How to get a nice deep red colour?

[adm]

I want to brew a beer with the colour of an Irish Red Ale, but recipes for these seem to use 100g or so of roasted barley, and I don't want a roasty taste in the beer.....I've also got some black malt, but that might make it too bitter and still taste roasty.

So what else could I use? I've also got some Carafa Special III which should be smoother and would provide colour....what do you reckon?

[dcq1974]

Brewers Caramel

Seriously though, I work as a Chemist in the food/beverage industry and some of the caramel colours are dark ruby red when you look at them.

Take a glass of coke and look at it in the light.....not that black is it?

[adm]

Well.....I don't have any brewer's caramel....so that's out the window. You're right about the dark colours though - even in my stouts I can see the deep dark reddishness if I hold the bottom of the glass up to the light. So I want some of that colour, but without the roast taste.

I do have some crystal wheat malt planned, which will add some colour (I want to make a red coloured, well hopped wheat beer) plus some belgian aromatic malt which should also add colour.

I might add some chocolate malt per Chris's post, but I don't think I want the choccy flavour and I can detect it at very low levels...so I might give a bit of the carafa III a go as it's meant to be super smooth tasting and very, very black - so if I use 60 - 100g i might get where I want to be.

I think I'll give it a whirl tomorrow and see how it comes out. Who dares, wins....

[mysterio]

Carafa special is what you're after, just 1 or 2% max in the recipe. It's basically just a colouring malt for Germans who won't use Brewers caramel!

There's also a CaraRed malt out there, H&G do it, never tried it

[jubby]

I used dark crystal malt in a Sarah Hughes which gave it a nice ruby colour; bit heavy on taste though.

[WishboneBrewery]

Beetle blood!!

cochineal - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

[adm]

Beetle blood!!

cochineal - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

Nah....can't bring myself to put anything in my beer that isn't grain, water, hops, yeast, spices, fruit or sugar.....

Carafa Special III it'll be then.....about 1% of the grist. I hope it works out....

(If it doesn't, i can always add the beetlejuice in the keg)

[Garth]

(If it doesn't, i can always add the beetlejuice in the keg)

Alasdair, I don't think Michael Keaton in a stripy suit would fit in a cornie.....

[WishboneBrewery]

sacrilege isn't it!

[adm]

(If it doesn't, i can always add the beetlejuice in the keg)

Alasdair, I don't think Michael Keaton in a stripy suit would fit in a cornie.....
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It's a great name for a beer though.....i was going to call it "Red Dragon" or thereabouts, but "Beetlejuice" it'll now be if it comes out reddish....

And there's plenty of scope for labels there too....

(HLT is set on the timer to be ready tomorrow morning, I've got a litre of 3944 slurry in the fridge, a kilo of Saaz from Arkady, it's dark, I've got a half corny of Belgian Wit, a half pack of baccy and I'm wearing sunglasses. Hit it!) (five points for spotting the film reference)

[arturobandini]

Blues Brothers! Good luck, looking forward to the pictures!

[leedsbrew]

how about this for next time adm

Cara-red® 40 EBC
Used in brown ales, Flemish brown, bock-beers, Scottish ales,... 10-25%. Gives a higher malty aroma and a red colour.

from http://www.brouwland.com/en/

[adm]

how about this for next time adm

Cara-red® 40 EBC
Used in brown ales, Flemish brown, bock-beers, Scottish ales,... 10-25%. Gives a higher malty aroma and a red colour.

from http://www.brouwland.com/en/

I think that'll be just the ticket! "Red, Wit & Brew"

[Craphaus]

If you want a nice red colour and less roast bite try holding your roast barley (or even better Carafa III) over and adding it to the sparge.

Warren -

[adm]

Ah....

Nice idea - thanks. I'll give it a try.