How about an Irish Red?

texasgeorge · 05-10-2006, 07:13 AM

Since I'm a newer (but ambitious!) home brewer, I don't think I have the refined palate to envision the taste of a recipe yet. I wanted to run this Irish Red recipe by everyone to see if it sounds like a winner.

Partial Mash (Per BeerSmith estimates: OG 1.051, FG 1.013, ABV 5.0%, SRM 14.5)
4.00# pale LME (boil)
1.00# honey (boil)
2.00# pale 2-row (US)
0.50# Crystal 60L
0.25# Biscuit malt (is this necessary? I know that a biscuity flavor is desired, but is this right?)

0.13# Roasted Barley (500*L)

Mash the grains at 156F for 45 minutes, sparge, add to boiling pot w/enough water to get to 6.5 gallons (final volume between 5.0 and 5.5 gallons)

Hops (estimated IBU: 22.9)
1 oz Fuggles pellets (5%) 60m
1 oz Fuggles pellets (5%) 5m

Yeast
I've got a WLP005 yeast cake from an ESB that I'd like to use. I know that WLP004 would probably be more true to style, but White Labs' website says that 005 will work well for an Irish Red...

Sound like a winner?

bigears · 05-10-2006, 09:50 AM

I guess this doesn't help you much George but there is a chain of brewpubs in Dublin that turn out some fantastic beers. Their Irish Red Ale is an absolute winner. They describe it as follows:

"Porterhouse Red

Alcohol by volume: 4.4%

Grain: Pale Malt, Crystal Malt, Wheat Malt, Chocolate Malt.

Hops: Galena, Nugget, East Kent Goldings.

At last an Irish Red Ale with a traditional hop flavour to balance the fruit character of the yeast and the luscious caramel flavour notes delivered from the malts used, as opposed to artificially added."

It's quite a bitter beer which I like (the Galena is typically 12-14 AA I think), but it also has a nice caramel/fruity flavour to balance it out. Now I'm a relatively new brewer and have just started to add steeped grains to my brew so I can't interpret the quantities which would be required to replicate this with extract/steeping, but if you get anywhere near it you will be very happy! From what I know of WLP004 which I used for my stout I don't think it's a fruity yeast so your ESB yeast might be more suitable.

PT Ray · 05-11-2006, 01:56 AM

At first glance there were several things I would change. After I thought about it the recipe grew on me but not w/o a couple of adjustments. I am still deciding about the honey, but somewhere between .5 -1lb. The last addition of Fuggles I would go with .5oz at 15min and .5oz at flameout. Overall I think the original is just fine including the addition of Biscuit and that you underestimated yourself.

**david_42** · 05-11-2006, 02:23 AM

Other than the biscuit and honey, this is very close to the Red in my primary. It uses wheat extract, honey sounds like a nice touch. Nothing wrong with a little biscuit. I agree on splitting the second hop addition.

Rhoobarb · 05-11-2006, 02:57 AM

Looks good to me! I'd agree on the hops split, though.

I did this one as an extract/partial and it turned out great. I did it again as an AG last Fall and I ran out of it quickly. Mine is pretty hoppy; if you cut down on the hops, it's truer to style.