Best Malz Red X Malt (Requires Mashing – Best Results from Step mashing or Decoction Mash Techniques)
We're happy to be able to share the following information direct from the product development team at Best Malz in Heidelberg, Germany.
Brewing trials we conducted following contact with best malz gave great results with Beers around 1.050-1.052 with 100% Red X malt used. Lower Gravity beers will require experimentation with additions of Melanoidin malt to attain particularly stunning red results. Beers with an OG Above 1.052 should have additions of Pilsner Malt to maintain the colour.
Dear Martin,
we developed this malt type to use it with 100% of the malt bill and to get then a red beer. The idea was from the beginning to create a “ready to use” malt to brew beer with a rich red (reddish) colour and a very smooth malty taste. We achieved the realisation of this idea with the successful Red X malt. So you should get the best results (red colour and an optimal taste) if you use 100 % Red X in the malt bill, an extract content of 12,5% Plato (ready boiled wort) and a pH of 4,2-4,5 in the ready beer. If you aim a lower extract content than 12,5% you should use some BEST Melanoidin malt to get the beer a bit darker, if you aim a higher extract content than 12,5% you should adjust with some BEST Pilsen malt (straight proportional ratio).
So in your case I suppose the beer could be a bit to strong or to low in extract. If you exactly know the Plato of the wort, we could calculate exactly how much BEST Pilsener or Melanoidin you should add to the malt bill (in proportion to the Red X – percentage of the malt bill). If the exact Plato is unknown I would recommand to replace 10% of the Red X with BEST Pilsener in the first step- if the beer with 100% Red X is darker then red – or with BEST Melanoidin- if the beer with 100% Red X is lighter than red . Then you can regard the colour of this beer and decide what to do as next step (more ore less Pilsener/Melanoidin –percentage).
And don´t forget that the turbidity of the beer has a big influence to the visual colour. The beer should be quite clear to get such a red colour like the beer in our photo (we brewed it ourselves):
http://www.bestmalz.de/en/malt/BEST_Red_X.htm
Up to now every customer was able to get a sufficient result ( a red or reddish beer) by using our Red X and getting some support (tips) from our site. This is the reason why we have sold a lot of this malt type off the top of our head ( we started selling this product first at the beginning of the year 2013).
I hope this will support you. Please don´t hesistate to ask for any further information,
Kind regards from Heidelberg
Thomas
BESTMALZ AG
P.O. Box 10 43 20 – D-69033 Heidelberg – Germany
Phone +49 (62 21) 64 66 – 62
Fax +49 (62 21) 64 66 – 99
E-Mail [email protected]
Please visit our website http://www.bestmalz.de
In essence, brewers can aim for a post boil gravity of 1.050 and hit the rather striking red colour on the head. If the Gravity is below 1.050, you can add a little melanoidin malt to get it there or if it's over that, then add a little Pilsner malt. (Keep in mind, aiming for 1.050 with a 15% say, Pilsner malt will significantly alter the end result and you'll end up with a brown hue to a rich golden colour, not red – as we found in the experimental brews. This can be fixed by adding further melanoidin malt on subsequent brews)
Best bet would be to use PolyClar Brewbrite as a Kettle finings for the clearest/brightest possible wort.
Aiming for a 1.050 post boil gravity with 100% Red X should yield a very strong reddish hue.
Manufacturers stated Description/Characteristics:
- BEST Red X malt is specially created for brewing red-tinted beers. You can use Red X for up to 100% of your grain bill – no other malt is required. Offering exceptional reliability and optimal processability, Red X can be employed to brew consistently fiery beers with intense reddish hues.
- Its full-bodied flavour and attractive, unique colour coupled with easy handling in the brewery, make Red X the best choice for creating a broad range of new beers, such as red-tinted wheat beers.
- As with all BEST malts, Red X is produced using a special malting procedure exclusively from two-rowed summer brewing barley from recognized and thoroughly tested barley varieties.
Uses: All red beers, amber beers, wheat beers, Altbier, ales, dark beers as well as in other beers
Region: Germany
Net weight: 1kg
$3.10
This product supports fractional quantities to be ordered. E.g. 1.5