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How Much Aromatic to Get Red Hue?

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Clint Yeastwood

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

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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.
 
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.
 
I get the best red color of beer with 5 - 8% Weyermann CaraAroma malt.
 
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?
 
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
 
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.
 
This picture, from one of these two (link, link) articles, suggests that dark and redish is possible:

1735142984229.png

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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