as for now i am starting with extract.
7lb Light LME
2LB Amber LME
.5lb brown malt
.5lb caramunich
2oz target
2oz nuggett
any suggestions?
I would suggest changing that up somewhat. I’d use only LME and between 1-1.5lbs of a medium to dark crystal grain for a 5-6 gallon batch. If you want more color use two oz of chocolate, black, or carafa special to get more red. Brown malt would be atypical in an imperial red but you could do it if you really wanted to - not sure how it would taste. Use however much LME will get you to the gravity you want. 2 oz of late hops is fine and bitter with whatever you want. I go for about 60 IBU’s in a 1065 red ale that I brew.
So, you think my Amber and light LME are fine, but i might want to negate the special grain additions and use just a little black? And for the hops i was thinking I would do a 90m boil and add 1 target at 90, 1 target at 60, 1oz nugget at 30 and 1 oz nugget at 5.
OK Revamped through Beer Smith
12lb Amber LME
1.5 Crystal Mail 30L
.25 Brown Malt
1oz Target at 90m
1oz Target at 60min
1oz Nugget at 30min
1oz Nugget at 5min
I know you said brown might be strange, well i like strange, i just used fuggles as my finishing in a black DIPA and it was delicious!
What color does beersmith give you for that? I’m not sure it will be red. Assuming the IBU’s are right that looks more like an IPA with brown malt. You aren’t going to get too much color form 30 L crystal. Brown malt is usually only 65 L so it’s basically the same color as 60 L crystal. I think you should use the brown if you want but I’m just trying to help you get the beer you want to make.
Its at 19.5 SRM, still a little brown, do you think i should use a darker Crystal? or something else? And the IBUs are a bit high, what should they be for an imp red? Ive had some great hoppy reds, but this is giving me 43 IBU. Thanks for the advice, i have only brewed 5 batches and i have always written my own recipes, 3 of the batches were trial and error trying to make my Black DIPA. All 3 batches were great but my latest was by far the closest i want it to be.
I’d scrap the amber LME and only use light LME. I’d use a dark crystal like a half pound of 120L to try and get some redness.
+1. I’m sorry I thought I had said light LME above but I only wrote LME. Just to be clear about what I’m saying, if you want to use the brown malt I would do the following:
X lbs of light LME
1.5 lbs of crystal 60 (caramunich would be fine too) or 1 lb crystal 40 with .5lb crystal 120.
.25 lbs brown malt or 2 oz chocolate or black malt
X oz of hops to bitter at 60 min
2 oz of hops in the last 15 min
1 oz dry hop if desired.
I aim for a starting gravity of 1.066 with mine and about 60 IBU in total. You could go lower in IBU and have a maltier beer. Depends on what you like.
IIRC Crisp Brown Malt needs to be mashed
When i replace the Amber LME with Light LME in Beer Smith it makes it a dark brown color instead of a red.
I love Hoppy beers, so i think i might up the hops a bit.
With 12lb Amber, 1LB Crystal 60l, .5lb Caramunich, and .25 brown it gives it a nice red color, and 22 SRM. at 9%! EST 1.088 SG.
Thanks everyone!
I’d be careful about using amber extract and a large amount of additional crystal malt. You’re setting yourself up for low attenuation, and as a rule you would generally want higher attenuation for bigger beers.
If swapping amber extract for light makes BeerSmith say the beer will be darker, then there’s something wrong with the ingredient specifications in BeerSmith.
22 SRM is going to be light brown IME. For an amber I’d target more like 12-15 SRM. For example, this beer
has an estimated color of 13 SRM (using Daniels’ model).
In Beer smith it gives me two options for Amber LME 1) Amber LME at 12.5 SRM and 2) Coopers Amber ME 172.5 SRM. Light LME 26.9 SRM
I’m guessing that should be 2.9 SRM, or 6.9 SRM, or 2.69 SRM. Any of those would be reasonable, depending on the extract.
Ycouldn’t define a color for extract without specifying the concentration, e.g. “2.69 SRM at 10°P.” Which is probably more or less the standard. Briess uses 8°P, apparently: http://briessmalting.com/Products/Malt_Extracts.htm
I might be a little late to the party, but I’ll agree that brown malt will taste a bit strange in an imperial red. I once made an IPA using brown malt rather than crystal and it came out far roastier than I would have thought. Brown malt seems to pack quite a roasty punch for how light it is. It also seemed to need a while to mellow out. After it did, the beer was pretty tasty, it just took 4 months of cold aging to get there. Just letting you know. If that still sounds like something that you’d like, I say go for it! It’s your beer after all.
+1 on crisp brown malt needing to be mashed. i’m sure it will be more brown than red. chocolate is also more brown than red. black malt in low quantities will give you some red, so will roasted barley. recently i had good results with a little C60, C120, and roasted barley to get a dark red
Also, In my experience trying to hit your color via software is a fool’s game. Focus of the flavors you want and then adjust the color in subsequent batches.
