Briess Crystal Red Malt Usage Guide
We just brought in Briess Crystal Red malt and it is available now in our grain room at TrueBrü Homebrew Supply in New Berlin Wisconsin near Milwaukee. If you have ever brewed an amber, red ale, or Irish red and wished the color was more true ruby without piling on extra sweetness, this is a great specialty malt to have in your toolbox.
What Crystal Red does
Crystal Red is a caramel style specialty malt known for adding intense red color with small additions. That means you can fine tune color without having to load a recipe with large amounts of crystal malt that can make the finish heavy or overly sweet.
How to use it
Think of Crystal Red as a color dial.
Percent of total grist | What you get | Best for
<1% | Touch of deeper gold, minimal flavor impact | Pale ales, light lagers
1 to 3% | Rich orange hues, hint of caramel | Amber ales, amber lagers
3 to 7% | Vibrant red, mild caramel and toffee | English reds, Scotch ale
7 to 10% | Deep red to cola like, darker sugar notes | Dark ales, dark lagers
10 to 15% | Intense color, robust full bodied caramel | Barleywine, some stouts
Small additions
Use it when your beer tastes right but looks a little pale or too orange. A small amount can nudge the beer from gold to amber, or from amber into a richer red tone, without dramatically changing the flavor.
Moderate additions
This is where it shines for red ales and ambers. You get the look people expect, with just a touch of caramel depth behind it.
Larger additions
At higher amounts, it will contribute more noticeable caramel and dark sugar character, so it can make sense in darker styles where that extra depth is welcome.
Styles it pairs with
Red ale and Irish red
American amber ale
Altbier and other copper to red German ales
Red IPA or hoppy red pale ale
Brown ale when you want more ruby highlights
Porter and stout when you want to layer in more caramel depth
A few practical brewing notes
Crystal and caramel malts can increase body and perceived sweetness. Because Crystal Red is very color dense, you can often hit your target color with less total specialty malt, which helps keep the finish cleaner compared to relying only on lighter crystal malts for color.
If you are chasing a crisp red beer
Keep the overall crystal malt percentage reasonable, use a clean fermenting yeast, and do not be afraid to lean on hop balance or a slightly drier finishing gravity to keep it from drinking sweet.
Crystal Red malt is now in stock in our grain room. If you are local to the Milwaukee area, swing in and we will help you pick an amount based on your batch size, your target color, and the style you are brewing. If you are planning a red ale and you want it to pour the right shade the first time, tell us what you are building and we will point you in the right direction
We are already working on a recipe that uses this new Crystal Red malt alongside one of the newly added Omega classic strains from the new yeasts they brought back. The goal is simple: brew something classic and true to style while putting new to us ingredients to work in a real world recipe.
Stay tuned for a dialed in Irish red ale that you can brew and have ready just in time for St Patricks Day.