Question about making a beer "red"

[mjohnson]

My wife and I have been working our way through x-files on netflix, and I've started using them as inspiration for beers. The first one was a baltic porter (Crying Krycek). I was thinking the next one would be Scully's. Was thinking about doing a rye based pale ale, but wanted to make it red.

I was starting with the Terrapin Rye Pale ale recipe (below). I'll likely change the hops slightly for dry-hop cause I doubt I can get amarillo (thinking centennial as I have some). I'll also use 1056, as I have a yeast cake to harvest from.

For making it red, I was thinking about adding some carared. I've never used it, though, so I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on how much to add and if it should be an addition, or a substitution. I'm not really looking for much flavor from it, just the color.

Thoughts?



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From https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/can-you-brew-recipe-terrapin-rye-pale-ale-178132/

All recipes are (unless otherwise specified): 6 gallons post-boil, 70% efficiency, Morey for color, 15% evaporation, 7.27 gallons preboil, Rager IBU, and most hops are in grams not ounces. Most, if not all recipes are primary only (no secondary).

If you brew this, please reply with your results for discussion.

OG 1054
FG
40.3 IBU
6.8 SRM

90 min boil

4.26kg US 2-row
600g Rye
600g Munich
300g Victory
220g Honey Malt

14g Magum 14%AA @60m
14g Fuggles 5%AA @ 30m
14g Goldings 4.75%AA @20m
14g Goldings @10m
17g Cascade 5.75%AA @ 1m
35g Amarillo dry hop

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

Mash at 154

Ferment at 66F

Dry hop at 66F for one day, reduce to 60F for the remainder of dry hop

Water profile:
(Mild Ale/Dark Lager)
75ppm Ca
12ppm Mg
35ppm Na
100ppm Cl
120ppm Sulfates
0ppm Bicarbonate

 

[Kloon]

On weyermann site they suggest to use it for up to 25% of total grain bill.

 

[Homercidal]

This may not be up your alley, but Right Brain Brewing in Traverse City once made a "Beet Wheat" and it was very red in color...

You could maybe chop up some beets and add to the primary for color...

 

[Cambone]

This may not be up your alley, but Right Brain Brewing in Traverse City once made a "Beet Wheat" and it was very red in color...

You could maybe chop up some beets and add to the primary for color...

Magic Hat does a beet beer as well, they call it Wacko. To say it is red is an understatement lol

 

[zgoda]

"Red" is just a shade of "brown".

I'd add some roasted barley, ~1.5oz perhaps?

 

[arturo7]

+1 on the roasted barley. It doesn't take much.

 

[mjohnson]

Just to be clear, for roasted barley, you mean something like the 500L english roasted barley from norther brewer?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...ted-roasted-malts/english-roasted-barley.html

Not sure if I want to add beets - its a good thought. It doesn't need to be bright red. I'm just shooting for the red side of the brown spectrum, if that makes sense.

 

[solbes]

I have a kegged Irish Red that has a great color. Standard maris otter base with 2 oz of roasted barley and 2 oz of Special B. There was also some crystal 40 in there, maybe 1/2 - 3/4 lb? I'm a little sad that theres less than a gallon left.

Wacko is very RED, but also tastes like Beet Beer. Which it is.

 

[Homercidal]

Well, to be honest, the Beet Wheat they made did have a subtle beet flavor. It wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Those grains can impart a red color when used in the right proportion.

 

[teucer]

I have a kegged Irish Red that has a great color. Standard maris otter base with 2 oz of roasted barley and 2 oz of Special B. There was also some crystal 40 in there, maybe 1/2 - 3/4 lb? I'm a little sad that theres less than a gallon left.

Got a photo? I at least am always interested in seeing pictures of what different approaches to vivid red color look like in the glass.

 

[mjohnson]

Well, to be honest, the Beet Wheat they made did have a subtle beet flavor. It wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Those grains can impart a red color when used in the right proportion.

Yeah, I think I'm going to stick to malt for this.

As of now, I think I'll add 1.5 oz of roasted barley and see what that gets me. Unless of course, someone has some better idea.

 

[JadeMonkeyStang]

I thought Special B was supposed to be the grain of choice for getting a red color without adding flavor, whereas roasted barley would introduce more flavor.

Apparently sprinkling a few ounces over your mash before you sparge is enough to pull the color out of the grain while keeping the taste impact to a minimum.

 

[corkybstewart]

The easiest way to add red color is to sprinkle 1/2 pound of roast barley on the mash when you start the sparge. You'll extract the color but not the flavor. It's called "capping the mash"

 

[cjb]

In my reds, I've been using a combination of carared, crystal 60-80 and an ounce or two of roasted barley. That should give you a nice deep red hue.

 

[mjohnson]

The easiest way to add red color is to sprinkle 1/2 pound of roast barley on the mash when you start the sparge. You'll extract the color but not the flavor. It's called "capping the mash"

I batch sparge (run off first runnings, then dump in sparge water) will this still work? I'd really like to avoid a lot of roast barley flavor.

 

[SouthBay]

I batch sparge (run off first runnings, then dump in sparge water) will this still work? I'd really like to avoid a lot of roast barley flavor.

that should work fine. The point is that you're not mashing it for an hour, so you're not allowing the magic to fully happen.... its kind of like adding hops late to a boil; theyre going to impart something, just not bitterness.

 

[bobbrews]

CaraAroma and CaraStan both work way better than CaraRed- despite the name. You can also use small proportions of any black/dark malt that's not high in roasty or smoky flavor like carafa, debittered black malt, chocolate malt, etc. I agree with corkybstewart about capping the mash when using the really black malts for a red beer.

 

[Marchborne]

I used Carared as 12.5% of a partial mash brew, and it looks great in the fermenter (at least 1 more week to go). Of course, no telling if that'll be the same after bottling, but so far, so good...