I got this beer brewed yesterday, so I thought I would update. Here is the recipe I went with:
UK Pale Ale Malt 4.200 kg 70.4 %
UK Mild Ale Malt 1.200 kg 20.1 %
UK Naked Golden Oats 0.180 kg 3.0 %
US Roasted Barley 0.180 kg 3.0 %
US CaraBrown 0.120 kg 2.0 %
US Extra Special Malt 0.060 kg 1.0 %
UK Black Barley 0.030 kg 0.5 %
UK Golding 6.7 % 30 g 30.2 IBU
I mashed everything except for the black barley. After 30 minutes of recirculating, I pulled off a sample of the mash and looked at the color:
I added half of the black barley, then ultimately added the whole amount. Here is the final mash color:
Here is the pre-boil color (7.25 gallons):
And here is the post-boil color (6 gallons):
Overall, I am pretty happy, and thank you for all of the input. At times it seems deep red, and under a few lighting conditions it looked a bit brown. At 18.4 SRM, I am on the dark side of the style. I have no doubt the grains you pick will affect the flavor, but I am still a bit curious if the types of malts affect the color differently. For example, Briess says crystal 60 luv will give you a red hue, but their carabrown at 55 luv will be brown. How can 5 luv make that much of a difference? I also have a nut brown ale recipe that is 15 SRM and is definitely brown, whereas this 18 SRM Irish red, while darker, is more red. However my nut brown recipe has brown, pale choc, biscuit and victory malts, whereas the Irish red uses medium and dark crystals and roasted barley. I kinda feel like the brown, victory, biscuit malts and such are more brown colored, whereas the crystals and dehusked malts and roasted barley are more reddish in hue. Any thoughts on this?