? Irish Red
 

So my room mate and is a big red ale fan, as for me i think they are just ok, so we brewed up a Irish red ale tryed it yesterday after 2 weeks in the bottles and its just ok but i think i have come up with a way to make it better. The issue to us is 1) to hoppy 2) needs to be smoother 3) thicker so my thought was to make a red ale simular to a guinness. Here is the recipe i came up with. Any thoughts or help would be great. Thanks

6lb. Light Malt Extract
1lb. Crushed 60l Carmel Malt
3lbs. Light DME (to up the gravity)
1lb. Flaked Barley
1lb. Oatmeal
4oz. Lactose
2oz. Cascade Hops
Wyeast Irish Stout

my guess is that you are using the lactose for body and head retention. I would suggest carafoam
I would also use roasted barley maybe 4 oz because of the roasted notes and red color it will bring to the beer
maybe carmel 20 not 60 to keep it from being to dark
and maybe fuggles not cascades to cut the hopy bitterness
just a thought.