hops:
3oz Amarillo pellets
3oz Centennial pellets

White Labs Calif. Ale yeast WLP001 (made 1.5l starter)

The shop was out of the Munich Malt (srm9?) and subbed .25lb munich malt 30l and .75 Vienna instead.

I did a 90 minute boil with 4 gallons after steeping grains for 30 minutes
4lbs DME @ 90 min
3lbs DME @ 20min remaining
.5 centennial and amarillo @ 20 min left
1oz centennial and amarillo at 10 left
1.5oz of centennial and amarillo at flameout

1.064 OG. after about 2 weeks I transferred to secondary and put in 1oz of centennial for dry hop. FG after 4 weeks was 1.014 for ABV of ~6.6%. Taste was great, and it looked good but wasn't as red as I had hoped to achieve. SRM 15 according to brewsmith. Photo below but the sun made it look more red than it looked in person. it was close just not quite there IMHO.

Any ideas of what I can do to get more red this time around?

use Cara Red? would I substitute this for something or just add it?

i read where some were getting red color from 20l and 120l?

or a bit of roasted barley I've read is used in most Irish red ales.

any thoughts or suggestions welcome. I got a lot of compliments on the beer but it was just missing a bit of color to really finish it off...

 

[Yooper]

Using the Munich malt (instead of the Munich +Vienna sub) will get you more red, as the Munich malt as an orange hue.

I'd use the carared instead of the 45L and maybe an ounce of roasted barley to bring out some ruby lights and keep the rest of the recipe the same.

 

[jayway]

+1 on the roasted barley. I add an oz or two to mash out if I'm looking for a nice deep red to the final beer w/o flavor impact.

 

[m00ps]

+1 on the roasted barley. I add an oz or two to mash out if I'm looking for a nice deep red to the final beer w/o flavor impact.

Yeah every Amber/Red Ale I've done I use 1/4lb of something very dark. But i'd cut back to 2oz if I had a lot of other mid-ranged malts like you. I'd say just add 2oz and it'll be crimson

Another Idea: during the boil, if it definitely seems a bit light, just boil it longer. This will create more caramel flavors too from maillard reactions. Or what I do is grab maybe 1/2 gal or so from the first runnings and toss it in a pot on my stove. Boil the crap out of it until its a syrup and pour back in. That way I can sort of mimic a 2-3hr boil in the normal 60min. I did this with my last SMaSH and it almost made it amber colored even thought it was 100% Maris Otter

 

[SpeedyR]

good thoughts on additions. This one was a 90 minute boil and I usually add more DME late on the boil to avoid the darker color but hadn't thought about the fact that this one is supposed to be darker. lol. I'm used to doing lighter IPA's and other such beers.

I've been expanding into some new brews recently and will post up my version of a indian brown ale shortly and see if there's any feedback on improving that one. I'm learning bit by bit as I go along. Now it's time to rebrew a few and see if I can improve on them.

 

[m00ps]

Yeah good plan. My problem is I have waaaay too much creative energy for recipes. I've done about 65 different recipes I made since last Oct and I always have 3 or 4 new ones out in the future along with hundreds of hashed-out ideas. I've done maybe 6 of them again, but I really need to go back and refine some of the favorites people have liked. I just try to give away as much as I can to make room at my place and get feedback

 

[SpeedyR]

I'll keep that in mind next time I'm in Paducah. Probably will be next Sept for the LBL200 ride.

 

[m00ps]

I'll keep that in mind next time I'm in Paducah. Probably will be next Sept for the LBL200 ride.

Yeah dude come on by. I need more beer geek friends. We've got 2 breweries opening soon so I'm hoping that will help. Also hoping to do some collaborations with the guys since I've been giving them beer.

But yeah, I've got over 700 beers bottled in my apartment. Take as much as you want. I need to move to kegging, but I;ve been more concentrated on getting other equipment.

 

[Osedax]

LBL200 sounds like a cool event. Speed Triple R rider along with your dual sport?

 

[m00ps]

Not me, I'm horribly uncoordinated as it is...I fall way too much on regular bikes to try getting on one with a motor

 

[SpeedyR]

LBL200 sounds like a cool event. Speed Triple R rider along with your dual sport?

IMHO the LBL200 is one of the best DS events in the SE when it comes to quality of trails.

my wife had a street triple R for a while, did some track days with me and some street riding. good fun bike. I mostly ride dirt these days, have a KTM 450 XC that's tagged and a KTM 950 super enduro. have had many sport bikes (r6's, cbr1000rr, etc) and used to do some racing (SV and NT650 Hawks) but it's been a while. used to race MTB as well but that was even longer ago. still have my 89 rock hopper and my proflex w/ xtr if that gives you an idea. still have one of the rock shox mag 21's on another prestige steel frame. lol.

I actually developed this beer for the south east hawk rally in september. Most of the Hawk motorcycles were red so i wanted to do a imperial red ale for the rally. It tasted great, just missing a bit more red to really call it "Red Tail Hawk Ale".

thanks for the tips. I'll update in a month or so after I brew and keg it. will probably substitute the cara red for the crystal malt 45l and add an ounce or two of roasted barley. go big or go home, right?

 

[Osedax]

IMHO the LBL200 is one of the best DS events in the SE when it comes to quality of trails.

my wife had a street triple R for a while, did some track days with me and some street riding. good fun bike. I mostly ride dirt these days, have a KTM 450 XC that's tagged and a KTM 950 super enduro. have had many sport bikes (r6's, cbr1000rr, etc) and used to do some racing (SV and NT650 Hawks) but it's been a while. used to race MTB as well but that was even longer ago. still have my 89 rock hopper and my proflex w/ xtr if that gives you an idea. still have one of the rock shox mag 21's on another prestige steel frame. lol.

I actually developed this beer for the south east hawk rally in september. Most of the Hawk motorcycles were red so i wanted to do a imperial red ale for the rally. It tasted great, just missing a bit more red to really call it "Red Tail Hawk Ale".

thanks for the tips. I'll update in a month or so after I brew and keg it. will probably substitute the cara red for the crystal malt 45l and add an ounce or two of roasted barley. go big or go home, right?

Awesome! I used to ride dirt when I was younger. Nothing that hardcore though. I have a Speed Triple 955i now. Great bike and comfortable. Something about those brit bikes. The new triples are looking real tempting. Love the new styling on them. Makes you want to put a knee on the road.

Anyway, looks like you got some great tips on the brew. It should come out the way you want. Good luck with it!