Irish Red or, not so red

[BrewRunning]

I brewed an Irish red recipe (beer smith screen shot below). Today I took a gravity reading and was disappointed to see that the color was more of a pale ale to amber color rather than a deep red that I was expecting. Any suggestions on why? Not enough color in the grain bill?

Thanks for any input!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1487972914.182027.jpg

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

what is the beersmith predicted SRM for this recipe?

I just did an irish red, had 3.7% of chocolate malt (350SRM), beersmith predicted 14.5 SRM for my grain bill. I kegged it last night it's actually a tad too dark for my taste, i'd likely go for 3.5-3% chocolate next year, maybe target 1-12 SRM.

 

[BrewRunning]

Beer smith shows 10.6 SRM, is it possible the color will change over time?

 

[Red_Dog]

I use about 3 oz Roasted Barley, you have to play with it to bring the color in, at 4oz mine was too dark.

 

[behindthetimes]

Just in case you're interested for next time, I brewed an irish red recently that came out very nice in all respects including color. 8lb red-x, 2lb maris, 4oz C80, with 3oz roasted barley 300L added to mash after 1st runnings. Beersmith calculates 15 SRM for it.

 

[BrewRunning]

Thanks for the input, I'll try to boost the roasted barley a little more next time and see what happens.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Just for reference this is an Irish Red I made yesterday. I took two pics of the same sample inside light and natural light.
I've made this many times and like it over the Raging Red in the recipe section. This seems to have more flavor, the RR seemed a bit bland. I used S04 yeast

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=594395

 

[filthyastronaut]

That would be the perfect amount of roasted barley, but it's the Briess 300l version. Try using Black Barley, which is around 500l, or a British roasted barley which can be even higher.

 

[BrewRunning]

This is a 6 gallon batch, I'm thinking about kegging 5gal as is and the remaining gallon I'm thinking about adding coffee and bottling just to try something different. Has anyone ever added coffee to an Irish Red? What's your experience, good or bad?

 

[BrewRunning]

So I searched the forums and found where this was mentioned several times before but, I couldn't find where anyone actually ever posted results. I kegged this beer today and transferred 1gal over to a secondary container. I added 1/2 an oz of coarse ground coffee to a sanitized steeping bag and threw it in. I plan to let it cold steep for 24 to 48 hours. I'll then bottle this portion and bottle condition. I'll post back once have results.