How Much Aromatic to Get Red Hue?

[Clint Yeastwood]

I brewed a strong ale, and I put aromatic malt in it. I was led to expect some red color, but I don't see it. How much aromatic malt should I put in 5 gallons of beer if I want it to have a red cast to it?

I used half a pound in a beer with a 1.086 SG, 13.25 pounds of grain, and two pounds of sugar.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

What brand of aromatic malt are you using?

 

[Bobby_M]

Use a small amount of roasted Barley. You will likely not appreciate the flavor intensity aromatic will give you if it's enough for a color impact.

 

[ClaudiusB]

For my Nürnberger red beer, I use 20% Melanoidin and 5% Caramunich I Weyermann malts.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

For my Nürnberger red beer, I use 20% Melanoidin and 5% Caramunich I Weyermann malts.

Beautiful red color!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Use a small amount of roasted Barley.

Or chocolate malt or black patient or midnight wheat or carafa special ... I've used the 1st three with good results.

Recently, I cold steeped a blend of Simpsons DRC & light chocolate (200L) and got an amber 'red' color (not a ruby red like the picture in #4.

aromatic malt

My reason for asking about malt brand is that I found 5 (maybe more) malts that include aromatic in the product name. Dingeman has an amber aromatic malt that is stated to lend red hues to the beer.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I just checked. Dingemans Belgian aromatic.

 

[Willy]

There are several older threads on red ale recipes that offer many variations of how to get RED. Learned about Melanoidan and Red X and much more.
Search Irish Red ... Go HBT.

 

[HM-2]

There are several older threads on red ale recipes that offer many variations of how to get RED. Learned about Melanoidan and Red X and much more.
Search Irish Red ... Go HBT.

There's a myriad of different ways, and also quite the spectrum of red hues you can achieve.

For just colour, chocolate, black patent and dehusked roast barley in small amounts work well.

If you want some accompanying bready-honey-biscuit like for red lagers or in a red IPA, up to 15% CaraRed is great.

My current weapon of choice, and the one I'd recommend in a strong ale that's got no other crystal malts in it, is Simpson's Red Rye Crystal at about 5%-7%. That should land you around 28-32 EBC for a pretty deep red hue.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

A bit of black malt at about .5-1.5g/L in the sparge/mashout is what I usually use if I want to darken it and/or get a bit of reddish hue coppery hue to it.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I just checked. Dingemans Belgian aromatic.

Thanks. I have no direct experience with this malt.

eta: if no one offers direct experiences with the malt in a couple of days, I intend to reply with some "search free" and "prompt free" thoughts and experiences with similar malts and red hues.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Search Irish Red ... Go HBT.

Summaries are always better than ideas for search topics or filtering out home brew stores in search results. I prefer human written summaries, but LLM generated summaries (in late 2024) are occasionally 'close enough'.

 

[Willy]

Summaries are always better than ideas for search topics or filtering out home brew stores in search results. I prefer human written summaries, but LLM generated summaries (in late 2024) are occasionally 'close enough'.

This thread on Irish Red is helpful. Lots of recipe ideas and pictures
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/little-red-irish-ale.676578/#post-9047011

 

[Ninoid]

I get the best red color of beer with 5 - 8% Weyermann CaraAroma malt.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This thread on Irish Red is helpful. Lots of recipe ideas and pictures
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/little-red-irish-ale.676578/#post-9047011

How would you apply those ideas to OP's question?

Or more generally, how would one make a Ruby Red (or Rustic Amber) American Strong Ale?

 

[beren]

There are several older threads on red ale recipes that offer many variations of how to get RED. Learned about Melanoidan and Red X and much more.
Search Irish Red ... Go HBT.

Just a reminder “Irish” red ale isn’t really red normally

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

That stuff annoyed me. Dye Coors red and pretend it's real beer.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I brewed a strong ale, and I put aromatic malt in it. I was led to expect some red color, but I don't see it. How much aromatic malt should I put in 5 gallons of beer if I want it to have a red cast to it?

Can you post a grain bill (along with batch size & OG) and describe what the expected / actual color was? (or a photo of that actual beer if that's easier for you?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Look at all these hopeless brewing addicts, posting on Christmas!

Here's the grain bill, minus the sugar:

6 lbs Pilsner (2 Row)
4 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat Malt
1 lbs Munich Malt
12.0 oz Special B Malt
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt
8.0 oz Chocolate Wheat Malt

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

That stuff annoyed me. Dye Coors red and pretend it's real beer.

I remember getting excited when it came out. I thought maybe American beer had changed. What a letdown.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Here's the grain bill, minus the sugar:

6 lbs Pilsner (2 Row)
4 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat Malt
1 lbs Munich Malt
12.0 oz Special B Malt
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt
8.0 oz Chocolate Wheat Malt

Assuming SRM values of 2, 2, 10, 125, 20, & 350, I get an estimated SRM of around 25.

The color contribution from the Special B and Chocolate Wheat is overwhelming any color from the Aromatic.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I believe I have seen other beers that were this dark and also reddish, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This picture, from one of these two (link, link) articles, suggests that dark and redish is possible:

Look at the 60L / 20 SRM sample.

The "black" malt row suggests avoiding roasted malts.

Beyond that, I don't have experience with SRM 20+ beers or the Dingemann's Aromatic malt.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I just checked. Dingemans Belgian aromatic.

This is one of my "secret weapon" malts. I find that ~4oz in a 5 gallon batch of a light colored beer adds just a touch of malt complexity (something like a Saison, Blonde, etc.) but it has little impact on color (maybe enough to get to a light gold vs straw). I tend to find that Crystal malts and medium colored dark malts (say in the 300L range) tend to add more dark brown colors, where a few oz of a dark malt like Roasted Barley or Black Malt will add a nice ruby red color.

 

[Ninoid]

This is one of my "secret weapon" malts. I find that ~4oz in a 5 gallon batch of a light colored beer adds just a touch of malt complexity (something like a Saison, Blonde, etc.) but it has little impact on color (maybe enough to get to a light gold vs straw). I tend to find that Crystal malts and medium colored dark malts (say in the 300L range) tend to add more dark brown colors, where a few oz of a dark malt like Roasted Barley or Black Malt will add a nice ruby red color.

I gave up on roasted malt or barley in pale beers because of the color. The astringency is noticeable even with 50 grams per five gallons, and that's not appropriate for pale beers for me.