Colour adjustment via toasting

[Pennine]

I am getting ready to brew a TT Landlord clone, and the colour is coming out too light. I don't like using roasted malts for darkening as I always get a roasty taste in the finished product which Landlord does not have.

My thought was to toast a portion of the golden promise to get me in the region? Has anyone done this before?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Landlord uses black malt for colour. 30g for 22 litres. At that level you will not taste it.

 

[Pennine]

Landlord uses black malt for colour. 30g for 22 litres. At that level you will not taste it.

Thanks I read it was all golden promise malt, and that is what their website states although the dark mild is also the same and there has to be something in there to make it dark.

I guess I will give the 15g roast in my 11l batch a try, the last one I used 50g and could definitely taste the roast.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I got the recipe from Graham Wheeler’s book. 15g should work.

 

[The Baron]

Thats what I use for colour Black Malt. if you add it to the top of the mash for the last 10 minutes you will deffo get the colour without any taste

 

[RichardM]

Landlord uses black malt for colour. 30g for 22 litres. At that level you will not taste it.

Or you could add a dash of gravy browning. The bottle of Sarsons that I have says add 1 tsp - 1 tblsp to 3 gallons at the boiling stage.
Not that I have ever tried it, but I believe that is what recipes said to do in the early days of home brewing.

 

[Pennine]

Or you could add a dash of gravy browning. The bottle of Sarsons that I have says add 1 tsp - 1 tblsp to 3 gallons at the boiling stage.
Not that I have ever tried it, but I believe that is what recipes said to do in the early days of home brewing.

I was thinking about caramel colouring, but that is supposed to have a flavour. I have a bottle of the gravy browning I will give it a taste.

They also sell sinamar, which I may give a try.

 

[RichardM]

I was thinking about caramel colouring, but that is supposed to have a flavour. I have a bottle of the gravy browning I will give it a taste.

They also sell sinamar, which I may give a try.

Gravy browning is caramel, but I don't think you would taste in the beer given the small amount used.
I can't taste it in gravy

 

[scomet]

Midnight Wheat adds colour and no taste.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Just follow GW’s recipe not gravy browning or soy sauce or tar or soot.

 

[Alan_Reginato]

1+ to roasted wheat. End of mash or even cold mash, if you want just color. Or dehusked barley.

 

[Pennine]

Just follow GW’s recipe not gravy browning or soy sauce or tar or soot.

Soot

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Soot

Why do people want to put gravy browning in beer so I’m taking it to the ridiculous

 

[Agentgonzo]

Why do people want to put gravy browning in beer so I’m taking it to the ridiculous

I'm now actually wondering whether soot would colour the beer at all, or just settle to the bottom. At a guess I would imagine that as pure powdered carbon, it would be insoluble and just settle to the bottom, but I'm really curious now

 

[hoppyscotty]

The recipe for TT is pretty common knowledge and they use a small amount of black malt. Ok you may speculate how that black malt is added - I've brewed a TT clone many a time and though its never spot on...I don't have their yeast or use open fermentation which will impact things, it's pretty close and the malt flavour is pretty spot on as is the colour, and I just add the black malt at the beginning of the mash with zero roasty taste in the finished beer. I certainly don't think any good can come from adding gravy.

Also toasting a portion of the mash...thats basically black malt, you're just removing the black malt and adding back black malt back in.

If you're hyper sensitive to roast flavour, and you'd have to be given there is such a tiny amount in the malt bill, then as suggested above, add at the end of the mash or even sparge through some black malt.

 

[Sadfield]

Timothy Taylor's list sugar as one the ingredients of Landlord. Perhaps some coloured brewers invert would be the best, and possibly most accurate solution.

@Pennine I'm curious as to whether this colour discrepancy is the result of your low boil temperature.

 

[AJA]

There's no harm in putting gravy browning in beer - it's just caramel after all. If I did it I'd feel I was going back in time 20 years though.

 

[Agentgonzo]

If you're wanting to adjust the colour without the flavour, I don't see a lot of difference in adding black malt, or caramel, or gravy browning, or even food colouring.

Some (not all) well known whisky distilleries add caramel/colouring to their whisky anyway

 

[Pennine]

Timothy Taylor's list sugar as one the ingredients of Landlord. Perhaps some coloured brewers invert would be the best, and possibly most accurate solution.

@Pennine I'm curious as to whether this colour discrepancy is the result of your low boil temperature.

That is a good point about the low boil temps. I have the same issue when trying to brew a pilsner urquell clone too, even with a decoction it was still very light.

They do not list roasted malt or grain in the website which made me think they do not use it. However they use the same list of ingredients for most of their beers other than the porter so it is very likely any colouring is coming from sugars, unless the roasted malt is so small of a % they don't need to list?

 

[Pennine]

There's no harm in putting gravy browning in beer - it's just caramel after all. If I did it I'd feel I was going back in time 20 years though.

Unfortunately my gravy has other things I don't want like salt, celery, garlic etc... The first ingredient is caramel though