Beer Forum

What should I add to my base malt to make a very deeply colored red beer? I really want red, and not just dark copper or light brown, if that makes sense. I've never used cara red before, Is that a good option. Right now I'm thinking some dark crystal and a tought of light chocolate.

Munich or a small about of roasted barley 2 ounces or Melandolin
If you choose the Barley add it to the end of you mash to get color without the flavor.

I like using Munich.

Munich will help but you will need to add something else if you want it deep red. Munich tends to turn beer closer towards orange or brownish/copper in heavy amounts. The bigger question is what kind of beer are you trying to make? There are different ways to go about getting a red color but they will have different flavor profiles. You can do as you mentioned dark crystal with carared which is basically a 20l caramel malt. small amounts of roasted barley or carafa give a nice red hue without too much flavor impact.

I add crystal 60 and a little special B and get a nice blood red for a barley wine.

This would be for 10 gallons of Irish Red for upcoming St. Patrick's. About 1.065 OG. A little high for style, but who cares, its St. Patrick's Day! I was leaning toward a little roasted barley, but don't want to over do it. A little bit of roasty flavor would be ok, but not too much.

I would use 1# simpsons dark and 1/2# roast barley for that ten gallon batch That should get you a nice deep red with just a hints of roast/chocolate/coffee.

For my Irish Red I like a blend of a 300L roast & 350L chocolate. Lots of great suggestions above for getting a red color, but they will all have differing flavor profiles. You could try a steeping a few different combinations in small amounts to get a rough idea of color/flavor contributions. Or if you have a small mashtun, you have just enough time to do a couple side-by-side 1g batches.