How to make the reddest possible beer: use tons of dark caramel malt. How to make a beer undrinkably sweet: use tons of dark caramel malt. To brew our strong, full-bodied Imperial Red, we used as much dark caramel malts as we're comfortable with and used heavily-roasted chocolate malt for the rest of the color. Or was that heavenly? Either way, generous hop additions complete a flavor profile that assaults you from all directions.